Divorced, Beheaded, Survived

A fascinating, revisionist look at 16th century English politics (both public and private), examining the lives of Henry VIII's six wives as active personalities Provocative thoughts on the why and wherefore of the matrimonial quests of Henry VIII and the women who were party to them. --Denver Post Lindsey's book reads like a romance novel: airy, witty, full of drama and compassion, . . . more about sentiment than feminist theory. . . . Her chronicle is lustier, more concerned with emotion and the peculiarities of being human than other accounts have been, and her presence as a moral authority is palpable. --Los Angeles Weekly Lindsey is insightful and disarmingly funny in her musings on Henry and his sorry wives. --Arizona Republic This is an engaging read that conveys well the feelings not only of the characters but of the era as well. An occasional bit of dry humor blends nicely with Lindsey's intelligent writing style. --Tulsa World

The women who wed Henry VIII are remembered mainly for the ways their royal marriages ended: divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived. This book helps to restore full humanity to these six fascinating women by applying the insights of feminist scholarship. Here they appear not as stereotypes, not simply as victims, but as lively, intelligent noblewomen doing their best to survive in a treacherous court.Divorced, Beheaded, Survived takes a revisionist look at 16th-century English politics (domestic and otherwise), reinterpreting the historical record in perceptive new ways. For example, it shows Ann Boleyn not as a seductress, but as a sophisticate who for years politely suffered what we would now label royal sexual harassment. It presents evidence that the princess Anne of Cleves, whom Henry declared ugly and banished from his bed, was in fact a pretty woman who agreed to the king's whim as her best hope for happiness.