Wicked Women of Tudor England Queens, Aristocrats, Commoners [Paperback]

This fascinating study delves into the lives of six Tudor women celebrated for their reputed wickedness. Collected here are accounts of Anne Boleyn, Katherine Howard, Anne Seymour, Lettice Dudley, and Jane and Alice More. Warnicke rescues these women from historical misrepresentations and helps us to rediscover the complex world of Tudor society.Introduction  Queen Anne Boleyn  Queen: Katherine Howard  Anne Seymour, Duchess of Somerset Lettice, Countess of Essex and Leicester, 1543-1634 Jane More  Alice More  Conclusion

Warnicke succeeds admirably in her aim to provide more careful assessments of these women. One of the strengths of her monograph is her astute scrutiny of the limitations of the evidence used to malign these women, albeit some chapters are more compelling than others. Her monograph offers a valuable reassessment of women like Anne Seymour, Lettice Dudley, and Alice More and ought to encourage more careful study of their careers. While Tudor historians may not agree with her conclusions, Warnicke's text offers a thorough and insightful study that is a valuable addition to scholarship on queenship, political power, and gender in early modern England. Journal of British Studies

Retha Warnicke's Wicked Women of Tudor England corrects 500 years of historiography on six early modern English women, two queens, two aristocrats, and two commoners. All six are labeled wicked by their contemporaries. As Warnicke's research attests, however, these judgments have very little to do with their actions, but are fueled by a desire either to attack or to praise their husbands and are largely the result of early modern rumormongering . . . Warnicke's methodology should be taken as a model for future scholarship, as she cogently substantiates the biases and inaccuracies informing these women's historical reputations - in past and present writings - through her sensitive reconsideration of all knowl“)