![]() ![]() "Putting these life stories together.turns out to have an unexpected advantage: it throws into relief the ways in which six women of very different character and background learned or failed to learn to cope with a prodigiously difficult man.Despite her obvious disgust with Henry, Lady Antonia is determined to be fair. Fraser's readable style, empathy for her subjects, and piquant use of historical details and anecdotes make this a satisfying addition to the history shelves." Katherine Gillen, Library Journal Review Not only were Henry's wives prisoners of their biology, but also Henry himself. One cannot help but speculate, as the author does, what history would have been like if Catherine had provided Henry with a male heir. ![]() Inevitably, more time is spent on Catherine of Aragon (after all, Catherine and Henry were married 24 years, whereas all five of his other marriages only totaled a little over ten years), and although Fraser claims to have tried to avoid any bias, she betrays a lingering sympathy for Henry's first queen. Fraser, the distinguished author of many historical studies, including The Weaker Vessel, portrays in fascinating detail the women who sought to be included in and were sometimes destroyed by the power structure of the times. ![]() "Fraser here attempts to provide a fuller view of the six women who unenviably danced around the maypole that was the corpulent King of England. ![]()
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