Secrets, Love, and Betrayal: Philippa Gregory’s Historical Tudor Novels in Reading Order

While this wasn’t the first book to be published in the series, this story takes place the earliest in history. It follows Jacquetta, the Duchess of Bedford, who brings her family to power during the War of the Roses. With a secret marriage, English court, visions, and a struggle for power, this book leads up to a woman setting up her children for the best future possible—which could be the throne.

This one picks up with Jacquetta’s daughter, Elizabeth Woodville, who secretly marries the newly crowned king and creates an uproar in the court. She’s determined to set her sons up to take their father’s seat; however, they become pawns in the game for power, and eventually become one of England’s lasting mysteries: the two princes who disappear in the Tower of London.

The third book you should read focuses on the power struggles and betrayals between warring families. Margaret Beaufort of the House of Lancaster is mother of the future king of England. She passionately believes that her son, Henry, is the rightful heir to the throne, so in a novel full of conspiracy, stone-cold ambition, and intense passion, she mounts a massive rebellion that ultimately shapes the future of England.

We jump back in time just a bit in this story, to the same time as THE WHITE QUEEN. Two daughters—Anne and Isabel—grow up at court with their incredibly powerful father, known as “The Kingmaker.” Revenge and conspiracy are everywhere as Anne has to fight to survive after being widowed at 14, and her sister is married off to an enemy.

The two princes lost in the Tower of England had a sister, and that sister is our heroine in THE WHITE PRINCESS: Elizabeth of York. Elizabeth is betrothed to Henry Tudor—which everyone hopes will unite a divided country and end the War of the Roses. But Elizabeth isn’t in love with Henry; she loves his dead enemy, leaving Henry to worry that if her missing brothers reappeared he would be overthrown—and the effects could be lasting and devastating.

Next up: The infamous Tudor court, starting with Katherine of Aragon. You may already know her as the woman wife Henry VIII divorces to marry Anne Boleyn, but before she dealt with this devastating ordeal, she was daughter of Queen Isabel and King Ferdinand of Spain, betrothed— and eventually married—to Prince Arthur of England, Henry’s older brother. Their love, and their plans for the country, are destroyed when Prince Arthur dies tragically, and she has to navigate the Tudor court: avoiding desire and loneliness, dealing with spies and poverty, and leading a military battle, all while trying to grasp at a chance to be the queen.

Here Gregory pivots slightly, and focuses on Margaret Plantagenet, a lady-in-waiting to Queen Katherine. As the strife between Henry VIII and Queen Katherine grows, Margaret must decide where her loyalties lie, how to survive the impending split, and protect her knowledge of a curse on the Tudor family.

Sisters, yet enemies: The lives of three Tudor women are intertwined in their desire for power. Katherine of Aragon and her two sisters-in-law, Margaret and Mary Tudor, are uniquely bonded in more ways than one. As they each become queens in different countries, their husbands and children die, and kings are overthrown, their relationships grow even more complicated and intense. Get ready for the betrayal, loss, and passion that only a book about sisters who become rivals could bring.

This story offers peak conspiracy, passion, and betrayal. Enter Mary Boleyn: a young teenager who captures the eye of King Henry VIII. As his affections take hold, Mary gains some power in court. However, her family has other plans, and Mary loses her love—and position—to none other than her sister, Anne. But she doesn’t want to give up on her desires so easily. Cue staying up all night to finish in one sitting . . .

Spoiler alert: Henry VIII had many, many wives, which we can only imagine (and Gregory so astutely depicts) caused some suspicions and competition at court. After Anne is killed, terror and jealousy run amok among the royal circles—particularly between three women, who each will be impacted by Henry’s choice of a fourth wife. There’s the woman who Henry intends to marry to gain a political alliance, Anne of Cleves; the intensely passionate woman he desires, Katherine Howard; and Jane Rochford, the malicious and lustful woman who ultimately sent her sister-in-law, Anne Boleyn, to death.

Next in the lineup is THE TAMING OF THE QUEEN, which takes place when Henry is moving onto wife number four. Wife number four only lasted 16 months, so when the king commands Kateryn Parr to marry him, she knows to expect danger. And danger is what she gets—as a strongly independent woman who fights for education, she is accused of heresy by her own husband.

When Henry VIII died, the stress and fractures among the court did not die with him, as we see in THE QUEEN’S FOOL. We’re up to year 1548 in this one, when a young Jewish girl who can see the future leaves Spain and arrives at the Tudor court and hired as a “holy fool” for Queen Mary. Hannah’s story of impossible love, heresy, espionage, and danger is set against the backdrop of more religious and power struggles in England—and it’s absolutely breathtaking. We love a little mysticism in our historical fiction!

We’ve entered The Elizabethan Era! While you might think it will be smooth sailing from here out since this is almost the end of the Tudors, we’re not quite there yet . . . Elizabeth inherits a completely bankrupt, treasonous country on the brink of war. Elizabeth is then advised to marry—but the one man she wants is already married. Enter a love triangle, betrayal, and death.

Henry VIII left behind a bit of a tangled mess with his multiple marriages and resulting children. His son, Edward, died at 15, and in his will left the crown to Jane Grey—a Tudor cousin—instead of his half sister Mary, the Catholic daughter of Katherine of Aragon. However, Mary claimed the throne anyway, and killed Jane. Jane had a sister, Katherine, who later becomes heir to childless Queen Elizabeth, and as such was not allowed to marry and produce a Tudor son herself. Got it so far? Good, because this is where it gets really juicy: Katherine has a secret marriage, a secret pregnancy, and is condemned. Her sister, Mary, now faces exceptional danger as the last with the family name, and a desire to defy the queen.

The final book in the series focuses on Mary, Queen of Scots—the queen who was ousted during violent rebellions and flees to the court of her cousin, Queen Elizabeth. She is imprisoned with an earl—but will not accept the fate that has been given to her. She plots and manipulates those around her, all in an effort to reclaim the Scottish throne . . . while trying to take Elizabeth’s as well.