Tombland by C.J. Sansom

Tombland by C.J. Sansom   866 p.

Henry VIII’s eleven-year-old son Edward VI now rules England (well, his uncle the Duke of Somerset actually rules). Intrepid lawyer Matthew Shardlake is feeling his age and his physical disability more and more, but when Lady Elizabeth (later to become Queen Elizabeth I) requests his help in exonerating her distant Boleyn relative of murder, he knows he must treat it as a royal demand. The stakes are already high and the intrigue thick, and then Sharklake and his trusted associates are thrown into the middle of Kett’s Rebellion, a bloody clash between peasants and aristocratic landholders. Will anyone survive? This page-turner concludes with an informative historical essay and extensive endnotes – perfect for the English history nerd.

After Elizabeth: The Rise of James of Scotland and the Struggle for the Throne of England by Leanda de Lisle

After Elizabeth by Leanda de Lisle --334 pages

This book describes the fragile state of affairs at the end of Elizabeth I's life. Unpopular by the end of her reign because of corrupt monopolies and economic downturn, Elizabeth had also refused to name an heir. In an atmosphere of religious intolerance and fears of foreign intervention, a faction of the nobility quickly invited James VI of Scotland south to reign as James I. The author details James' procession through his new kingdom and the strain it put on those who hosted his retinue. The trepidation of the English toward their new monarch foreshadows their eventual disenchantment with the Stuart dynasty.  This is an insightful book on an eventful historical period.