BBC_HS_SARAH_GRISTWOOD_034 crop by Oliver Edwards

Sarah Gristwood

Sarah Gristwood is a best-selling biographer, historian, and broadcaster, and a regular media commentator on royal and historical affairs. She is the author of four previous books of 15th and 16th-century history, including <em>Game of Queens: The Women Who Made Sixteenth-Century Europe</em>, and <em>Blood Sisters: the Women Behind the Wars of the Roses</em>. <em>Arbella: England’s Lost Queen</em> and <em>Elizabeth and Leicester</em> both featured on the bestseller lists; and Sarah also broadcasts regularly for the BBC, Sky, CNN and Channel 5, contributing to documentary series such as <em>Royal House of Windsor<em> and </em>Secrets of the National Trust</em>

Part of a 19th-century letter (Photo by whitemay/Getty)

Agony and adventure: the hidden histories inside women's diaries. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Elizabeth Debicki as Diana, Princess of Wales, accompanied by Rufus Kampa as Prince William and Fflyn Edwards as Prince Harry

“Haunted, in more ways than one”: A historian’s review of The Crown S6, part 1

Three of the children of Henry VII: Prince Henry; Arthur Prince of Wales and Princess Margaret

Royal rivalries10 of the most famous sibling relationships. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Princess Diana in 1994, attending an event at London’s Serpentine Gallery (left), and Elizabeth Debicki as Diana, portraying the same moment in the so-called 'revenge dress' in The Crown

Free-spirited drama or fake news? How The Crown morphed from ‘safe’ territory to controversy. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The queen – dressed in dark clothing – stands up from a table to deliver a speech

Annus HorribilisWhat happened in the Queen’s horrible year?

Children's author Beatrix Potter as a young woman, c1892

Why the real Beatrix Potter was more than her children’s tales. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

An oil on panel portrait of Elizabeth Woodville

Elizabeth Woodville: Edward IV’s controversial queen consort

Claire Foy as the Duchess of Argyll in A Very British Scandal (left); Margaret Campbell, Duchess of Argyll (right)

The Argyll divorce: the society scandal that rocked 1960s Britain

Pragmatist or heartless? A portrait of the young Elizabeth Woodville (1437-1492). The Print Collector/Print Collector/Getty Images)

The power behind the throne: women in the Wars of the Roses

Charles and Diana on honeymoon in Balmoral

Diana: the rebel princess

8 historical reasons behind Anne Boleyn’s appearance in Princess Diana film Spencer

Kristen Stewart as Diana, Princess of Wales

“It doesn’t fall into the trap of making Diana a saint”: a historian’s review of Spencer

Sir Lancelot of the Lake and Queen Guinevere seen embracing by King Arthur in a medieval illustration

Tudors in love: what were the dynasty's romantic secrets?

Portrait of Prince Philip

Prince Philip: the loyal consort

A set of Tudor faces laid out on playing cards

Why the Tudors fell for courtly love. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

From left to right: Queen Isabella of Castile; French regent Anne de Beaujeu; and Catherine of Aragon. (Photos by Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/DeAgostini/Imagno/Getty Images)

Game of Queens: when women ruled Renaissance Europe

Portrait of Sarah Gristwood for BBC History Magazine

History explorer: Tewkesbury Abbey and four more places linked to the Wars of the Roses. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, back to back

‘Two steps behind’: male royal consorts through history

Historian Sarah Gristwood reviews The Crown season 4: “We’ve reached the issue of how fiction influences opinion in the real world”

Queen Victoria with Prince Albert and their children in 1846. After a painting by F Winterhalter. Victoria’s husband, Albert, “carved out for the crown a moral kind of authority as the nation’s first and model family,” says Sarah Gristwood. (Photo by Culture Club/Getty Images)

Retaining the royals: why has the British monarchy survived – and thrived?

The queen's visit to the Welsh village of Aberfan

“No match for reality”: the missing history in The Crown series three

The 1969 documentary was made amid a feeling that there was an increasing awareness of a need to ‘sell’ the monarchy to the people, writes historian Sarah Gristwood. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

‘Royal Family’: the fly-on-the-wall documentary the Palace doesn’t want you to see

Princess Elizabeth (later Queen Elizabeth II) and her fiance, Philip Mountbatten at Buckingham Palace, after their engagement was announced, 10th July 1947. (Photo by Topical Press Agency/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Prince Philip as consort: a life of duty and devotion

Prince Charles, Lady Diana Spencer and Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace

The fall and rise of the Windsors

Britain's Prince William and Kate, Duchess of Cambridge, make the journey by carriage procession to Buckingham Palace following their wedding ceremony on April 29, 2011 in London. (Image by Matt Cardy/AFP/Getty Images)

Kate Middleton: a modern royal woman

D-Day and the Wars of the Roses. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.