This was an interesting, easy introduction to women in the Tudor period. It touched on the more popular/well known stories and some lesser known stories too, as an Irish woman I loved the inclusion of Grace O' Malley! I don't know much about the Tudor period and I found this was very digestible and a good gateway.

I found there was some unnecessary info dumping, especially names and backgrounds and I think family trees would have been hugely beneficial.

I really liked that the author sourced their information but also acknowledged that we can't know exactly what happened. Nothing felt preachy it was very authentic.

I've seen some people questioning the feminism of this book, and unfortunately some showing a deep misunderstanding of feminism itself, but I think these stories show us that feminism is not one size fits all. Sometimes it might mean you're not the most powerful but you use what's available to you to rise up and I think these women show that

Feminism has become a word associated with negativity and man-hating, the very opposite of what the word actually stands for. Feminism is about standing up for women's rights, trying to ensure that women are given the same opportunities and respect that men are freely given whilst also trying to fight the gender inequalities that even men are victims to. Whilst none of the women discussed in this book could realistically be labelled or defined as feminists, they are remembered today for standing up against the patriarchal society they lived in through their futuristic beliefs and their inspiring deeds.

Whilst I had heard of many of these women prior to reading this book, I knew very little about the lives of the other women. I had no idea that Margaret Beaufort and Elizabeth of York worked together to prevent Margaret Tudor from marrying and being forced to bear a child at 12 years old, just like her grandmother. I had no idea that they both wrote instructions for the arrival of Catherine of Aragon or that Margaret Pole was so devoted to being Princess Mary's governess that she offered to run her household at her own expense or that she later became a Catholic saint. These women; Lady Margaret Beaufort, Lady Margaret Pole, Queen Catherine of Aragon, Queen Anne Boleyn, Queen Katherine Parr, Anne Askew, Elizabeth of Hardwick, Aemilla Lanier, Grainne (Grace) O’Malley, and Arbella Stuart--they are an inspiration not only to me but to countless women over the centuries whose own acts of feminism led to women experiencing the freedoms that we do today and they would be proud of their involvement in that.

The only criticism I have of this book is that there are some noticeable spelling and grammar errors along with some missing words that would allow for easier reading and a bit more clarification on whom the author is referring to when exploring family history would take this book up to 5 stars.

However, I absolutely loved this book and I would recommend this to any history lover or someone wanting to learn about Tudor women who made a difference, even if they didn't know it.

I’m an avid reader of anything Tudor and find the period in history to be fascinating. What one would think would be a boring or dry subject, turns out to be very interesting – full of intrigue, drama, and deceit.

This book is well written and researched. The author does a great job of detailing the lives of ten strong women ahead of their time. While I was familiar with a few of them such as Margaret Beaufort, Margaret Pole, and, of course, Anne Boleyn, I did not know about other lesser known women such as Anne Askew, Grainne (Grace) O’Malley, and Arbella Stuart. These women all went against the grain of society, fighting for their beliefs, which is never easy, let alone during this time period when something as small as a rumor started by an adversary can lead to someone being thrown in the Tower, subject to unspeakable punishments and forms of torture or drawn and quartered or even beheaded.

I found Tudor Feminists to be a fascinating read to be enjoyed by any Tudor enthusiast. One thing that I think would have been helpful would be to have some diagrams with family trees as it can get quite confusing with the number of names.

Thank you to NetGalley and Pen and Sword history for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

These women can't really be called 'feminists' in today's sense of the word, but Rebecca Wilson explains this at the beginning of her book. Three of the women are actually wives of Henry VIII - Catherine of Aragon, Anne boleyn and Katherine Parr. They are my favourites. Others include Margaret Beaufort, who fought for her son Henry VII like a lioness, and Margaret Pole. They are all wonderfully interesting, although I am not sure that Wilson says anything new about them. It's a great read, though.

I received this free ebook from NetGalley in return for an honest review.

A look at how women asserted themselves in a Tudor world.
.The lives of protestants, princesses, a poet and a pirate, show how remarkable these women were, despite being hampered by men's laws. . A well researched book full of detail dnd excellent
references. An engrossing read.

I struggled to stay engaged unfortunately and often found my mind wandering. The word ‘perhaps’ came up many times which made me feel the author was speculating rather than providing facts. I was looking forward to learning more about Margaret Pole but was disappointed to find much focus on her male relatives. As others have said, family trees would have also helped. On a plus note, my favourite chapter was Grace O’Malley’s whom I knew little about and would now like to know more.

