When Royals Become Rock Stars

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While the movies and TV shows are creating a lot of splash, much of the credit for the current Tudor revival probably belongs to British historical novelist Gregory, whose book The Other Boleyn Girl is in print in 26 countries, including Japan and Russia, with more than 1 million copies sold in the U.S. Behind the popularity of Gregory's intelligent, well-researched books--including her most recent, The Boleyn Inheritance--is the author's focus on the secret histories of the women on the sidelines of the Tudor era. The Other Boleyn Girl depicts Henry's claustrophobic court from the perspective of Anne's sister Mary, who also bedded the young King but apparently wasn't charming, cunning or foolhardy enough to get him to create a new church to close the deal.

"My readers like my heroines," says Gregory. "There is something about women in a lot of danger making their own way that appeals." Which raises an interesting question: Is it the difference from their own lives or the similarity to the Tudors' situation that Gregory's fans find compelling? Though it's generally considered a period in which women were repressed, Beem--whose book The Lioness Roared focuses on female rule in English history--feels the Tudor era is of particular interest to women in positions of influence. In terms of being a female in a boys' club, Elizabeth was way ahead of her time. "She's the model of female rule in a male-dominated society," Beem says. "Elizabeth was the master of taking female traits and turning them into successful strategies for leading. She was King and Queen at the same time. She became one of the best diplomats of the 16th century by flirting with ambassadors. She saw it as great fun."

Today we cling to the Tudors, Gregory believes, because their moral questions have more obvious answers than ours. "When Henry decides to behead a young woman [his fifth wife, Catherine Howard], it's so obviously a bad thing to do that it's satisfying to the reader," Gregory says. "To judge it gives us comfort and certainty in an uncertain world." Sort of like reading a tabloid. A war may rage on, the stock market may tumble, but things are still O.K. if some sexy young star is behaving more badly than you are.