Secrets of the Tudor Court: By Royal Decree [Paperback]

The further I get into this series, the more I enjoy it! I wasn't all that in love with the first book, 'Pleasure Palace', but I really enjoyed the second, 'Between Two Queens'. This book I enjoyed even more! I flew through it in just a couple days and hated having to put it down. There are SO many books out about the Tudor Court and the influential people that populated it, and some of them are great, while many are just historical gossip mags dressed up as Historical Fiction. Ms. Emerson does a great job though of bringing her characters (who were very real people) back to life and making you feel for them.

I've come across Elizabeth Brook's name before, but just as a quick mention. She's certainly not anyone who stands out from the Tudor period, and most authors just pass right over her, if she's even mentioned at all. Ms. Emerson though shows us what an interesting life Bess Brook lead, and that it was possible for true love to overcome in Tudor England...a place where gentle-born women must marry the men their fathers choose for them. Bess refused to do that and her and William Parr overcame so many obstacles to be together. Even when Queen Mary Tudor pulled them apart, they managed to make it through her reign to the ascension of Elizabeth I, who allowed them to be together as they should.

I was so disappointed when this book ended. I was hoping for it to just keep going. I wanted to read about Will and Bess during Elizabeth's reign, but I guess once she took the throne they lived a pretty nondescript life at court. Bess only lived another 7 years after the end of the book, succumbing to breast cancer, but I would have loved to read about her final years with Will. I see that she became an extremely close confidante of Elizabeth I, and the Queen was said to be devastated when she died.

Overall, I ABSOLUTELY recommend this book. I recommend the previous two as well, but just know that you do NOT have to read those books to understand what's going on in this one. While all these books are technically in the same series, they all can stand alone and be read out of order. I just loved this book, and now I can't WAIT for book 4...'At The King's Pleasure'!

This was not a bad book, it just left me with a bland feeling when I closed the cover. The novel chronicles the life of Elizabeth "Bess" Brooke, a young woman brought to the court of Henry VIII, who was in the market for a new wife after Katherine Howard's execution. Fortunately for Bess, she was not chosen as the sixth wife. She did, however, catch the eye of nobleman, William Parr, brother to Katheryn Parr, who was chosen as the new Queen. The romance between Will and Bess was not without its share of obstacles, and while I think their story propelling enough to be novelized, I never connected with Bess or Will in a way that made me truly care about them or their fate.

I would like to point out that unlike any other historical fiction Tudor book I've read, this novel offered a very sympathetic view of the Dudley family. The Dudleys play a prominent part in the life of Bess Brooke. When I think of John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, I immediately think of a cold, selfish man whose actions caused or hastened the death of several other people. Other books paint Northumberland as a "murderer" who poisoned young King Edward VI, as well as being the main instigator in the execution of the Duke of Somerset, Edward Seymour, King Edward's former Lord Protector. He is also often credited for being the "mastermind" of marrying his son to Lady Jane Grey and championing her as the successor to the throne at King Edward's death. In this book "Bess" was actually the one that suggested the marriage between Dudley's son and Lady Jane and that despite rumors, John Dudley had not poisoned King Edward. This novel sheds a very different view on the Dudleys, particularly Northumberland, however, it just didn't feel authentic to me.

I've read the first two books in the series and if my memory serves me, they were okay but forgettable. I'd say the same for this one.

Fresh onto book shelf's everywhere "By Royal Decree" is the third installment in Emerson's series "The Secrets of the Tudor Court". I love this series it is one of the few that I stand firmly by and continue to be awe stuck by each and every book. My favorite aspect of the series is they all focus on all the side playing courtiers. In Tudor times the courtiers would rise as fast as they would fall and Emerson seems to focus on all the people I have been curious about but never had the option to explore more until now. Emerson changes the view of the Tudors making it fresh and new all over again because it is always from a point of view I never saw before.

Elizabeth Brooke also known as Bess grew up in a large family in a nice castle her father was Lord George Brooke, 9th Baron Cobham of Kent. He served under King Henry VIII and Henry was fresh back on the market for a new queen. Henry called upon all the nobility to send their pretty eligible women to court to have a banquet with him. Basically Henry wanted it easy and he rounded up all the pretty girls of town and made them eat dinner with him. Henry scoured the women for his sixth and final wife. Bess had been brought to court just for the banquet and she narrowly dodged Henry and her curiosity got the better of her and she stumbled upon her hating nasty aunt Dorothy making out with an abruptly handsome man. The handsome man would turn out to be not just any man but Lord William Parr. His sister would become lucky number six for King Henry which would put the family name Parr in high favor. I have to admit that I always have been curious about the brother of the famous final wife of Henry's. I now understand that with William and the constant shifting of England current religious grounds he was forced into constantly being judged and re-judged again depending on who reigned as the current monarch. It is no easy task getting and holding a royal decree because it can be over turned just as easily as it was given.

Before Bess came into the picture William Parr was married at a young age and spent one night with his wife before returning to court. Shortly after that his wife ran off with a man of the church and had a whole hoard of illegitimate brats. William was allowed by Henry VIII to keep his wife's title and was technically divorced. The catch with the decree was that he was not allowed to remarry until his first wife died. This would officially put the handsome William Parr completely off limits to the beautiful fresh to court Bess. But how can we tell the heart who it loves? Bess asked the same question and try as she might she could not replace him with one of the Dudley boys. Bess knew she needed real love, passionate love, the kind of love that only William Parr could give her in this life. The only problem in their way was that everyone around them kept on dying and nothing in England in the 16th century stayed the same for too long. The petition to win the Royal Decree would work with Henry but what did the future hold with a boy king and more turbulent times ahead?

4.5/5 Another beautifully written Tudor secret love that before I never even knew existed. It was everything I could have hoped it to be and more. This one was unique from the previous novel because it went past Henry VIII into Edward, Jane Grey, Mary and Elizabeth. The series had never done that before and I felt it was a natural progression in the series. Some of you might know I love Robert Dudley he is one of my favorites and this book is filled with the Dudley's. It really opened my eyes to their lives and their family situation. I enjoyed that this book focused more on the older brothers that were infatuated with Bess. I cannot wait for the next one on the Duke of Buckingham sister titled "At The Kings Pleasure" which is slated for release in 2012

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