Thank you Netgalley and Pen & Sword for this ARC.

As a woman I am always interested to learn about how women from other parts of the world, from other times of history LIVED. This book takes a look at the Tudor women and delves into their challenges which are not apparent if you just read a history book. Having said that, you will need to be familiar with the history of the times to relate to all the events, dates and names that are referenced in the telling of their stories. Women have always been resourceful and despite the odds have made a difference - This book captures their stories.

I applaud the author for compiling stories of ten significant women of England’s Tudor era into one book. While Tudor aficionados will know most of these women, this compilation does detail the currently known information about each woman into this book so it creates a convenient reference.
Sadly, many of the women came to terrible ends. Others lived remarkable lives that had direct impact on the world. In particular, the stories of Margaret Beaufort, mother of King Henry VII, and Bess of Hardwick, were two where women navigated the turbulent times of the era and managed to maintain their lives and their fortunes.
Some of the stories were of the poor choices available and the even poorer outcomes made by the women, like Arabella Stuart.
The author, on occasion, really hammers the theme of ‘feminist’ but its worth the reading for the stories she compiled.

Tudor Feminists looks at the lives of ten different women from the general Tudor Period and examines their prolific lives and how they were able to cement their place in history whilst living in an incredibly patriarchal society.

I was incredibly happy to see that introduction examines that ‘feminist’ is an anarchistic label and that these women would never have labelled themselves or each other as such as the title of the book made me a little worried that there would be some rewriting of history and placing modern conceptions of feminism into these historical figures stories. Additionally, this was a great introduction to these women, some of whom I knew a lot about (Anne Boleyn is one of my favourite historical figures and I will never pass up an opportunity to read a history book that features her), and others whom I knew incredibly little about, and is a great gateway to further research and study. It was evidently well researched, with lengthy end notes and appropriate referencing to historical sources throughout the text.

Each chapter was a great length, providing an appropriate amount of detail without droning on and getting the audience ready for the next progression in history. I found it was written in an engaging manner, that wasn’t dry, but also didn’t patronise the audience and hold their hand throughout. While the images at the end were relevant and mostly glossy and bright, additional timelines and family trees to show the continuity of the time period and the way some of these women were interconnected would have been beneficial.

Tudor Feminists is perfect for anyone who enjoys the experiences of women in history or anyone looking for a more accurate and historical approach to many of the women who are the basis of characters in many period dramas. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher Pen & Sword for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

Although the term feminism is fairly modern, there have been women existing for countless eras who have rebelled against patriarchy, dared to break from convention, had bigger dreams and desired — and whilst some of their actions may not be what we think of feminism today, these amazing women were yesteryears feminist icons.

This book takes a look at ten women from the Tudor period, when women were firmly held down by a sexism regime and shows us how each remarkable women decided to make a stand and shift the social current in their own way.

Each chapter focuses on one historical figure, from Anne Boleyn and Katherine of Aragon to Gràinne O’Malley and Aemila Lanier - each one clearly well researched, full of context and laid out in an easily readable way in a chronological and informative style that was quite simple to follow and not too formal.

I also appreciate the authors acknowledgement that feminism wasn’t a choice for many women due to their positions, and most poor women went largely undocumented and unremembered. Due to this, it is largely the royal and rich women who had even a chance to take a stand, like the ones we see here.

As someone with a keen interest in women throughout his history and the medieval - Tudor period, I didn't hesitate in downloading a copy of the ARC available on Netgalley... yet I feel like this book doesn't live up to it's full potential.


The women chosen to be the subject of this book certainly lived interesting lives and, when the author is in her flow, she tells an engaging story and makes me want to learn more than each mini biography given here...

Yet it seems that a fact checker and/or editor didn't give this work a once over as there are several typing errors and mistakes throughout each of the chapters. And one section seems to be lifted, word for word from wikipedia!

The author does have a nice style of writing but occasionally she confuses me by jumping around the women's timelines; which forces me to reread to understand what point I am up to in that Lady's life, as well as dumping too much detail regarding some of the women's male relations, which gets very confusing at times.
While I don't think the women's stories don't need to be validated by who their male relations maybe, I understand it's helpful to have context of where they fit into this world. (Perhaps a family tree at the begining of each chapter would be more helpful?)

