A British historian describes the soap opera-worthy story of the ruling family of England's double-crossing, treachery, ruthlessness, feuding and warring in the late 15th to early 17th century and the legacies left by Henry VIII and Elizabeth I.

On the morning of August 22, 1485, in fields near Bosworth, two armies faced each other. Richard III's army was pitted against the inferior forces of the upstart pretender to the crown, Henry Tudor, a 28-year-old Welshman who had just arrived back on British soil after fourteen years in exile. Yet this was to be a fight to the death--only one man could survive; only one could claim the throne. This legendary battle marked the only successful invasion of England since Hastings, and the last time a king of England died on the battlefield. But this book is much more than an account of the events of that fateful day. It is a tale of brutal feuds and deadly civil wars, and the remarkable rise of the Tudor family from obscure Welsh gentry to the throne of England--a story that began sixty years earlier with Owen Tudor's affair with Henry V's widow, Katherine of Valois. Drawing on newly discovered manuscripts and the latest archaeological evidence, including the recent discovery of Richard III's remains, Chris Skidmore vividly recreates this battle-scarred world.--From publisher description.