Honor Grenville

Honor’s life began quietly, rose to a crescendo of drama, and then faded back into obscurity, but for some fourteen years, she was at the centre of the personal and political minefield that was the Tudor court.Although few people have heard of Honor, there is probably more information about the day-to-day life of this daughter of a Cornish gentleman, who became the king’s aunt, than of any other woman of the fifteenth or sixteenth centuries, even queens.This knowledge is contained in the vast treasure trove of the Lisle letters – thousands of papers, dating from around 1532 to 1542, that have been catalogued and transcribed in great detail. Through the letters, we can see how Honor and the people around her reacted as Henry VIII’s policies changed, and how politics affected family life, trade, religion and money.Drawing on the information from the letters and other sources to create a narrative biography of a woman who came from a gentry background in one of the most distant parts of the kingdom, to be a court lady, will give a rich new perspective on the Tudor court.