This also has the adverse effect of reducing some of the women to a bit part in their own biography (Poor Margaret Pole's story seems to be about her dad, with a small section on her brother, followed by information about her husband then son before we finally hear about Margaret herself)


Another reason why it's possibly not living up to it's full potential is that the title doesn't feel right to me and perhaps Strong Tudor Women is a more accurate description for the subjects of this book. This could simply be because I associate the word "Feminists" with it's modern meaning; people standing up for the rights of women and/or for women to be treated equally as their male counterparts, whereas many of the women talked about here did what they did in order to survive the (ruled-by-men) world they lived in and not to intentionally better it for their fellow women.


Despite the negative points I've made above, I have to say that, overall, I did enjoy reading about the women selected for this title; especially the lesser talked about women such as Grainne O'Malley and Aemelia Lanier, and wouldn't mind a follow up on other strong-willed women on different periods of history.

Thank you to Netgalley and Pen & Sword History for the digital ebook in exchange for my honest review.

I had really high hopes for this book, and really appreciated the way the story was told, giving multiples accounts from many sources and explaining why some of these accounts could be less truthful than others.

I learned many things about the time of the Tudors that I did not know, which makes this a success as a biography. Especially given that I consume more Tudor media than the average reader. Many of the women who have been selected to discuss are figures I’ve never heard of before.

Names repeat so frequently that family trees and timelines should be included. And portraits would be nice. Often these types of biographies include important images.

These are well-written summaries of each woman’s biography. Each of them, trailblazers for their time and historically significant, but I don’t see a strong argument for what makes them feminist icons. They each did what was best for themselves and their children, but did not seem to consider women as a whole, most especially women of the lower classes. Very little time is dedicated to any discussion about feminism or how exactly that would look in Tudor-era, except to say that it would look vastly different from what it is to us today.

Anne Boleyn’s treatment of Catherine of Aragon and her daughter Princess Mary, having them stripped of their titles, which is written about in the biography, and especially in Catherine Parr’s treatment of Princess Elizabeth, allowing and even allegedly partaking in sexual abuse with her husband, Thomas Seymour, do not lend themselves to a feminist revision of history. I don’t see a strong argument for solidarity. Maybe even the opposite. Personal elevation at any cost, including throwing other women on the chopping block.

These things tainted my reading. There is no evidence to support the thesis.

The title is click-bait. A better one would be “Important Women in the Tudor Dynasty.” See how that one doesn’t tell a lie?

There are still many typing mistakes that need to be corrected, but as I already said, this is a very well-told and unbiased biography. It’s just not about feminists.

I recommend it for those fond of Tudor history, or anyone interested in the followed Renaissance women.

Margaret Beaufort, mother of Henry VII
Margaret Pole, niece of Richard III executed for treason
Katherine of Aragon, first wife of Henry VIII
Anne Boleyn, second first of Henry VIII
Catherine Parr, final wife of Henry VIII
Anne Askew, a heretic burned at the stake (the heresy was Protestantism)
Bess of Hardwick, gained enormous wealth from her marriages
Gráinne O’Malley, a pirate
Aemilia Lanier, Shakespeare’s muse
Arabella Stuart, cousin of James I and implicated in a plot to overthrow him

I should know better than to try to read anything published by Pen and Sword - I am beginning to think it's a vanity press. Two mistakes in the first four pages turned me right off, the worst one being the confusing on page 32 of Margaret Beaufort (ostensible subject of the chapter) and Margaret Plantagenet daughter of George Duke of Clarence). Does anybody read these before publishing them?? I would be just watching for flaws from here on, which is a bad way to read a book, so I really can't go on, especially given the occasional sentence that wanders along forgetting what it was talking about. (The first mistake was "Joan" Swynford on page 28, it was Katherine.) Thanks to Net Galley for getting me a copy of this to read, sorry I can't say anything better about it. I promise I won't ask for any more.

Overall I thought this book was a nice, easy to read introduction to Tudor women. I think that for a lot of people who haven’t studied history, women are seen as a monolith consisting of mothers and housewives with little outside of that - this book shows definitely that this is not the case, that women played an important role in society and politics. It’s informative without being overwhelming, and covers the entire Tudor period rather than just the ‘popular’ parts.
Something I particularly enjoyed was how the author evaluated the reliability of sources and why we may not be able to trust what certain people say. The author doesn’t pretend to know exactly what happened, which I greatly appreciated.

