A personal rather than political history examining the origins of the family and interweaving the lives of the five Tudor monarchs with lesser-known branches of the tree The Tudors ruled England for little more than a century, but no other dynasty has so impressed itself on the popular consciousness. This history examines the origins of this astonishing family that appeared out of nowhere in 1485, blazed briefly, and then vanished, leaving a slowly fading trail of glory behind it. The astute statesmanship of the first Henry Tudor, the enterprising marital career of the second and the tragedy of the son he labored so murderously to get, the unhappy reign of Mary, and finally the flowering of Elizabeth in whom the family genius reached its apotheosis, all find their place in this chronicle of five turbulent, passionate, tragic, and prodigious generations of Tudors.