When Henry VIII died in 1547, he left three highly intelligent children to succeed him in turn, to be followed, if their lines failed, by the descendants of his sister, Mary Tudor.

When Henry VIII died in 1547, he left three highly intelligent children to succeed him in turn, to be followed, if their lines failed, by the descendants of his sister, Mary Tudor.

Picking up from the point that The Six Wives of Henry VIII left off, Children of England covers the period up to Elizabeth's ascension to the throne in 1558. Making use of a huge variety of contemporary sources, Alison Weir brings to life one of the most extraordinary periods of English history, when each of Henry's heirs was potentially the tool of powerful political or religious figures, and when the realm was seething with intrigue and turbulent change.

'Recounted with her usual lively thoroughness by Alison Weir, my favourite Tudor historian' Philippa Gregory