One thing I think would greatly improve this book is the addition of some family trees - it can be hard to keep track of who is who, especially since almost everyone at the time had the same handful of names. I came to this book having previously studied Tudor history, and I think without this previous knowledge I might have got a little lost. I think having a visual to reference back to when reading would be very helpful.
My only other concern is the label of feminists. The definition of feminism is quite fluid over time and hard to pin down exactly, and certain parts of this book didn’t align with my understanding of feminism. I think the subtitle is a much more apt description, as I wanted more time devoted to what would qualify these women as feminists specifically. For example, in the chapter on Katherine of Aragon I would have appreciated a stronger focus on her regency and defeat of the Scottish invasion attempt and less on her fertility struggles. It almost felt like Katherine’s role as a mother was given more weight than her role as a leader. Perhaps a conclusion style chapter in the same vein as the introduction could help to reinforce the theme of feminism. The last few lines in particular I really liked, and it would be nice to have more of a reflection on the entire cast at the end to really seal the deal.

To conclude, a nice accessible book that highlights the forgotten aspects of history and a great introduction to critical thinking regarding the reliability of sources. With a few tweaks it could be hitting four or five stars.

Rebecca Wilson's "Tudor Feminists" offers an enlightening and meticulously researched exploration of ten extraordinary women from the Tudor period who defied societal norms and challenged the male-dominated landscape of their time. While the term 'feminist' might be anachronistic for their era, Wilson compellingly argues for viewing these women through a feminist lens, particularly highlighting figures like Anne Boleyn and Catherine Parr.

Each chapter of this book is a captivating journey into the life of a remarkable Tudor woman, ranging from high-born individuals to those from the merchant class. Wilson delves into their achievements, showcasing their defiance against patriarchal norms and their impactful contributions to a world that often constrained women to domestic roles.

Through vivid narratives, Wilson intricately weaves together the circumstances and backgrounds of these women, providing a contextual understanding of their lives. She skillfully examines their legacies, emphasizing how they challenged societal constraints, shattered expectations, and made significant strides in a time when women's agency was severely limited.

Wilson's meticulous attention to historical detail and her ability to paint a vivid picture of these trailblazing women make "Tudor Feminists" a compelling and illuminating read. By placing these Renaissance women in their historical context, the book not only celebrates their achievements but also underscores their enduring impact on challenging gender norms.

For history enthusiasts, feminists, and anyone intrigued by the lives of extraordinary women, "Tudor Feminists" serves as an engaging and insightful exploration, shedding light on the indomitable spirit of these remarkable individuals who stood against the constraints of their time. Rebecca Wilson's narrative is both informative and inspiring, providing a valuable addition to the understanding of women's roles and contributions in Tudor society.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for a copy of this earc. I love learning more about these amazing women. I loved this book so much and found it so fascinating.

Despite the fact that, since Wilson is covering ten women's lives, there isn't time for a full biography on any of them, she still manages to give a detailed and deep description of each woman's life and how each of these amazing women of the Tudor era responded to her own specific circumstances and how each made an impact on the dynasty. From Margaret Beaufort single-handedly starting the Tudor dynasty to Grace O’Malley refusal to back down even to queens, and more, we get a fascinating look at women who made the era.

‘Women were controlled from cradle to grave.’

What can I say about this fabulous book? It was a delight! Very inspiring and every Tudor feminist mentioned in this book was interesting and likeable.

Rebecca has done an excellent job, lots of research and written a damn good book!

We learn about:

* Margaret Beaufort
* Anne Boleyn
* Katherine Of Aragon
* Catherine Parr
* Grainne O’Malley
* Margaret Pole
* Anne Askew
* Ameilia Lanier
* Arbella Stuart
* Bess Of Hardwick

Learning about each of these women was just (chefs kiss)

‘The women in this book have been remembered because they were rule breakers and fought consciously, or noted against the rigid social norms of their day.’

I hope Rebecca writes more books in the future :)

The PERFECT read for any Tudor, History and Feminist lover.

I absolutely love history and what strikes me the most was the history if England. Men are often mentioned in history books and rarely women. Which is why I certainly loved reading this book. It gives a profound and detailed background on each women in history that were too ahead of their time. Not only that but also the past of England that may have affected the thoughts and actions of these women.

Great research done here by Wilson. Meticulous and thorough but conveyed in a way where the reader becomes instantly intrigued and completely enlightened afterwards. If you're a fan of women's history - take notes with this one!

Thank you Netgalley and Pen & Sword for the ARC!