Great Ladies

The Forgotten Witnesses to the Lives of Tudor Queens

By: Sylvia Barbara Soberton

Narrated by: Elizabeth Jasicki

There has been a great deal written about Tudor queens, but less so about those women who surrounded the throne, who may have held even more power and influence than those who actually wore the golden crown.

Some ladies who served at the Tudor court are only faceless silhouettes lost to the sands of time, but there are those who dedicated their lives to please their royal mistresses and left documentation, allowing us to piece their life stories together and link them to the stories of Tudor queens. These female attendants saw their queens and princesses up close and often used their intimate bonds to their own benefit. Some were beloved, others hated.

This is the story of the ladies of the Tudor court like you've never heard it before.

©2017 Sylvia Barbara Soberton (P)2019 Tantor

Good narration — Not as informative as I expected

The narrator did a good job, but I think the story is a bit lacking, given the title of the book. While I did learn the names of women with whom I was not familiar, the details about their lives were often sparse. As other reviewers have noted, if you are familiar with the Tudor period, you will probably already know much of what the book covers.

Mostly about the lives of the famous Tudors, but does provide some information about those around them

I read a LOT of history non-fiction and historical fiction, and medieval and Tudor England is one of my faves. I liked learning about the women and their roles in the lives of the Tudors, but if the resources are available I would have liked more of the book to have been focused on these background figures and less on Henry VIII and his wives and children. Editing these would have left pages to include more women, and more about them, in this time period.

the title is deceiving

this book is not for anyone who has already read a lot about the Tudors. There is a lot of time spent on reviewing well known events and facts and giving a sketchy outline of not very interesting occurrences, if you're already well read on this period.

also there are excursions off into sidelines there are not particularly interesting. Actual information on the ladies-in-waiting is extremely sparse considering that is purportly the point of this book. So it becomes just another book about the same old story of the tutor years that has been told time and time again.

For one example the reign of Mary tudor is covered in very little detail in terms of her obstetrical difficulties which one would think would be an area where the ladies in waiting would have more influence and be more documented. in fact I have read quite extensive writings with details about her various pseudo pregnancies in other books which were not covered in this book.

So if you know nothing about this period you might enjoy this book however if you are a tutor afficianado I would give it a pass

Great History!

I was delighted with this audio book. All those women who play a important role in History, are remarkable

Excellent Oberton

Great read, very informative. Full of details on characters you always wanted to know more about!

Basically an over-view of the six wives

Pretty remedial content. Reads like an unoriginal telling of the Six Wives story. I had hoped for more details of the conditions of ladies maids and a better look at their day to day lives.

It's okay of you are a beginner.