Jillianne Hamilton

You can’t spell “Tudor dynasty” without getting “nasty.”

So, you’ve watched The Tudors and you’ve read Wolf Hall, but do you know the real story of Catherine, Anne, Jane, Anne, Katheryn and Katherine? (Best name for an all-woman post-medieval law firm everrrrr.)

Love affairs, court scandal, executions—just your average Tuesday in the Tudor court. Penned by a lifelong “Henry Head,” The Lazy Historian’s Guide to the Wives of Henry VIII combines Jillianne Hamilton’s sassy, fun and snarky storytelling with one of history’s most alluring eras.

Focusing on the lives of the wives, and less about the dudes around them, The Lazy Historian’s Guide to the Wives of Henry VIII gives the six unfortunate queens the biography they almost certainly wouldn’t have asked for.