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Chronology/Introduction

• A year-by-year chronology lists important events between 1485, when the Tudor dynasty was founded, and 1558, when Queen Elizabeth I assumed the crown.

• Weir's introduction explains that Henry VIII was the first English monarch whose marriages created much public interest; due in part to the Renaissance's emphasis on learning and the rise of the printing press, there is a wealth of written information from this period.

• Weir reminds her readers that although these women held great power, they were still restricted by the constraints all women were bound by at the time; all of their possessions and decisions were subject to first their father's and then their husband's approval.

• Marriages were the concern of a girl's father; royal marriages were made for political reasons; Henry VIII's marrying four of his six wives for love was cause for much sensation at the time.

• Life expectancy was short, and it...

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