From the Book - Bantam books Trade paperback ed.
Prologue : August 22, 1485 : the Battle of Bosworth, an exile returns
Part 1. An excess of good fortune : 1485-1532
The luck of Henry Tudor : the king who had (almost) everything
The King's great matter : his pursuit of an annulment and of Anne Boleyn
Frustration and embarrassment : Queen Catherine resists, and finds support
Radical departures : moving the line between church and state
Another way devised : a policy of winning by intimidation and terror
A revolution in the making : Henry raises the stakes
A thunderbolt falls : the royal ultimatum
Submission : the archbishop of Canterbury surrenders
Consummation : the king beds, then weds, Anne Boleyn
Part 2. Monster : 1533-1547
First blood : the destruction of the nun of Kent
Supremacy : Parliament acknowledges the king's new powers
"We will all die" : destruction of the charterhouse monks, and of John Fisher
"Preserve my friends from such favors" : trial and execution of Thomas More ; the monastic visits
All but Godlike : Anne Boleyn is replaced; the smaller monasteries destroyed
Rebellion and betrayal : explosion, the pilgrimage of Grace ; King Henry gets his son
The last of Henry : three more wives, money trouble, a final torrent of killings
Part 3. A king too soon and a queen too late : 1547-1558
A new beginning : evangelicals triumph ; Edward Seymour assumes command
England's second reformation : Henry VIII's church dismantled ; the fall of Seymour
A revolution and a coup : the rise of John Dudley, the death of Edward VI, the brief reign of Jane Grey
Another new beginning : Mary I and the restoration of the old religion
And another early end : dreams turn to dust
Part 4. Survivor : 1558-1603
Yet another new beginning : the return to Protestantism
The succession, again : Robert Dudley and the hope for an heir
A torrent of miseries : religion, the succession, and Mary, Queen of Scots
Actions, reactions, provocations : trouble in France, trouble with Spain; rebellion in the Netherlands
A horrific tangle and war at last : years of meddling produce war in the Netherlands
The last favorite : the rise of Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex
A seat at the table : the rivalry of Essex and Robert Cecil
The last act : the fall of Essex; the dismal final decade of the Tudor Age.