European Royalty discussion

Ok, here's another little topic. Who is your favorite author dealing with European royalty? What is your favorite book by that author?

Clearly, since I'm a broken record on this subject, my favorite author is Jean Plaidy. She also wrote under the names Philippa Carr and Victoria Holt.

As for a favorite book of hers, that's a tough one. If I had to pick one, I would choose Katherine of Aragon (that's kind of cheating because it's actually made up of three books which have been republished together in one volume). I also really like her Ferdinand and Isabella trilogy (which also may have been published in one volume at some point) and The Rose Without a Thorn about Katherine Howard, Henry VIII's fifth wife.

Jean Plaidy is absolutely terrific! Her works are a great introduction to the genre, especially for individuals who have trouble with the whole concept of reading a BOOK.

I'm partial to Anya Seyton. Though her books don't deal with the royals, Katherine deals with a secondary character in a way that imerses us in the scene. The Winthrop Woman does the same - though it deals with the early colonization of North America, and the concurrent conflict of royalist vs round heads.

On the non-fiction front Antonia Fraser is tops. Her stuff reads well, not too dry or academic.

I'd add Margaret George to the list, but she's only got Henry and Mary on the European Royalty subject list...

I agree that Jean Plaidy (no matter what name she is writing under) is always a good, quick read, but Katherine by Anya Seton will always be my first love in this genre. I fell in love with British history while reading Katherine and can't get away from it. Sharon Penman's trilogy about the last great King of Wales is also a must read. I believe the first book is Here be Dragon's, but it has been years since I read them last. You will never be the same after you have met King John's daughter Joann and her Prince of Wales. Enjoy!!

i would have to say Phillippa gregory ,or robin maxwell would be my favorite so far... as i have yet to read jean plaidy's work.... but now i have more reading to do i see!

Amy, I totally agree with you, the Welsh trilogy by SKP is the best books I’ve ever read. I started now the Eleanor D´Aquitaine trilogy since the third book will be published next October, The Devil Brood. And Katherine by Anya Seton is also lovely!!

I love Anya Seton's books. "Katherine" is my favorite, and is the one that probably fits into this group's theme the best - although "Avalon" and "Green Darkness" also have royal characters.

I think the author that made me fall in love with historical fiction back when I was in middle school and high school is Ann Rinaldi - but most of her novels deal with American history, and "ordinary" people.

Getting back to European royalty, I like Edward Rutherford. If you like "Katherine," and the works of Sharon Penman, you might also like Brian Wainwright's "Within the Fetterlock," about the life of Constance of York, cousin to two kings of England - Richard II and Henry IV.

Sharon Penman keeps coming up here - I'm definitely going to have to check her out. Is she an author that's writing now? (I only ask because some of these authors - Jean Plaidy, Anya Seton - are no longer with us.)

Feel free to add any of the books you enjoy to the group's bookshelf!

Sara, it seems that Sharon K. Penman has been sick that's why the Devil Brood took so long to be published. Cheers...

Laura,
I am so excited to find out she has done a trilogy on Eleanor D'Aquitaine. I have always been fascinated with Eleanor. Penman will do a great job. Thanks for letting me know.

I have never read Wainwrights's work. I will have to add him to my reading list. Thanks

As the great-granddaughter of Margaret Campbell Barnes, author of Brief Gaudy Hour, I have to put her forth as the best in the genre. I see Brief Gaudy Hour, just re-issued for publication by Source Books Publishing, is on your list of books to read. I highly reccommend it for its historical accuracy and the compelling humanity with which she enlivens these overly-romanticized historical figures. You will also find some additional materials which I contributed to the new edition -- the genealogical chart at the front of the book, and a set of discussion questions for reading groups such as yourselves. I look forward to discussing some of these things with you when you come to read it. I promise it will be a delight!

Elizabeth R. Blaufox

Welcome to the group Elizabeth! I'm glad that a lot of these new and/or republished books are including discussion questions. The questions tend to bring up topics I might have overlooked otherwise. Brief Gaudy Hour is definitely on my to-read list.

Hi. I'm new to this group but wanted to post that one of my favorite authors that write about this time period are Phillipa Gregory. I really enjoyed her book The Queens Fool, as well as The Constant Princess and The Boleyn Inheritance. All of Edward Rutherford books are wonderful too.

I also really like to read Alison Weir, particularly The Six Wives of Henry VIII and The Children of Henry VIII. I love to read the discussions in this group. Thanks for all of the good recommendations!

Hi Jennifer, welcome to the group! There have been a lot of great recommendations here. Once I have a little extra time, I'm hoping to add all of the recommended books to the group's bookshelf (a lot are already there). I really enjoyed The Children of Henry VIII by Alison Weir as well.

