Dr David Starkey - Six Wives: The Queens of Henry VIII
Sunday 24th May at 3.00pm
followed by competition prize giving at 5.00pm
Memorial Hall, School Lane HP8 4JJ
No one in history had a more eventful career in matrimony than Henry VIII. His marriages were daring and tumultuous, and made instant legends of six very different women. In this fascinating talk, David Starkey argues that the king was not a depraved philanderer but someone seeking happiness -- and a son. Knowingly or not, he elevated a group of women to extraordinary heights and changed the way a nation was governed.
Six Wives intimately examines the rituals of diplomacy, marriage, pregnancy, and religion that were part of daily life for women at the Tudor Court. Weaving new facts and fresh interpretations into a spellbinding account of the emotional drama surrounding Henry’s six marriages, David Starkey reveals the central role that the queens played in determining policy. With an equally keen eye for romantic and political intrigue, he brilliantly recaptures the story of Henry’s wives and the England they ruled.
Also: the Six Wives of Henry VIII is one of the world’s great stories: more far-fetched, sexy and violent than any tabloid or soap opera; darker and more disturbing than the legend of Bluebeard; both a great love story (or rather several) and a supreme political thriller.
And, strangest of all, it is true.
David Starkey, author of what has been described as the “best study of Henry VIII’s wives ever published”, retells the story with his usual panache and in the light of the most recent research – much of it his own.