Learn the truth behind the tales of England's King Henry VIII, Queen Elizabeth, The Church of England, and other key figures and events from the Tudor era.

The Tudor monarchs and the events of sixteenth-century England are subjects and settings for many popular films, television programs, books, and plays of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Viewers or readers of The Tudors, The Six Wives of Henry VIII, Wolf Hall, Elizabeth R, Firebrand, or Six see compelling and dynamic depictions of the people and events of the Tudor period that are entertaining but not necessarily historically accurate. Was Sir Thomas More a religious hero or a religious zealot? Was Henry VIII a weak buffoon or a ruthless tyrant? Was the dissolution of the English monasteries an act of destruction or a means of reform? Was the English fleet that engaged the Spanish Armada brilliantly victorious or amazingly lucky? These and other Tudor myths and misperceptions will be discussed and clarified in the 10 chapters of this volume, offering high school students, college undergraduates, and other readers fascinated by Tudor history accurate fact-based insights into the period and its people.