The Tudors in Love

September 26, 2022
Historian Gristwood (The Queen’s Mary) offers an engrossing look at how the Tudor dynasty employed the “stylish and stylised game” of courtly love. Popularized by medieval Arthurian legends depicting star-crossed lovers Guinevere and Lancelot, expressions of courtly love in 15th- and 16th-century England included romantic language professing devotion and such symbolic acts as a jouster wearing a woman’s emblem. In mesmerizing detail, Gristwood shows how the Tudors used these methods to their advantage. For example, Henry VIII wielded protestations of courtly love to establish his persona as a young romantic figure at the mercy of the current object of his affection but viewed similarly ritualistic displays—including Anne Boleyn’s tossing of her handkerchief to a jouster—as evidence of infidelity. Expertly deciphering the era’s flowery language, Gristwood shows that women’s oft-ignored denials gave them the illusion of control in a ruse-filled system designed to favor men. One of the rare women to hold real power in the complicated dance of courtly love, Elizabeth I employed it shrewdly to dangle potential marriage contracts with foreign princes and English nobles. Throughout, fascinating incidental details add insight and reveal personal connections between historical figures. The result is a fresh and tantalizing look at a much-scrutinized dynasty.