Few English monarchs have a worse reputation than Mary Tudor. She has been seen both as a religious fanatic who tried against the will of her people to reverse the course of the Reformation and as the pawn of her husband, Philip II of Spain - her infatuation with whom led her to betray England's vital interests.

How this pious, and by contemporary accounts, gentle woman aroused an antipathy that survives until the present is a central question in David Loades's sensitive biography, now in paperback. Based on research into the documents of the time (many newly uncovered) the compelling story of Mary's life is revealed here in unprecedented detail and depth, packed with incident and intrigue, and enmeshed in the politics of secular and religious struggle in England and Europe.

David Loades taught at the University of Durham before being appointed the Professor of History at the University College of North Wales, Bangor in 1980. He has MA and PhD degrees from the University of Cambridge (where he received the Prince Consort Prize and Seeley Medal in 1961). He was awarded an honorary D Litt in 1981 and was a visiting fellow at All Souls College in 1988-9.