The Sixteenth Century in 100 Women is a unique and engaging historical work. The author gives short 1-2 page backgrounds of 100 Women who made up the 16th century. Some of these are very important women you may have heard of, such as Anne Boleyn or Catherine of Aragon. Others are lesser well-known, but I am very glad that I had the chance to read and learn about them. This book makes learning history very accessible - with short chapters that read like a novel, this book is a great way to learn history. I read one chapter each night, and I felt like learning was really fun and interesting.

I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn more about this subject in a fun and interesting way. The book is well-researched and well-written and I really appreciated the chance to get to learn history in this way.

Special thank you to the author, the publisher, Pen and Sword History, and Netgalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Such an interesting read, full of mini biographies of historical women. This book is a great addition to any library or classroom.

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

'The Sixteenth Century in 100 Women' consists of bit sized snippets from the lives of 100 women. Licence takes you on a century long journey that is easy to read and enjoyable for any history lover. It is the first book I've been given by NetGallery to read, and I loved every minute of it. I often struggled to put it down, because I woman I wanted to read about was the subject for the next chapter.

Licence arranges the book chronologically by year. Many readers will have a favorite at the beginning, middle and end of the book. I also liked that some of the subjects were very famous like a few Tudor Queens and court women, others were commoners. There we subjects I felt were missed, but I understand to include lesser known figures, some more well known ones had to be cut-out. My biggest surprise was that women were included from all over the globe, not just European women. I loved reading about women from Asia and the Americas. I also enjoyed reading LGBTQ stories.

Licence also includes new research and approaches her subjects from a non biased perspective. Many of us have favorites, or figures we don't care for as much. She creates a balanced viewpoint on all the women.

Regardless of how much power the Women had, their lives were mainly written and controlled by the men around them. Here we can piece together parts of their lives and remember them and find what their roles were and remember their stories.

Thank you NetGallery and Pen and Sword Publishing for letting me have an E-ARC of this book in exchange for my review. #netgallery #arc

Way cool! This book is filled with mini biographies of really old women. This book is a great addition to any home library or any classroom. I loved learning about famous women and the times in which they lived. The biographies themselves are short (only a few pages each) so they are a great, quick read for anyone.

After digging into historical archives, Author Amy License has found multiple women from the 1500s who impacted history. Previously, men wielded the pen and wrote about women based on their perspective. Men were the stars. And often, women are merely appendages who continued dynasties. Even the Medusa painting by Caravaggio actually features his face. This book attempts to tell the women’s stories from their view.
And the author includes plenty of clarifying notes when a story infuses a man’s view. As she notes, with a few exceptions, female power was more usually a gift given by men to women of their choice. Women achieved a degree of success through association with their male relatives. Patriarchal society could indulge its favored women. But when those women felt secure, they could end up losing everything based on a man’s whim. Typically, women gained only an illusion of power.
I felt disappointed that most of the women have ties to royalty. I wanted more stories about everyday women. But the author does include some of these characters, including prostitutes who serviced the Pope and his clergy, midwives who worked despite gender restrictions, and a pirate, astronomer, and court jester. And this book includes women from Europe, Asia and Russia.
As I read, I realized that all women impact history. Maybe my name won’t make it into history books, but my life impacts society today.
I was also struck by how little people have changed in the last centuries. Then as now, dysfunctional people remain stuck in obtaining power by any means possible.
Even today, women too often reinforce patriarchal constraints as we judge and shame other women for breaking taboos or following their hearts. It’s time to break that mold.
Some interesting trivia:
*Women’s lives became a legitimate area of study in the 1920s thanks to Eileen Power and her work focusing on social rather than political history.
*Renowned for her beauty, Elizabeth of York’s face is reputed to have been used for the image of the Queen of Hearts on a traditional deck of cards.
*Lisa del Giocondo, aka Lisa Gherardini of Florence, Italy, shared her most famous smile in the world.
*Anti-Semitism was one of the deep-rooted undercurrents of sixteenth-century life.
*Catherine de’ Medici may have retained power thanks to a secret band of seductresses, referred to after 1695 as the Flying Squadron.
*Weyn Ockers was accused of defacing a church even though her role was minor.
*Elena or Eleno de Céspedes who may have been transgender, intersex or lesbian. Despite his attempts to share his truth, few people listened or respected him.
*Isabella Cortese wrote several books about cosmetics.
*Hungarian countess Elizabeth Bathory was accused of murdering and torturing hundreds of girls and women, but these claims may have been fabricated by folks who were jealous of her power, influence and property.
*Pickpocket Mary Frith also worked as a pimp, dressed as a man, smoked a pipe, and otherwise challenged gender and social norms of the day.

