Books by Terry Breverton

The first-ever biography of the founding father of the Tudor dynasty, a Welsh commoner who secretly married Catherine of Valois, widow of Henry V.

Henry Tudor, the future Henry VII, has been called the most unlikely King of England. Yet his rise from obscurity was foretold by the bards, and by 1485, the familial bloodbath of the Wars of the Roses left Henry as the sole adult Lancastrian claimant to the throne. The hunchback usurper Richard III desperately wanted him dead, and in his exile Henry Tudor was left with no choice. He either invaded England or faced being traded to Richard to meet certain death. Henry's father, Edmund Tudor, Earl of Richmond, was the son of a Queen of England, sister to the King of France, and of an obscure Welsh court servant, who had been born in secrecy away from court. Edmund's death at the beginning of the Wars of the Roses left Henry to grow up in almost constant danger, imprisonment and exile. In 1485, his 'ragtag' invading army at Bosworth faced overwhelming odds, but succeeded. Henry went on to become England's wisest and greatest king, but it would be his son Henry VIII and granddaughter Elizabeth I who would take all the credit.

The Tudor Family is the most intriguing royal dynasty in British history. Their era took us out of the Middle Ages through the Renaissance, founded the British Empire and made Britain a world power for the first time. The flowering of literature and music was unprecedented in British history. And what a family! From Henry VII who usurped Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth, through his famous son whose multiple marriages led to the break with the Roman Church, to the brilliant reign of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn's daughter, Elizabeth I, we see over a century of people and events that sometimes seem more fiction than reality. Did Henry VIII compose Greensleeves? What were Thomas Cromwell's bizarre toilet habits? Did Anne Boleyn have six fingers on one hand? For details of these, and many more entertaining Tudor facts, just open this book.

The Wars of the Roses were a bitter and bloody dispute between the rival Plantagenet Houses of York and Lancaster. Only one man, Jasper Tudor, the Lancastrian half-brother to Henry VI, fought from the first battle at St Albans in 1455 to the last at Stoke Field in 1487 and lived to forge a new dynasty - the Tudors. Fighting the Yorkists, rallying the Lancastrians and spending years in exile with his nephew, the future first Tudor monarch, Henry VII, Jasper was the mainspring for continued Lancastrian defiance. He was twenty-four years old in his first battle and fifty-three when he won at Bosworth Field in 1485. Now he could style himself 'the high and mighty prince, Jasper, brother and uncle of kings, duke of Bedford and earl of Pembroke'. Without the heroic Jasper Tudor there could have been no Tudor dynasty. This is the first biography of the real 'kingmaker' of British history.

If it had not been for Owain Glyndwr's 15-year struggle against overwhelming odds, the Welsh would not have survived as Europe's oldest nation. His war is the defining era in the history of Wales. Yet Glyndwr is hardly known - a cultured, literate warrior who was never betrayed or captured and vanished into history. No less than six separate invasions were beaten back by Glyndwr's army of volunteers before he disappeared, his family and children either dead or imprisoned for life. Not for Glyndwr the brutal public death of Braveheart, nor a grave to desecrate - only an immortal legacy of hope and freedom. His war of independence led the way for the success of another mab darogan (son of prophecy) seven decades later, when a Welsh army won at Bosworth Field and the Tudor dynasty was founded. This book tells us how Glyndwr came to stir Wales into war, and why his name still resonates today as one of the greatest warriors the world has ever seen.

The Welsh: The Biography tells the story of the remarkable survival of the oldest nation and oldest language in Europe. We see how the four original major Celtic tribes are still reflected in the location of Britain's four oldest cathedrals, and how after one and a half millennia of constant invasions and eventual conquest, the Welsh retained their sense of nationality. The story of the Welsh is one of defending the nation against overwhelming odds, and of a major contribution to European literature. Its tenth century laws are acknowledged as the most progressive in the world until the later twentieth century. Almost uniquely in the world, Wales has had heroines as well as heroes, princesses as well as princes who contributed to its progress. Wales has given heroes such as Owain Glyndwr who are recognised across the globe, and men such as David Lloyd George, to whom Hitler attributed the winning of First World War. The character of the Welsh - their pacifism, literary abilities and influence - is splendidly described in this unique history of the Welsh as a people.

The bloody Wars of the Roses between the Houses of Lancaster and York ended with the killing of Richard III. With the recent discovery of his skeleton, and the consequent controversy over his final resting place, it is time to re-examine the life of Richard as a duke and king. Was Richard the grotesque usurper and murderer of the Princes in the Tower, as depicted by Shakespeare just over a hundred years after his death in battle? Or has his name been blackened over the years, as claimed by his apologists, the Richard III Society?This biography sifts the contemporary evidence, placing Richard in the context of his times, and assesses the other candidates put forward to have killed the Princes in the Tower. John Locke wrote that 'the actions of men are the best interpreters of their thoughts' and upon this basis the investigation leads to one conclusion.

A fascinating cornucopia of monsters and fabulous creatures from all corners of the world.

A compendium of fascinating information about the great waters that cover two-thirds of our Earth and the men and women that sailed them.