I'd say Alison Weir. It was sort of a progress up, I was into historical romance, got into Phillipa Gregory via that and then got into Alison Weir when I wanted to know how much of the stories were real. My favorite book by her is the one about Eleanor of Acquitaine.

wow a lot of you seem to like alison weir. are her books okay for teens?

It probably depends on the age of the teenager. Innocent Traitor has a rape scene (more or less) that you may not want your teen to read (it is kind of disturbing), but the rest of it seems fine. I was reading smutty romance novels when I was 13 that had similar sex scenes, but those books didn't have the violence associated with the scene in Innocent Traitor. I probably would have been fine reading the scene as a 15 or 16 year old, but that's just me (I'm 28 now). I haven't finished Lady Elizabeth yet, so I'm not sure what scenes may come up that you may not find appropriate. We did discuss Innocent Traitor and are currently discussing Lady Elizabeth in this group, so you may want to check out the discussion threads to get a feel for the books.

Her non-fiction books are very good and easy to read, so I think you would just have to judge it based on the subject (it's hard to avoid sex, adultery and beheadings when reading about Henry VIII and his wives; I suspect the book on Queen Isabella and Edward II probably gets into homosexuality based on other things I've read about Edward II; I've read elsewhere that Eleanor of Acquitaine slept with her uncle, so that might pop up in the book about Eleanor). I don't remember reading any graphic scenes that would be disturbing though, so as long as you know the basic story already to realize what might be covered in the books, you can probably go about picking a book. Your best bets may be The Children of Henry VIII and The Princes in the Tower (although this second one deals with murder, so maybe you won't like that).

If you want good historical fiction for your teen, you may want to try Jean Plaidy (she wrote from the 1950s to 1990s). I started reading her books as a teenager. There are no graphic sex scenes or anything like that. I would just pay attention to the subject matter if you're concerned about certain things (like don't get the book about Katherine Howard if you don't want references to teenage girls having sex - none of the scenes are graphic or inappropriately written, but the facts remain that Katherine Howard slept with a handful of boys/men and you can't avoid that when reading her story).

I hope this helps a little! It's hard to tell what one person might consider to be ok and what someone else might find objectionable.

oh ok thanks!!!

Welcome to the group Isabella!

I enjoyed Marie Antoinette by Fraser. I wasn't really familiar with Marie Antoinette's story (I don't know if that would make a difference - I guess there could be better biographies out there that I'm just not aware of), but I thought the book was good.

It is very very good. I gave a presentation to the alliance Francaise of detroit where I am the president, on Marie Antoinette based on the book. There are some beautiful quotes from Marie Antoinette in this book which humanize her, when all of French society seemed intent on daemonising her. There is a heart-rending account of her final imprisonment and the death of her husband and the Princesse de Lamballe. Lady Fraser is clearly a sympathist, but I believe The Queen needed and needs our sympathy.

Dr. David Benoit-Mohan

Well, I got into historical fiction in general, not just european royalty, reading Philippa Gregory. So I guess I'm partial to her, my favorite being The Other Boleyn Girl and tehn The Queen's Fool. Although, the few european royalty books by Margaret George are good as well.

I absolutely agree! I am borderline obsessed with her. I LOVE all the Tudor ones, but I must say the Regency and Georgian ones are great too.

Hi, I'm quite new to this group, but I have to say I love Jean Plaidy's books, I'm so glad that some of you do too! I've recently read a few by Phillipa Gregory as well-The Boleyn Inheritance, The Constant Princess and The Other Boleyn Girl...

Welcome to the group Roshini! I love Jean Plaidy - I own practically all her books (well, the ones written under that name - I don't have many Phillipa Carr or Victoria Holt books), and I can't wait for this group to finally read one together! I own those Phillipa Gregory books you mentioned, but I haven't gotten around to reading them yet.

Hello All!

I just joined this group. I don't know how I missed it withing the last month I've been on goodreads.

I really like Phillipa Gregory, and am recently diving into Jean Plaidy.

Historical fiction is by far my favorite genre, particularly the Tudor Era. I'm so happy I found this group. :)

Welcome to the group Tisha! We have a lot of Tudor lovers here, so you're in the right place!

My favorite European royalty author has to be Margaret George. I realize she hasn't written a lot, but that doesn't mean what she has written isn't incredible in my opinion.
I have read many books but she is the only author who actually stands out in my memory. I often find a subject/person and then read all I can about them for a time but rarely do I seek out a specific author other than in the case of Margaret George.

In relation to European Royalty...how far does "Europe" extend? Does this include the Roman Empire and the Caesars? I personally would like to see other books on here rather than the usual Henry VIII and his wives books or Marie Antoinette. You know...some mind expansion. Just my two cents.

