The Tudor era belongs to its women. No other period of English history, has produced so many notable and interesting women, and into other periods have they so powerfully influenced the course of political events. Mary Tudor, Elizabeth I and, at moments of high drama, Mary Queen of Scots dominated the political scene for more than half a century, while in the previous fifty years Henry VIII's marital escapades brought six more women to the center...

This alternative history of the Renaissance as told through the emerging literature of beauty focuses on the actresses, authors and courtesans who fought the era's misogyny and explains how their efforts are still relevant today.

"From Leonie Frieda, critically acclaimed biographer of Catherine de Medici, comes The Deadly Sisterhood : an epic tale of eight women whose lives -- marked by fortune and poverty, power and powerlessness -- encompass the spectacle, opportunity, and depravity of Italy's Renaissance. Lucrezia Turnabuoni, Clarice Orsini, Beatrice d'Este, Isabella d'Este, Caterina Sforza, Giulia Farnese, Isabella d'Aragona, and Lucrezia Borgia shared the riches of their...

Spanning some of the most vibrant and fascinating eras in European history, Wilson reveals a society filled with an ardent desire for knowledge and astounding discoveries and the fantastic discoveries that flowered from it. But often this knowledge was based on folk religions with a pagan past. Even the Catholic Church had it's own "magical" traditions, and astrologists believed human affairs were controlled by the heavenly bodies. Wilson shows how...