Queens of the Tower Books in Order

The Queens of the Tower books follow Joan Vaux, not a queen but one of the women close enough to royalty to see how fragile power really is. That choice gives the series its shape. Instead of treating the Tudor court as a pageant from a distance, Joanna Hickson brings it down to eye level and lets us watch it through a sharp, educated, very observant woman who has to survive inside it, first as Joan Vaux and later as Lady Guildford.

Joan is a strong guide because she never feels like a passive witness. Born into a Lancastrian family marked by exile and loss, then raised with an unusually good education, she comes to royal service with languages, curiosity and independence that set her apart. She understands books, people and the value of listening. At court, that can be more useful than rank.

The Tower itself matters.

In these novels it is not just a famous backdrop. It is a place of fear, legitimacy and rumor, and Hickson makes full use of the old belief that the ravens and the safety of the realm are bound together. As The Lady of the Ravens opens after Bosworth, every whisper about treason, succession or divided loyalty seems to echo through those walls. The Tudor state is new, and new states are nervous things.

Across The Lady of the Ravens and The Queen’s Lady, the story moves from Henry VII's unsettled early reign into the handover to Henry VIII. That gives the series room for royal births, deaths, marriages and diplomacy, but also for the daily work that keeps a court running. Hickson is good on service, household politics, motherhood, grief and the strange intimacy of women whose lives are tied to queens whether they want that life or not.

Joan's own hopes keep everything grounded. She wants usefulness, affection and some control over her future, even while duty keeps pulling her toward the crown. Her marriage to Richard Guildford, her loyalty to Elizabeth of York, and her changing place at court give the books a personal thread that runs alongside the national one. Expect intimate Tudor fiction rather than battlefield spectacle, full of chambers, chapels, nurseries, gossip and sudden danger. If you like power seen from beside the throne, where the view is often clearer and the risks are just as real, this series does that very well.