The Waiting Game: The Untold Story of the Women Who Served the Tudor Queens

Historian Clark (Six Lives) paints a captivating group portrait of the “phalanx of pretty faces” who served as ladies-in-waiting to the six wives of Henry VIII from 1501 to 1547. As royal retinue, they routinely shared a room with the queen and, occasionally, with the king, Clark explains. Among them is Bessie Blount, who gave birth to the king’s son Henry Fitzroy while his first wife Catherine of Aragon, mother of Princess Mary, struggled through a series of stillbirths—a fact that contributed, Clark notes, to Henry’s relentless pursuit of a legitimate son by churning through five additional queens. Other subjects include the “immovably loyal” Maria de Salinas, who spied on Anne Boleyn for a soon-to-be-sidelined Catherine; and Jane Parker, who married Anne Boleyn’s brother and then turned on him during Anne’s downfall (she likely gave evidence that led to his execution). Throughout, Clark highlights how the queen’s privy chamber served as a staging ground for plots and schemes involving marriage, sex, and high-profile gifts that were carefully designed to impact the affairs of state. It’s an astute study of how the personal and political were deeply intertwined at Tudor courts. (Jan.)