Derek Wilson: 34 books
A Brief History of Henry VIII
King, Reformer and Tyrant
Language: English
Release Date: February 7, 2013
Henry VIII changed the course of English life more completely than any monarch since the Conquest. In the portraits of Holbein, Henry Tudor stands proud as one of the most powerful figures in renaissance Europe. But is the portrait just a bluff?
In his new book Derek Wilson explores the myths...
by Derek Wilson
Language: English
Release Date: June 21, 2012
Language: English
Release Date: June 21, 2012
Religion, politics and fear: how England was transformed by the Tudors.
The English Reformation was a unique turning point in English history. Derek Wilson retells the story of how the Tudor monarchs transformed English religion and why it still matters today. Recent scholarly research has...
In the Lion's Court
Power, Ambition, and Sudden Death in the Reign of Henry VIII
Language: English
Release Date: December 2, 2014
The story of Henry VIII and his six wives is a well-known example of the caprice and violence that dominated that king's reign. Now Derek Wilson examines a set of relationships that more vividly illustrate just how dangerous life was in the court of the Tudor lion. He tells the interlocking stories...
Out of the Storm
The Life and Legacy of Martin Luther
Language: English
Release Date: January 8, 2008
"Scores highly in thoroughness, clarity, and human sympathy. If you want a model of how to defy uncomprehending power . . . or a model of how to laugh at the Devil, Wilson has provided a reliable guide as to how Luther did it."
---Sunday Telegraph (UK)
Martin Luther changed...
The King and the Gentleman
Charles Stuart and Oliver Cromwell, 1599-1649
Language: English
Release Date: July 22, 2014
For all the myth surrounding Oliver Cromwell and King Charles I, there is no detailed account of any meeting between them. Yet they were almost exact contemporaries, embodying virtually everything for which politicians, bishops, preachers and generals contended. The paths of these two men gradually...
Calamities & Catastrophes
The Ten Absolutely Worst Years in History
Language: English
Release Date: December 4, 2012
They say that history is written by the winners. Not according to Derek Wilson.
In this fascinating, revelatory book, Wilson tells the story from the point of view of the losers – collating a catalogue of calamities and catastrophes that have shaped our world more than historians tend to...
by Derek Wilson
Language: English
Release Date: December 18, 2007
Language: English
Release Date: December 18, 2007
An incisive and absorbing biography of the legendary emperor who bridged ancient and modern Europe and singlehandedly altered the course of Western history.
Charlemagne was an extraordinary figure: an ingenious military strategist, a wise but ruthless leader, a cunning politician, and a devout...
The Plantagenets
The Kings That Made Britain
Language: English
Release Date: January 2, 2014
England, 1154. As Henry II seizes the throne after years of turmoil, a new dynasty is poised to haul this hitherto turbulent nation out from the Dark Ages and transform it into the nation state we recognize today. Featuring some of England's greatest but also most notorious kings, the house of Plantagenet...
by Derek Wilson
Language: English
Release Date: January 5, 2010
Language: English
Release Date: January 5, 2010
There has never been a more remarkable national leader in modern history than Peter the Great (1672–1725). He was a giant in every way. In physical stature, willpower, enthusiasm, energy, libertinism, and refusal to accept old conventions, he stood head and shoulders above his contemporaries. He...
Mrs Luther and her sisters
Women in the Reformation
Language: English
Release Date: March 19, 2016
It is a frequent complaint that women have been airbrushed out of history, their contributions forgotten, their voices silenced. In this superbly written book, historian Derek Wilson redresses the balance, showing how women were crucial to the Reformation. Working alongside men - and sometimes in...
Sir Francis Walsingham
Courtier in an Age of Terror
Language: English
Release Date: July 25, 2013
During the brief reign of the Queen Mary, Walsingham was a Protestant exile in Italy. Returning home when Elizabeth assumed the throne, from 1570 he became a diplomat to the arch-pragmatist Queen. He was often troubled by her inconsistent policy decisions and for allowing the exile in England of Mary...
Elizabethan Society
High and Low Life, 1558-1603
Language: English
Release Date: May 15, 2014
The reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558-1603) marked a golden age in English history. There was a musical and literary renaissance, most famously and enduringly in the form of the plays of Shakespeare (2016 marks the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death), and it was a period of international expansion...
The Queen and the Heretic
How two women changed the religion of England
Language: English
Release Date: February 16, 2018
The dual biography of two remarkable women - Catherine Parr and Anne Askew. One was the last queen of a powerful monarch, the second a countrywoman from Lincolnshire. But they were joined together in their love for the new learning - and their adherence to Protestantism threatened both their lives....
The People's Bible
The Remarkable History of the King James Version
Language: English
Release Date: October 21, 2011
This is the story of one of the most influential, provocative, ambitious projects of its day: translating the Bible into English, the language of the people. In 1604 the new King James I convened a meeting at Hampton Court to address the problem of the Puritans. The recommendation was for the authorization...