A detailed examination of the Tudor dynasty, with an emphasis on the people who acted as the nurses, governess, tutors, and teachers to the young Tudors, and how they learned about the royal role expected of them, both in formal settings of classrooms and council chambers, and informal settings of battles and banquet halls.

We get a lot about Henry VII's education pre-Bosworth which I loved, since most people skip right from his mother suffering a traumatic birth to Henry showing up at Ambion Hill to take down Richard III, but here we se all the various guardians he had, and how his political position as a potential heir had a heavy impact on how he was treated, with various aristocrats and royals sometimes seeing he was given a princely education, but at other times treating more as prisoner. And from it all he clearly learned A LOT.

The next generation of Tudors, safely raised in luxurious palaces and never having to go on the run or suffer any question of what they were due, are raised with the kind of high expectations that any self made, successful, first generation immigrant parent would put on their child - both happy to shower them with the money they never had as a child but also expecting a gratitude some raised in safety can never fully appreciate.

While Prince Arthur is raised along a strict schedule to be king, and Princes Margaret is raised from young childhood to someday be queen of Scotland, we see how last minute Prince Henry's king-training education was once his older brother died, but that he certainly hadn't been lacking in his own education.

Prince Arthur had been given a medieval kingly education since he was two, while Prince Henry had been receiving a Renaissance prince education. This in turn made him perhaps more ready for kingship in the 16th century than his brother would have been, and we see just how wide his education was with some of the best teachers available before his father took him under his wing to keep him close out of fear of losing another heir.

Then, with the next generation of Tudors, we see all of them had excellent educations - but they were all very different. All received education in languages, history, religion, science, music, etc., but got got very different lessons in politics that lead to very different reigns. Princess Mary learned stubbornness from her mother during The Divorce, while Princess Elizabeth learned Real Politick from watching the rise and fall of so many queens. Prince Edward learned that the king's word was law, leading to him trying to upend the succession at the end of his own reign. Lady Jane Grey got great lessons in how things worked on paper - but had no sense of how to work with people in real life.

The entire time, we see the people providing the music and math and history lessons and how they are a mix of some of the best scholars in Europe at the time and people with family ties to the Tudors, showing how well educated they were as well, men and women.

In centuries past, royal children were generally not raised directly by their parents but by a network of nannies, governesses, tutors, & advisors. In the Tudor period, the heir to the throne would be raised in a separate household to their siblings, & boys would be raised mainly by women until the age of 7 when their household would be changed to now consist mostly of men. These people had direct access to the royal youngsters & sometimes forged a friendship which lasted all their lives, whilst others used their proximity to bid for power & influence.

A well-researched, but sometimes academically dry, look at those who spent their lives closest to the heirs to England's throne. From Henry VII's formidable mother, Lady Margaret Beaufort, to Cat Ashley, Elizabeth I's confidant. The issue for me is that we seem to spend an awful lot of time on Henry VII, Prince Arthur, & Henry VIII, & seemingly whizz through Edward VI, Mary I, & Elizabeth I. That may just be my impression though as I find the latter three more interesting.

I do note that the author brought out evidence to counter the impression that most people have of Edward VI as a sickly invalid. Here he seems to have been a fairly healthy child & took part in activities such as tilting & hunting which he would not have done if he were fragile. Overall though, it took me almost a week to read this & normally I absolutely tear through anything to do with the Tudors, so I rate this 3.25 (rounded down).
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My thanks to NetGalley & publishers, Pen & Sword, for the opportunity to read an ARC.

A fascinating look into a side of the Tudor court that doesn't get discussed as much as it should. As someone who has read a lot of books on the Tudor era its always nice and refreshing to find a book with a different view to same stories w all learned in history classes. It was interesting to see the people behind the curtain who helped make the Tudors who they were.

In life, when it comes to a new skill or job, you must be trained to become good at it. The same can be said for the monarchy, which in a sense is a job that encompasses one’s entire life. You have to understand different languages, rhetoric, the arts of dancing, and music, as well as diplomacy and physical activities if you want to rule a nation. It may seem like a lot for one person to handle, but from the moment of their birth, a prince or princess has a team of people behind them to make sure that they are ready to either rule their home country or create an alliance with other nations. The Tudors knew how important educating their future monarchs was for the survival of the dynasty. Julia A. Hickey examines the people behind the teams raising the future Tudor monarchs in her book, “Preparing Tudor Kings and Princes to Rule: The Men and Women Who Trained the Royals.”

