cover image So Great a Prince: The Accession of Henry VIII: 1509

So Great a Prince: The Accession of Henry VIII: 1509

Lauren Johnson. Pegasus, $27.95 (344p) ISBN 978-1-68177-541-8

British historian Johnson (Arrow of Sherwood) looks back at the early years of the infamously much-married, red-faced king, successfully revealing an intelligent, determined teenager who exulted in both the crowds’ adulation and his new freedom from his increasingly dour father’s restrictions. Relying heavily on contemporary records and her own gift for fluid storytelling, Johnson delves deep behind the glamorous spectacles as she describes the shifts in power among courtiers resulting from the accession and the reentry to center stage of Catherine of Aragon, widow of Henry’s brother Arthur, as the new king’s wife. Out of the national spotlight, “those lower down the social scale,” as Johnson writes, continued to focus on various aspects of their own lives: marriage contracts, religion, trade, and sex. Johnson seamlessly transitions between education and religion and between immigration and exploration, highlighting the Venetian Cabot family, which produced notable explorer John Cabot. Capturing both the excitement and banalities of daily life from each economic class, Johnson recreates the rhythms of the Tudor era only two decades before Henry himself created seismic shifts that affected all of his subjects. Color illus. (Oct.)