So Great a Prince: An Accession of Henry VIII: 1509

Johnson (Arrows of Sherwood) makes her nonfiction debut with an excellent, immersive description of 1509, the first year of Henry VIII's kingship. This work is organized by religious holidays, beginning with Lady Day or March 25, the first day of the calendar year for the king and his contemporaries. Thematic chapters discuss events and activities relevant to a particular religious holiday of the time, including working the land to prepare for Lammas Day, and feasting and reveling during Christmastime. Johnson treads new territory by placing more emphasis on nonroyals than on the lives of Henry VIII and his court. The author is restricted here, as she notes herself, to histories of people capable of reading and writing during that era along with those whose writings have survived. Within these boundaries, Johnson draws conclusions about the lives less documented.