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Royalty

Members of royal families lived exalted and privileged lives, yet this came at huge personal cost for many. For daughters, the likelihood of being married in your teens and sent to a foreign land to a husband you had never met, was high. For younger brothers, every step you took was watched with suspicion, and for monarchs, any slip could mean deposition and death.

It was hard to know who was really your friend, and who was just looking for a chance to advance his family by hoodwinking you. Some royal couples were lucky, and formed close personal relationships – Charles V and his Empress, Isabella of Portugal, for example. Others were not so lucky – James III and Margaret of Denmark and Francis I and Eleanor of Austria were miserable together.

Fertility was the bedrock of a royal consort's duty, and woe betide the wife who failed to bear sons. A gilded cage, indeed!

Browse all people: A to Z
 Anne of Brittany

Anne of Brittany

 Anne of Cleves

Anne of Cleves

 Arthur, Prince of Wales

Arthur, Prince of Wales

Anne Boleyn

Anne Boleyn (Queen of England)

 Claude de Valois

Claude de Valois, Queen of France

 Edward VI

Edward VI

Elizabeth I

Elizabeth I

 Elizabeth of York

Elizabeth of York

 Henry VII

Henry VII

Henry VIII

Henry VIII

 Henry

Henry, Duke of Cornwall

Katheryn Howard

Katheryn Howard (Queen of England)

 Isabella of Castile

Isabella of Castile

 James IV

James IV

 James V

James V

James VI & I

James VI & I

 Katharine of Aragon

Katharine of Aragon

 Margaret, Queen of Scots

Margaret, Queen of Scots

 Marguerite  of Austria

Marguerite of Austria

Marie of Guise

Marie of Guise

 Mary

Mary I

 Mary, Queen of France

Mary, Queen of France

Mary, Queen of Scots

Mary, Queen of Scots

 Katherine Parr

Katherine Parr (Queen of England)

 Jane Seymour

Jane Seymour (Queen of England)

 Elizabeth Woodville (Wydeville)

Elizabeth Woodville (Wydeville) (Queen of England)

Articles in this section

  • A Royal Scandal
  • James I and Witchcraft
  • The Conversion of Henri IV of France
  • The Life and Historical Reputation of Mary Tudor
  • The Private Lives of the Tudors
  • The Unique Career of Marguerite de Valois, Queen of Navarre
  • Margaret Tudor and the Battle of Flodden
  • Game of Queens
  • From Gloom to Doom
  • Isabella of Castile: A Role Model for Tudor Queens
  • Following the Tudors in Exile
  • A Day in the Life of Elizabeth of York
  • Anne Boleyn in France
  • Charles I – from a prince of Scotland to Prince of Wales
  • Elizabeth Tudor and Mary Stuart
  • Against Your Own Blood
  • Elizabeth I and the Wars of the Three Kingdoms
  • Jane Grey and Mary Tudor
  • The Husbands of Margaret Beaufort
  • The Marriages of Mary Tudor
  • The Royal Name Game
  • Why did Jane Seymour Die in Childbed?
  • Mary Queen of Scots: A Film Review
  • Did Anna of Kleve bear a child after her divorce?
  • The Amazing Story of the Anne of Cleves Heraldic Panels
  • Why didn’t Katheryn Howard learn a lesson from Anne Boleyn’s fall?
  • Hostage to Fortune: Katharine Parr and the Pilgrimage of Grace
  • Lessons in Queenship
  • Elizabeth and Essex: the Deadly Game of Courtly Love
  • Pictures and Patterns of a Merciless Prince
  • Tudor Royal Propaganda
  • The Iconography of Mary I, England's First Crowned Queen Regnant
  • The Influence of Henry VIII's Wives on Tudor Fashion Ideals
  • 'Katherine of Aragon: The True Queen'
  • The King's Pearl: Henry VIII and his daughter Mary
  • Sibling Rivalry?
  • Cousins, Servants, Friends
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