I’m not a big fan of the word “herstory” because of its grammatically and etymologically erroneous mirroring of “history.”. No one can believe that the Romans (and before them, the ancient Greek) from whom the word stems would know that centuries later “his” would be a male personal pronoun in English. And yet, if a book could be dubbed as a perfect and perfectly enjoyable example of how “herstory” should be written, this would be it. Of course, advocates of an unfeminist or anti-feminist stance for whom the male (cis het male, to be more precise) is the be-all and end-all of historical research shouldn’t open this book lest they want to risk having a heart attack. Not that one could find an attitude hostile toward men in any part, but hey, I prefer to issue this trigger warning nonetheless—it’s a woman writing extremely well about women and, between the lines, about the cis-het-male bias of most history books, after all.
Amy Licence takes a look at a small selection of historical figures of the 16th century who were women. That in itself is already a laudable endeavour, all the more so as one might naively believe she would be hard pressed to find sufficient source material to treat the hundred persons announced in the book’s title. And yet, when I had finished reading it, I had rather the impression she was hard pressed to select only a hundred. She could have chosen twice, even thrice as much. I for one wouldn’t have protested.
She did a very good job, too. Not only are we provided the life stories of famous figures such as Catherine of Aragon as well as other hapless and (probably) unhappy wives of Henry VIII, but also less well-known persons (a Sultan’s favourite wife, the “four Marys” who accompanied Mary Queen of Scots to the French court, an African queen, the wife of a Japanese samurai). Even some nameless women found their entry into this impressive list.
The difficult balancing act of the author wasn’t only to decide which names to include, but also how much to tell about each of them. As it were, the entries remained rather short, focusing on a major moment in their lives, the peaks of their existences, so to say. Those instants were told in a compelling, engaging way, with more details woven in to give the narrative depth and perspective. Would I have loved to read more about each woman? Heck, yes. Yet the focus of this book as I perceived it wasn’t to be as exhaustive as possible, but to pique the reader’s interest, maybe compelling them to explore the different stories on their own, and to give an overall view of how history could look if we delved deeper into those normally pushed aside or outright forgotten.
Each short piece was enjoyably written, in an easy, highly readable style, devoid of tedious pedantry, quoting of countless dates and data, or superfluous details. I didn’t rush through the book, but rather read it bit after bit, fascinated by the richness of atmosphere and the empathy I could feel throughout. An interesting and delightful read I can only recommend.

The concept of this book is brilliant. These are not just brief biographies of 100 women from the 16th century. It is a century pieced together from events in the lives of individual women. For example, the medallion of the very first Anne of Brittany focuses on the time she married the King of France and thus changed the fate of her Brittany (1499). We continue with the year 1500 and what Catherina Sforza experienced. And so on, one year at a time.
Various women from different parts of the world are represented (Tudor queens, France, India, Turkey,...). I was a bit disappointed that the only representative of Central Europe unless you count the two foreign women in Poland and the German Katharina von Bora, is Elizabeth Bathory.
In contrast, I was very excited about the medallions of anonymous women - unnamed prostitute or maid of honour. These chapters show that even nameless women made history.

Thank you to NetGalley and Pen and Swords History for a free digital review copy. This is my honest review.

