Charles Brandon: Henry VIII’s Closest Friend by Steven Gunn
(c) Amberley Publishing
19 January 2015
This academic study of Charles Brandon (grandfather of Lady Jane Grey) is a new version of Steven Gunn’s earlier biography of the closest friend of Henry VIII.
Gunn has pieced together a tremendously detailed picture of the Duke of Suffolk through evidence of the costumes he and Henry VIII wore for tournaments, the estates granted to him, income, debts, local rivalry with the Duke of Norfolk and Charles’s complex marital history.
Charles kept his friendship with Henry VIII, weathering the storms of his marriage to Henry’s sister, Mary (former Queen of France), military challenges and Henry’s divorce from Catherine of Aragon and subsequent marriages.
As an academic biography, it is not an easy read. While the level of detail is fascinating in some places, in others it makes the book very slow going. I would have liked more information about his marriage to Mary Tudor and translations of the French and Latin quotes would have been helpful.
