History has been 'feminised' says David Starkey as he launches Henry VIII series

British history has become "feminised" by female authors who concentrate on subjects like the six wives of Henry VIII rather than the king himself, Dr David Starkey has said.


By Stephen Adams, Arts Correspondent
Last Updated: 11:32PM BST 30 Mar 2009
History has been 'feminised' says David Starkey as he launches Henry VIII series
British history has become "feminised" by female authors who concentrate on subjects like the six wives of Henry VIII rather than the king himself, Dr David Starkey has said. Photo: MARTIN POPE

Speaking shortly before the launch of a new Channel 4 series to mark the 500th anniversary of the Tudor monarch's accession to the throne, Dr Starkey said he found it "bizarre" that so much historical effort was now focused on the monarch's wives.

In an interview with the Radio Times, out today, Dr Starkey said: "One of the great problems has been that Henry, in a sense, has been absorbed by his wives. Which is bizarre.

"But it's what you expect from feminised history, the fact that so many of the writers who write about this are women and so much of their audience is a female audience. Unhappy marriages are big box office."

He said that in his new series, Henry VIII: Mind of a Tyrant, "we're trying to say, 'Hang on a minute, Henry is centre stage.'

"This is Henry – wives appear simply to explain or complicate the story of Henry. This is his development, his psychology and, above all, why he matters."

Prominent female authors to write about Henry VIII and the Tudors include Lady Antonia Fraser, whose titles include the best-selling account The Six Wives of Henry VIII; Alison Weir, who wrote a book bearing the same title; and Jessie Childs, author of the prize-winning Henry VIII's Last Victim.

Talking to The Daily Telegraph, Dr Starkey said that while writing about Henry VIII, "even I fell into the trap of subjugating the history of Henry ... to that of his wives".

He said he did so because "they are a gift to the writer – you end up with six stories for the price of one."

But he warned that the "soap opera" of Henry's personal life should come second to the political consequences of his rule, such as the Reformation and the break with Rome.

Dr Starkey went further, by saying that modern attempts to paint many women in history as "power players" was to falsify the facts.

He said: "If you are to do a proper history of Europe before the last five minutes, it is a history of white males because they were the power players, and to pretend anything else is to falsify."

For example, while he considered Elizabeth I to be a great monarch, "the way she is presented as some sort of female icon is ludicrous".

During Victorian times her conduct was regarded as "perfectly deplorable", he added.

Dr Starkey insisted: "I'm not joining forces with Fathers for Justice, it is simply saying that our new world has its own set of prejudices, its set of distinctive lenses, and we need to be aware of them." Read more
No comments will be posted without a full name and location, see the policy.