This was an absolutely fantastic read. I love the notion of anthologies about historical figures and these vignettes about everyone from Catherine of Aragon to a cross dressing actress at the turn of the 17th century to Roxelana were easy and fun to read and arose my curiosity about at least a dozen of the mini heroines of the book which is always good thing for a devoted reader like me.. this book is a great starting point for anyone interested in the 16th century and adequate female representation in history of the world.

The Sixteenth Century in 100 Women attempts a mammoth task: reestablishing the role of women in the story of our collective past. And to boot, 100 Women strives to highlight not only those women in positions of power and privilege, women who have garnered passing mention in these patriarchal histories to date, but also those who occupied the more pedestrian echelons of society. This is no small feat, and the author deserves congratulations for the undertaking. However, these bite-sized mixes of semi-fictionalized narrative and factual information feel overwrought. The effort spent on flourish may have been better spent developing the thrust of each historical sketch through fact, as the ultimate effect is a collection of haphazard, banal vignettes that instead of whetting the readers' curiosity about the lives of these women, feel sadly flat.

I found this book to be very detailed. I didn't know very many of the women mentioned in the book, so it made it interesting to read about them. The details about each woman were not very long which made it easy to divide up and read a few each day. I did find some of the information inconsequential. This made a couple of the woman's details a bit boring. I still recommend reading this book though if you like history or women in history you will enjoy the book.

I was attracted to this non-fiction book because of its promise to succinctly feature 100 different women who lived their lives during the sixteenth century. On this promise, the book certainly delivered.

Most of the ‘chapters’ are just a few pages long and give either a brief overview of a woman’s life or a snapshot into a particular moment in time. This makes the format brilliant for reading on the train or listening to via audiobook on your daily commute.

I like how Licence takes some artistic liberty and often starts the chapters by setting the scene in a descriptive Alison Weir or Philippa Gregory-esque way. In fact, this book would be perfect for fans of historical fiction novels of this time period who are wanting to learn a little more about the facts. On the flipside, this probably isn’t the book for you if you’re already deeply into sixteenth century history as this book serves as a more general introduction.

I do like how Licence attempted to showcase a range of women, including women of the lower classes (who were often barely recorded in written history) and women beyond Europe. Licence does do a disclaimer at the beginning that, while she does try to include women from Latin America, Africa, Asia, the majority of the women featured are European. Without doing a proper count, it felt to me as though the majority of the women were actually from the British Isles. While it would have been nice to read about more women in eastern or norther Europe, as well as from other continents, I suppose it is not Licence’s fault that Henry VIII had six wives and then there were so many other women adjacent to them who were all well recorded in history!

I was given this as an E-ARC for free and this is my honest review.

This is not the kind of book you--or, at least, I--sit down and read through. It's a fantastic reference of interesting women from the period.

As a novelist, I'm always looking for inspiration, and this is a great book to find it.

Four stars instead of five because is is VERY UK-centric, and even the non-UK women are mostly European. Not exclusively, but mostly.

The Sixteenth Century in 100 Women is a well researched book with bite sized information about each of its subjects. There is a lot to love about this book. Each chapter is about a different woman, and their condensed histories are easy to read yet very well researched, with lots of footnotes and references. A lot of the more well known names are included, but there are also a lot of women here who were new names for me. The women included span a range of social classes and geographic locations (though most are from Britain and Europe).

Amy’s background as a novelist shows in this work, as her writing style is compelling and easy to follow. I was actually unfamiliar with License as an author before reading this, but now I’m interested in reading her historical fiction.

Because of the way this book is structured, I was able to pick it up and read a single chapter at time and feel fulfilled. I actually think a hard copy of this work would make a great coffee table piece for this reason — anyone can pick it up and start reading anywhere and get something worthwhile out of it. I plan to purchase the hardcover when it’s released.

I would love to see more volumes as follow-ups to this book, with the same style of coverage given to individuals from even more parts of the world (China had a lot going on during this time, for example).

I would recommend this book for any history fan, as anyone who loves historical fiction and would like a reference for some of the figures they run across in their favorite stories.


Thank you to NetGalley and Pen & Sword for providing me with an ARC edition of this book.

