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A review by savage_book_review
Medical Downfall of the Tudors: Sex, Reproduction & Succession by Sylvia Barbara Soberton
informative
medium-paced
2.0
The health of the Tudor monarchs leaves a lot to be desired. From Henry VIII's stinking leg ulcers to Mary I's phantom pregnancies and Elizabeth's poisonous makeup and terrible dental hygiene, this book purports to examine each ruler's medical history and try to provide some clarity as to just what might have been the cause of the dynasty's downfall.
To start with, it seems like it's going to give you quite detailed and considered accounts of the possible medical maladies and causes of death. It feels quite focused and informative, sprinkling in enough background and 'general' history to ground you in the period. The sections on Elizabeth of York and Prince Arthur are fairly interesting, if a little over-stuffed with long quotes from primary or near-contemporary secondary sources. But, Henry VII was forgettable, and when you reach Henry VIII and start wading your way through his six wives, the wheels start to fall off. As is usual, Catherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn get a fairly in-depth examination, but thereafter the women are only given cursory glances. And by the time you get to the children, it seemed to me that the author had essentially given up on the medical viewpoint and was just providing a brief potted history of the Tudors. Mary I did get a little more than the other two, but it felt half-hearted at best.
The best example I can give is that, when discussing Elizabeth of York and Catherine of Aragon, the author takes the time (more than once), to define the difference between a miscarriage and a stillbirth, and seems to get very frustrated with historians who use the wrong term to describe the various losses. This sets you up with the belief that the author is going to be quite specific in her descriptions and medically minded. But by the time we get to Mary I, she's content to talk about her depression as 'mental instability' and her phantom pregnancies in such a way that actually feels quite dismissive. It may be my personal experiences that are shaping my viewpoint, but it does come across as being written by someone who doesn't equate physical and mental illness.
I absolutely appreciate that it's impossible to come up with accurate diagnoses 400 years plus after the events, but I wouldn't say there's anything original or even originally insightful in here. The refrain of 'historians say...' followed by a general consensus of the medical issue that affected a particular monarch is littered throughout the text and, the first few times, I was expecting the narrative to follow that thought and examine why they might be right vs why they might be wrong, and what other options there might be. But the majority of the time it boils down to the author going 'yup, what everyone else thinks sounds about right to me!'.
Speaking of refrains, the sheer volume of repeated phrases, descriptions, quotes etc is bordering on the ridiculous. Yes, Eustace Chapuys is the Imperial Ambassador. I got that the first hundred times you told me! And I'm not just talking a couple of words - there are a few cases where almost whole paragraphs are repeated, if not word for word then closely enough, and even basic facts, like Anne Boleyn being executed, are inserted each time as if this is new information. Because of this, the book didn't 'read' like a tight, cohesive narrative - it read more like a series of journal articles that have been collated. I suspect if you were to narrow your focus to one ruler, and only read that section, you'd find it a far more insightful read.
Unfortunately, the narrator didn't help with this. Going back to our Imperial Ambassador (sorry to keep picking on you Eustace!), it felt like every time he was mentioned in the text, the narrator was taking a deep breath and saying to herself 'it's OK, we've practiced this, we know how to pronounce the name!'. So, the pronunciation feels forced and is said with exactly the same tone every time. Likewise, when the quotes from older sources are so long, it very quickly becomes easy to get lost as to what is a quote and what is this author's work. The whole thing just felt stilted. It's not that the narrator droned on or had an awful voice, but there was just something about the pacing that was off for me.
I'm glad I got to this while it was still on the Audible Plus catalogue, as I think I would have begrudged using a credit. There are definitely better considerations of the medical conditions of the Tudors out there, even within 'general' books about the period.
To start with, it seems like it's going to give you quite detailed and considered accounts of the possible medical maladies and causes of death. It feels quite focused and informative, sprinkling in enough background and 'general' history to ground you in the period. The sections on Elizabeth of York and Prince Arthur are fairly interesting, if a little over-stuffed with long quotes from primary or near-contemporary secondary sources. But, Henry VII was forgettable, and when you reach Henry VIII and start wading your way through his six wives, the wheels start to fall off. As is usual, Catherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn get a fairly in-depth examination, but thereafter the women are only given cursory glances. And by the time you get to the children, it seemed to me that the author had essentially given up on the medical viewpoint and was just providing a brief potted history of the Tudors. Mary I did get a little more than the other two, but it felt half-hearted at best.
The best example I can give is that, when discussing Elizabeth of York and Catherine of Aragon, the author takes the time (more than once), to define the difference between a miscarriage and a stillbirth, and seems to get very frustrated with historians who use the wrong term to describe the various losses. This sets you up with the belief that the author is going to be quite specific in her descriptions and medically minded. But by the time we get to Mary I, she's content to talk about her depression as 'mental instability' and her phantom pregnancies in such a way that actually feels quite dismissive. It may be my personal experiences that are shaping my viewpoint, but it does come across as being written by someone who doesn't equate physical and mental illness.
I absolutely appreciate that it's impossible to come up with accurate diagnoses 400 years plus after the events, but I wouldn't say there's anything original or even originally insightful in here. The refrain of 'historians say...' followed by a general consensus of the medical issue that affected a particular monarch is littered throughout the text and, the first few times, I was expecting the narrative to follow that thought and examine why they might be right vs why they might be wrong, and what other options there might be. But the majority of the time it boils down to the author going 'yup, what everyone else thinks sounds about right to me!'.
Speaking of refrains, the sheer volume of repeated phrases, descriptions, quotes etc is bordering on the ridiculous. Yes, Eustace Chapuys is the Imperial Ambassador. I got that the first hundred times you told me! And I'm not just talking a couple of words - there are a few cases where almost whole paragraphs are repeated, if not word for word then closely enough, and even basic facts, like Anne Boleyn being executed, are inserted each time as if this is new information. Because of this, the book didn't 'read' like a tight, cohesive narrative - it read more like a series of journal articles that have been collated. I suspect if you were to narrow your focus to one ruler, and only read that section, you'd find it a far more insightful read.
Unfortunately, the narrator didn't help with this. Going back to our Imperial Ambassador (sorry to keep picking on you Eustace!), it felt like every time he was mentioned in the text, the narrator was taking a deep breath and saying to herself 'it's OK, we've practiced this, we know how to pronounce the name!'. So, the pronunciation feels forced and is said with exactly the same tone every time. Likewise, when the quotes from older sources are so long, it very quickly becomes easy to get lost as to what is a quote and what is this author's work. The whole thing just felt stilted. It's not that the narrator droned on or had an awful voice, but there was just something about the pacing that was off for me.
I'm glad I got to this while it was still on the Audible Plus catalogue, as I think I would have begrudged using a credit. There are definitely better considerations of the medical conditions of the Tudors out there, even within 'general' books about the period.