Private Lives of the Tudors (Borman) - Discussion Questions

Discussion Questions
We'll add publisher questions if and when they're available; in the meantime, use our LitLovers talking points to help start a discussion for The Private Lives of the Tudors...then take off on your own:

1. What surprised you most about Tracy Borman's personal history of the Tudor royalty? What did you find, well..."over the top" in terms of self-indulgence? How coddled were the Tudors in terms of their personal habits? After reading her book, does medieval royalty seem  particularly romantic or attractive as perhaps you once thought?

2. Borman's title is titillating: uncovering secrets heretofore unknown (or revealed). Does the book live up to its tempting title? Or is the focus of the book something else entirely?

3. Talk about the 15th and 16th century concept of privacy, especially in terms of the royal families. How different was their idea of privacy from today's?

4. Follow-up to Question 3: Talk about how the primary duty of royalty—which was to produce an heir—affected the sense of privacy. What does Borman mean when she writes, "The art of majesty was as evident behind closed doors as it was in public"?

5. Discuss Borman's descriptions of the era's medications and medical treatments. Funny? Horrifying? Positively "medieval"?

6. Borman writes, "for a person of royal blood, private desires could have deadly outcomes." Consider, then, the dire consequences of Lord Seymour's indiscretions with young Princess Elizabeth.

7. Would you have wanted to live in the Tudor era considering its level of sanitation, disease, and bodily odors?

(Questions issued by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)

top of page (summary)