A super informative and concise look at women from across the world. I thoroughly enjoyed reading about women I didn't know plus re-reading and familiarising myself with women from 16th-century history that I already knew.

The range of women included in this book is vast. From Queens to goddesses and all the way to unnamed poets and wives. What I loved most was the contextualising and viewing of these women from both a 21st-century lens but also in a 16th-century lens. Licence explains the reasoning behind historical decisions and 16th-century views/morals but also compares them to how we view the world and certain decisions now. In particular, the way marriage, pregnancy and women in power are treated.

Some of my favourite stories to learn were:

La Malinche
Elizabeth 'Blessie' Blount
Roxelana, aka Hurrem Sultan
Mary Boleyn
Women of the Devonshire Manuscript
Lady Nata, or Otomo-Nata 'Jezebel'
Susan Clarencieux
Amye Robsart

I loved this book. The entries are around two pages each, and span the world. I've heard many of these women mentioned in history books, historical fiction, or on history podcasts but I also discovered some new histories to take deeper dives into. I love that the entries also include servants, the wives of kings, the victims of kings, and women whose names are unknown. Definitely Eurocentric, but entries range from Chile to Japan, and Spain to Burma. At first thought, one would not think that the 16th century held such interesting figures- but this book proves that assumption very wrong. This is an excellent assemblage of ladies of history. Worth the read!

This is based on an ARC from Net Galley.

I was slightly disappointed because, but the cover, I was expecting an illustrated book. However, despite the lack of pictures, it was a fascinating, informative text.

This is the perfect book for your nightstand. 100 portraits of 100 fascinating women from the 16th century by an author who really knows what she is doing. After reading it, I am sure I know all members of the Tudor court and a lot of women outside of it, too. I am happy the author included women from different social settings, countries and women we almost never read about in the usual history books - e.g. Lady Nata from Kyushu or the Mexican La Malinche. Let's hopy Ami Lincence will follow up with the 17th century women.

'The Sixteenth Century in 100 Women' is a very readable, accessible book for any history lover, whether academic or layperson. The book seeks to help redress the often patchy and somewhat skewed representation of women throughout history and, further, help augment our understanding from a social rather than political perspective. It is easy to fall into a trap of anachronisms in our judgments and bias in our summations not only due to our perception of feminism in a modern sense but also on account of the more widely available history of elite, white women deemed 'worthy' of recording. 'More than anything, I have tried to capture the humanity of all the women selected, and the pivotal roles they played throughout the century.'

Amy Licence has selected a diverse range of women transcending ethnicity, religion, and class. Each woman is summarised in a few pages, running chronologically over the century. Licence seeks to exemplify, through each short 'story', that woman's perception of power, respect, and worth regardless of class, and often juxtaposed to that of society's.

I really enjoyed reading this book, both in terms of generally enhancing my understanding of history but also being introduced to new 'characters', as well as the general political machinations of that era. As the book is made up of short, stand-alone chapters, it is easy to it pick up and put it down; leaving you plenty of time to ponder before diving into the next vignette. I would highly recommend it any history aficionado.

This is a comprehensive, well-researched book, which spreads light on both famous and unknown women who influenced the (mostly European) world in the sixteenth century. In perfect bite-sized (2-4 page) biographies highlight the most relevant events in our protagonists life, while also doing a great job explaining the culture, political temperature and other major figures of the time were doing.

I especially liked learning the history of Sophie Brahe, a Swedish astronomer who is usually forgotten in preference of her brother or husband. I was also thrilled to learn about Elena/Eleno de Cespedes, an intersex person who chose to live life as a man, became a respected surgeon but also had to endure scrutiny, legal charges and accusations of witchcraft.

This book is best read by flipping to a random page and enjoying whichever story you're lucky to find because they're all great.

I absolutely loved this book.There were so many fascinating mini biographies in it it would be difficult to name a favourite.It was very detailed,well researched and a pleasure to read.It also got me interested in a few other women I hadn't heard of before.Highly recommend if you enjoy the sixteenth century

Much thanks to Netgalley fora copy in exchange for my honest review.