Privilege and Power: Lives of the Great Tudor Dynasties

Produced and illustrated in the same style as "The Paston Letters", this tells the story of the 16th century through the private letters of five leading noble families. Life in the Tudor court was sumptuous, terrifying and drenched in the unpredictability of regal power. The poet Edmund Spenser described a courtier's life as nothing but "To fawn, to crouch, to wait, to rise, to run/To spend, to give, to want, to be undone". "Privilege and Power" aims to approach this dramatic century of English history in an entirely new way, bringing together an edited selection of the private correspondence of five interlocking and power-hungry families of the new aristocracy. The letters, interlinked by passages of commentary by contributors distinguished in the field, give a picture of a time when intrigue was everyday and the correspondents were directly involved in the welfare and future of the nation at arguably its most critical moment. Over 170 letters are interspersed with illustrations and feature articles amplifying issues raised in the correspondence. The book's introduction describes each family's background and the tangled networks of marriage, descent, alliance and wealth which link