Originally published in hardcover in the U.S. by Delacorte Press in 2010.

Includes A reader's guide.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [579]-594) and index.

Family tree -- A Tudor timeline -- August 22, 1485: the Battle of Bosworth, an exile returns -- An Excess of Good Fortune: 1485-1532 -- The luck of Henry Tudor: the king who had (almost) everything -- The King's great matter: his pursuit of an annulment and of Anne Boleyn -- Frustration and embarrassment: Queen Catherine resists, and finds support -- Radical departures: moving the line between church and state -- Another way devised: a policy of winning by intimidation and terror -- A revolution in the making: Henry raises the stakes -- A thunderbolt falls: the royal ultimatum -- Submission: the archbishop of Canterbury surrenders -- Consummation: the king beds, then weds, Anne Boleyn -- Monster: 1533-1547 -- First blood: the destruction of the nun of Kent -- Supremacy: Parliament acknowledges the king's new powers -- "We will all die" : destruction of the charterhouse monks, and of John Fisher-- "Preserve my friends from such favors" : trial and execution of Thomas More; the monastic visits -- All but Godlike: Anne Boleyn is replaced; the smaller monasteries destroyed -- Rebellion and betrayal: explosion, the pilgrimage of Grace; King Henry gets his son --The last of Henry: three more wives, money trouble, a final torrent of killings -- A King too Soon and a Queen too Late: 1547-1558 -- A new beginning: evangelicals triumph; Edward Seymour assumes command -- England's second reformation: Henry VIII's church dismantled; the fall of Seymour -- A revolution and a coup: the rise of John Dudley, the death of Edward VI, the brief reign of Jane Grey -- Another new beginning: Mary I and the restoration of the old religion -- And another early end: dreams turn to dust -- Survivor: 1558-1603 -- Yet another new beginning: the return to Protestantism -- The succession, again: Robert Dudley and the hope for an heir -- A torrent of miseries: religion, the succession, and Mary, Queen of Scots -- Actions, reactions, provocations: trouble in France, trouble with Spain; rebellion in the Netherlands -- A horrific tangle and war at last: years of meddling produce war in the Netherlands -- The last favorite: the rise of Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex -- A seat at the table: the rivalry of Essex and Robert Cecil -- The last act: the fall of Essex; the dismal final decade of the Tudor Age.