Henry VIII's Controversial Aunt, Honor Lisle: Her Life, Letters and influence on The Tudor Court, by Amy Licence

Available from Amazon UK and 

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The life of Honor, Lady Lisle, follows a dizzying narrative arc. Born into a West Country family, her second marriage propelled her into Anne Boleyn's court, as the new step-aunt to Henry VIII. Her husband, Arthur, was the illegitimate son of Edward IV, bearing the dangerous surname Plantagenet, one of a few survivors of the old regime. 

At his side, Honor witnessed tumultuous change in England, before heading out to run the Tudor enclave of Calais. Her surviving letters speak of a happy family, domestic arrangements, clothes and food, as well as including snippets of news about Henry's love life and the unfolding Reformation. A devout Catholic, Honor found herself in a difficult position when instructions arrived to carry through religious reforms in a reluctant, rebellious town. 

 As the pressure increased upon the couple, and one by one, the giants of the Tudor court fell, did Honor ever fear that she may suffer the same fate? What exactly caused accusations to be made against Honor and Arthur? What role did Honor's faith play? Just how close did she come to dishonour? 

This is the first complete biography of Honor, presenting the story of a significant Tudor woman against the backdrop of immense political change.

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About the Author

Amy Licence is an historian of women's lives in the medieval and early modern period, from Queens to commoners. Her particular interest lies in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth century, in gender relations, Queenship and identity, rites of passage, pilgrimage, female orthodoxy and rebellion, superstition, magic, fertility and childbirth. She is also a fan of Modernism and Post-Impressionism, particularly Woolf and the Bloomsbury Group, Picasso and Cubism. Amy has written for The Guardian, the BBC Website, The English Review, The London Magazine, The Times Literary Supplement and is a regular contributor to the New Statesman and The Huffington Post. She is frequently interviewed for BBC radio and in a BBC documentary on The White Queen. You can follow Amy on Twitter @PrufrocksPeach and her facebook page In Bed With the Tudors. Her website is www.amylicence.weebly.com