The Hidden Lives of Tudor Women

May 1, 2017
In these absorbing and well-researched portraits, Norton (The Temptation of Elizabeth Tudor), an authority on the queens of England, juxtaposes the experiences of prominent and ordinary women across the social, economic, and religious spectra during the Tudor period (1485–1603). Norton frames her work with the lives of Henry VIII’s younger sister Elizabeth (1492–1495) and his younger daughter, Queen Elizabeth I (1533–1603). She posits that women passed through Shakespeare’s “seven ages of man” in parallel fashion. This construct proves awkward, as for women there was no fourth or fifth age comparable to those of a soldier or man at the peak of his professional success. Thus, two of the book’s middle sections devolve into narratives about well-known, exceptional women caught up in the religious turmoil of the 1530s–1550s. The earlier and later ages more successfully encompass a broad range of experiences, including those of wet nurses, witches, the poor, servants, and widows. Readers will learn about cooking and medicine, church pews and contraception, ladies in waiting, rape and prostitution, ecclesiastical courts, Lady Jane Grey, cosmetics, and more. Despite occasionally stretching the material to suit her thesis, Norton weaves her stories with an expert hand and illuminates many rarely discussed aspects of daily life for Tudor women. Illus.

May 1, 2017
A portrait of "the diverse lives enjoyed--or endured--by women living in Tudor England, and together constituting a multifaceted impression of female humanity of the period."British historian Norton (The Temptation of Elizabeth Tudor: Elizabeth I, Thomas Seymour, and the Making of a Virgin Queen, 2015) delivers less a social history than a well-researched description of the lives of women in 16th-century Britain. Inevitably, archival documents emphasize rulers, the rich, and the lurid, so Norton has much to say about royalty, aristocrats, female entrepreneurs, criminals, and martyrs. Readers may squirm to learn how badly Tudor law, religion, and custom treated women; almost every woman accepted this, and only a small number prospered. The author has a predilection for namesakes, so she recounts the royal nursery routine of Elizabeth Tudor. Little of Queen Elizabeth I's life was hidden, but readers will learn perhaps more than they want to know about her relentless rejection of suitors and struggles against aging. Elizabeth Boleyn reached the top of the greasy pole of court politics, surviving even the infamous beheading of her daughter, Anne. Elizabeth Barton, the "Nun of Kent," was wildly popular in a time when religion was a matter of life and death. For almost a decade, she heard the voice of God until her execution by Henry VIII; her pronouncements opposed his wishes. Those in search of a genuine social history of this era should turn to Ian Mortimer's A Time Traveler's Guide to Elizabethan England (2017). Norton occasionally digresses into subjects like Tudor diet, hygiene, and morals, but mostly she writes minibiographies of women who struggled with varying degrees of success in an unjust man's world. Readers with a low toleration for outrage will have a difficult time, but most will find this a satisfying series of historical vignettes.

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June 1, 2017

Historian Norton (The Temptation of Elizabeth Tudor) looks at the social climate for women of the Tudor Dynasty (1485-1603), a period when women both held positions of power and struggled to survive. Using William Shakespeare's "Seven Ages of Man" monolog from As You Like It as an influence, Norton chronicles the "Tudor Everywoman" from infancy to her final years and the struggles she encountered along the way. Each chapter features side notes that expand upon topics relevant to daily life. Readers will recognize several of the influential figures within these pages such as Catherine of Aragon and Elizabeth Barton. Yet, they will also find the lives of lesser-profiled women such as Katherine Fenkyll and Rose Hickman just as fascinating. While books such as Borman's The Private Lives of the Tudors delves into the lives of the main players in the Tudor court, here Norton builds upon established research by devoting equal time to women of upper and lower classes during the Tudor reign. VERDICT With her latest work, Norton provides further evidence of her position as a leading authority on Tudor history. Highly recommended for readers interested in the time period.--Katie McGaha, County of Los Angeles P.L.

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