The men and women who found themselves responsible for Tudor princes and princesses were chosen for a variety of reasons and came from different backgrounds. The outcome of their labour was almost as varied. These are the stories of the men and women who moulded the Tudors and what happened to them in the throne's shadow. Amongst their number were gentlewomen, veterans of the Wars of the Roses, a Plantagenet princess, Welsh speakers, royal uncles and the children of convicted traitors. For some, there were rewards, pensions and preferment. For others, there was only disaster. For those who sought power themselves, including Edward VI's guardians Edward Seymour and John Dudley, the executioner's axe awaited. Jasper Tudor protected his nephew Henry Tudor during thirteen difficult years in exile, fulfilling the role of bodyguard, secret agent and adviser. Lady Margaret Beaufort advised on the birth, education and marriages of her grandchildren. Princes and princesses were reared from infancy by women whom the ruling monarch could trust. Mother Jak and Sybil Penn became surrogate mothers. Governesses, including Margaret Countess of Salisbury and Lady Margaret Bryan, were loyal, kind and protective. Others, like Anne Shelton, were appointed to make the lives of their royal charge a misery. It was left to Katherine Parr, a strongminded intelligent woman, to exercise her right as Henry VIII's queen to take a close personal interest in the education of her step-children. Faced with dysfunctional families and turbulent times, governors and governesses faced imprisonment, execution or ruin on behalf of their royal charges. But the rewards were worth the risk. AUTHOR: Julia is a historian, teacher and writer who posts at thehistoryjar.com. She is the author of four previous medieval and Tudor history books, including one about Robert Dudley, the little-known son of Elizabeth I's favourite, the Earl of Leicester. She's been passionate about history for as long as she can remember and is also an enthusiastic local and family historian. She has written grisly tales about border reivers and Carlisle's gallows and has recently completed a short history of Derbyshire. 40 b/w illustrations
