The Six Wives of Henry VIII by Antonia Fraser

In essence, this work is the combined biographies of the six wives of Henry VIII, very nicely entwined to show the effect they had on each other. The backdrop of this is of course renaissance Europe, in the throes of church reformation. The concentration in this book is on the women themselves.

Quite apart from his wives, I'd like to see a comparison between Henry VIII and Stalin, in how their execution of once-close companions compared.

It took the spirited sixteen-year-old Christina of Milan, secure in Brussels under the protection of her uncle, the most powerful man in Europe, to stifle a giggle behind her hand when King Henry's envoy referred to his master as 'the most gentle Gentleman that liveth'