Meyer's fresh storytelling ability breathes new life into the history of the Tudor family and Tudor England's precarious place in world politics, the critical role religion played in government, and the blossoming of English theater and literature.;Family tree -- A Tudor timeline -- August 22, 1485: the Battle of Bosworth, an exile returns -- An Excess of Good Fortune: 1485-1532 -- The luck of Henry Tudor: the king who had (almost) everything -- The King's great matter: his pursuit of an annulment and of Anne Boleyn -- Frustration and embarrassment: Queen Catherine resists, and finds support -- Radical departures: moving the line between church and state -- Another way devised: a policy of winning by intimidation and terror -- A revolution in the making: Henry raises the stakes -- A thunderbolt falls: the royal ultimatum -- Submission: the archbishop of Canterbury surrenders -- Consummation: the king beds, then weds, Anne Boleyn -- Monster: 1533-1547 -- First blood: the destruction of the nun of Kent -- Supremacy: Parliament acknowledges the king's new powers -- "We will all die" : destructuion of the charterhouse monks, and of John Fisher-- "Preserve my friends from such favors" : trial and execution of Thomas More; the monastic visits -- All but Godlike: Anne Boleyn is replaced; the smaller monasteries destroyed -- Rebellion and betrayal: explosion, the pilgrimage of Grace; King Henry gets his son --The last of Henry: three more wives, money trouble, a final torrent of killings -- A King too Soon and a Queen too Late: 1547-1558 -- A new beginning: evangelicals triumph; Edward Seymour assumes command -- England's second reformation: Henry VIII's church dismantled; the fall of Seymour -- A revolution and a coup: the rise of John Dudley, the death of Edward VI, the brief reign of Jane Grey -- Another new beginning: Mary I and the restoration of the old religion -- And another early end: dreams turn to dust -- Survivor: 1558-1603 -- Yet another new beginning: the return to Protestantism -- The succession, again: Robert Dudley and the hope for an heir -- A torrent of miseries: religion, the succession, and Mary, Queen of Scots -- Actions, reactions, provocations: trouble in France, trouble with Spain; rebellion in the Netherlands -- A horrific tangle and war at last: years of meddling produce war in the Netherlands -- The last favorite: the rise of Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex -- A seat at the table: the rivalry of Essex and Robert Cecil -- The last act: the fall of Essex; the dismal final decade of the Tudor Age.