I want to thank Pen and Sword Books and Net Galley for sending me a copy of this book. This is the first time that I have read a book by Julia A. Hickey, so I was looking forward to seeing what her writing style was like. The premise of this book was fascinating to me and I wanted to see if Hickey would introduce any new people from the Tudor dynasty in this book.

Hickey begins her book by exploring the origins of the Tudor family, starting with the matriarch herself Margaret Beaufort, followed by Owen, Edmund, and Jasper Tudor, and concluding with how Henry Tudor’s education and his lifestyle shaped him to become the first Tudor king. While I do enjoy a review section about the Wars of the Roses, I felt like this section went a bit too long.

Once we see Henry Tudor on the throne, we get to see how the Tudor dynasty grew with the children of Henry Tudor and Elizabeth of York. We get to see how Arthur Tudor as the heir had a much different education than his brother Henry, who was deemed a spare. The education of the princes was vastly different than the education allocated to the princesses even though it was based on humanism. With the death of Prince Arthur, Henry had to go through a crash course on how to rule a country before his father died in 1509. Hickey also shows her audience how the children of Henry VIII, Mary I, Henry Fitzroy, Elizabeth I, and Edward VI, were raised and educated. She also takes the time to show what happens to his children after Henry VIII’s death. Finally, we do get appendixes that feature mini-biographies for all the men and women who are featured in this book to show a different aspect of the Tudor court.

Overall, I found this a rather nifty little book about the Tudor court. Hickey does a decent job of telling the stories of these men and women who trained the Tudor rulers, both male and female. If you want a book that explores what it takes to rule England during the Tudor dynasty, you should check out “Preparing Tudor Kings and Princes to Rule: The Men and Women Who Trained the Royals” by Julia A. Hickey.

Preparing Tutor Kings And Prince’s To Rule, the men and women who trained royalty by Julia Hicks, from the first, Henry of England, until the last their descendants and their adversaries, this book not only tells you who was her guardian, but the outcome of their life, education, marriage, and their descendants and their ties to the throne. I read so much about the European royalty. One would think I would get tired of it, but in this book, I was shocked to learn of those. I had never heard of before such as Henry’s two stepbrothers Giles and Edmund just to name one example. I love Julia Hicks‘s books and can’t see that changing anytime soon. She is a proper expert when it comes to English royalty and can’t wait to see what else she has to offer in the future as for this one I definitely recommended. It was an eye-opening book about the different reasons and situations that call for a guardian and how the English royalty were educated.#NetGalley, #PenAndSwordPress, #TheBlindReviewer, #JuliaHicks,#PreparingTutorKingsAndPrince’sToRule,

A fascinating look at the people who influenced the Princes and future Kings of the Tudor dynasty. I consider myself pretty knowledgeable about the Tudors but there were many people I never heard of which made it so enjoyable. Explained in plain English (pardon the pun) this book should satisfy an itch you didn't even know you had to scratch. Thanks to NetGalley, the author and publisher for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest opinion.

Julia Hickey gives a lively and enthralling account of turbulent times from a fresh angle. I’ve recently read a couple of biographies about our present King, Charles; the warts and all rather than the sycophantic cover ups. A point that really struck me was the influence of the courtiers and the way in which they were summarily dismissed when their advice didn’t suit the royal prerogative. Media and public manipulation to ensure adoration and obeisance is quite staggering and looking back I see how many events were managed by the advisers rather than the royals. Preparing Tudor Kings and Princes to Rule gives a fascinating insight into so many of those working hard behind the scenes five or six hundred years ago. In many ways, little has changed, expect falling out of favour now will not result in losing a head. But it has ruined many.

Much of this story reads like an adventure, although at times with unwelcome and unfair consequences. There’s a mix of toadies along with decent men and women whose task was to ensure the would be monarch was protected, nurtured and well prepared for all and any event. Much of the manoeuvering was based on a desire by the individual to secure their own position in royal circles. Few were totally selfless in their thankless task. I’ve really enjoyed this very different insight into the ways of the Tudors and it’s increased my understanding of the House of Tudor and their deep seated machinations.

I’ve always been fascinated by royals and royal history. This was such a great informative read! I loved learning about the people “unsung” hero’s who helped prep some of the biggest royals of all time. Fascinating read!