Six Lives

The Stories of Henry VIII's Queens

Charlotte Bolland, Suzannah Lipscomb, Nicola Clarke , Brett Dolman

$69.99

Hardback

In stock
Ready to ship

QTY:

English

National Portrait Gallery
20 September 2024

Exhibition catalogues & specific collections; Portraits in art; Biography: historical, political & military; History; British & Irish history; Early modern history: c 1450 to c 1700

What were the real life stories and legacies of the six women who married Henry VIII? Discover these extraordinary queens through

the court culture that recorded and shaped their often tempestuous lives: their letters, heraldic devices, books, love tokens and, of course, their portraits.

The women who married Henry VIII have come to be encapsulated in a six-word rhyme: 'Divorced, Beheaded, Died / Divorced, Beheaded, Survived'. But what were their real stories and legacies? Six Lives:

The Stories of Henry VIII's Queens reveals the extraordinary lives, and afterlives, of Katherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, Anne of Cleves, Katherine Howard and Katherine Parr. A source of fascination to historians and writers down the centuries, each of the queens, and their relationship with the king, has been the subject extensive research and a source of creative inspiration. This publication focuses on the material traces of the queens and the court culture that shaped their lives, extensively illustrated with their letters, heraldic devices, books, love tokens and, of course, their portraits.

The book begins with an examination of the women as cultural phenomena, looking at the ways in which their lives have inspired storytellers, from Shakespeare's Henry VIII to the musical Six, and the role that portraiture has played in the performance of the queens' stories. An overview essay examines the queens' self-presentation through portraiture before individual chapters consider each of their relationships with the king, their social and familial networks and their patronage. Each chapter is accompanied by a thematic piece written by an expert scholar, taking a closer look at an element of court culture, ranging from music and jewellery, to court pageantry and heraldry.

The publication accompanies an exhibition of the same name at the National Portrait Gallery in Summer 2024.

By: Charlotte Bolland
Text by: Suzannah Lipscomb
Contributions by: Nicola Clarke, Brett Dolman, Alden Gregory
Imprint: National Portrait Gallery
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 290mm, Width: 245mm,
Weight: 1.600kg
ISBN: 9781855145290
ISBN 10: 1855145294
Pages: 224
Publication Date: 20 September 2024
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Charlotte Bolland is Senior Curator, Research and 16th Century Collections, at the National Portrait Gallery, London. Among other publications, she authored The Tudors: Passion, Power and Politics (National Portrait Gallery, 2022) and Tudor and Jacobean Portraits (National Portrait Gallery, 2018), and co-authored with Tarnya Cooper The Encounter: Drawings from Leonardo to Rembrandt (National Portrait Gallery, 2017). Suzannah Lipscomb is Professor Emerita of History at the University of Roehampton and Senior Member at St Cross College, Oxford. She has written and edited seven books and is an established television presenter. She hosts the History Hit podcast, 'Not Just the Tudors'. Her next book, The Six: A New History of Henry VIII's Queens will be published in Autumn 2025. Other contributors include Nicola Clark, Brett Dolman, Alden Gregory, Benjamin Hebbert, Nicola Tallis, and Valerie Schutte.

Reviews for Six Lives: The Stories of Henry VIII's Queens

It's a spectacular six-century display, from the portraits -- fluid, vivid, as present as a gasp of breath -- with which Hans Holbein defined this age of knights and bishops, to the glittery punk-meets-Tudor spandex and vinyl sequinned costumes for Six.--Jackie Wullschl�ger ""Financial Times""