We can extend it to the Roman Empire and be pretty flexible with what is "Europe". Someone did nominate a book on Cleopatra a couple of months ago, but I think a book on Elizabeth beat it. I would certainly like to see other books as well - people just need to vote for them! The England books seem to keep coming out on top. If you'd like to nominate books, I'll gladly add you to the list (and you certainly could nominate all non-England books!).

Oh it might have been Memoirs of Cleopatra? That's a Margaret George book that I am slowly but surely making my way through now. It's loooong, but sumptuous. Basically I'm just slow because it's too heavy for the subway, which is an essential requirement in my reading.

I agree that it might be fun to read some non-European royalty books, though clearly the group name is European royalty. One can only read so many books about Anne Boleyn. :)

Dorothy Dunnett. I was primed for another 6-7 book saga when she passed away.

Childhood authors included Sabatini, Costain, and Shellabarger to name a few among many. Viña Del Mar is an author no one reads or has heard of these days.

Donald, I had never heard of Dorothy Dunnett before you mentioned her (which isn't too surprising for me - I'm just now leaving my Jean Plaidy bubble), but I lucked out and came across The Game of Kings at a used book store a couple of days ago. The Dunnett name just popped out at me, and I can't wait to read it!

I grew up with Costain, which I liked very much.

I'll have to try Dorothy Dunnett, whom I've never heard of previously.

Sara, it is but one volume of a huge saga. Alert to you and Susanna, once you become involved with either the Lyman Chronicles or the House of Niccolo, you will want to read each volume.

On Marie-Antoinette I actually prefer Caroline Weber's Queen of Fashion, to Fraser. I think I found it less melodramatic (although of course there really is a great deal of melodrama in M-A's life). I worry that the title makes it seem too much like it would only be of interest to readers who are really into fashion. I'm actually not at all fashionable, and only read fashion magazines when I've gone through everything else at the doctor's office. But I found the book highly informative and very readable too.

Lea, I've been wanting to read Queen of Fashion, so it's good to hear you liked it!

Donald, I didn't realize it was a huge saga until after I bought the book, so I'm really glad I lucked out and got the first one! I love well-written and entertaining sagas.

Yes, Sara, I knew you had the 1st one, so I let you discover the joy of how many are in the saga.

There is also a book that is sort of a decoder for her sagas, explaining the history and the untranslated poems and such.

Donald, what is the title of the decoder book? Is it written by Dorothy Dunnett?

Sara, I saw it on the shelves at B&N next to the Niccolo series about six years ago, but it is not by her as I recall.

Elspeth Morrison is the author of the two volume Dorthy Dunnett Companion.

I looked it up here on Goodreads.

Awesome! Thanks for letting me know.

Hi are we to comment on fiction or biography? I have done so much research lately my reading for fun is gone with the sun! Shirley

Welcome Shirley! It can be either fiction or non-fiction (anything pretty much). A lot of fiction does come up, but there are non-fiction lovers here as well.

Hi Shirley.

For fiction, my favorite author at the moment is Sharon Kay Penman.

For Non-fiction historical: I like Richard Vaughn's series on the Valois Dukes of Burgundy (Philip the Bold, John the Fearless, Philip the Good, Charles the Bold, and Valois Burgundy).

That is a tough question...if we are talking royals only then Rosalind Miles. Her fictional memoir of Elizabeth I is not to be missed. I also loved Alison Weir's book Innocent Traitor about Lady Jane Grey.

I know Cleopatra is not technically European history but Karen Essex's books about her are wonderful . For European Royalty, I think Jean Plaidy and Philippa Gregory are the main authors I have read. I am planning to read the Alison Weir books. It looks like she has written much more extensively.I love all the wonderful suggestions on these topics! On this site, are mysteries considered to be a good form of historical knowledge?

Pumpkin, DAUGHTER OF TIME by Josephine Tey definitely is if you are interested in Richard III.

By mysteries do you mean things like who killed the little princes in the tower? I'm sorry, it's late, and I spent over eight hours reviewing documents today, so I'm not entirely sure what you mean Pumpkin (my fault, not yours - my brain's a little fried right now). Cleopatra comes up every now and then, so we'll gladly take your recommendations! I like Alison Weir a lot. Jean Plaidy has a ton of books, but only a small amount are in print right now - I was able to get most of her books used at half.com, ebay or amazon.

Thanks for the book suggestion! I mean mysteries set in the past that are considered Historical Fiction. Not straight scholarly work. Also, I saw a new Jean Plaidy or maybe a rereleased one in the bookstore yesterday..but I did not get it! Now, I will.

Ah! Thank you for that suggestion, Donald! (Even though it wasn't for me.) I am always on the lookout for good recommendations!
I just finished !The Reluctant Queen: The Story of Anne of York and a few months ago I read To the Tower Born: A Novel of the Lost Princes. These have piqued my interest in Richard III. So I really appreciate your recommendation! Thanks!