Jeffrey Hudson has to be one of the more interesting people of the last millennium. Not only was he "Britain's Smallest Man" but he was Queen Henrietta Maria's official dwarf, fought in the English Civil War, won a duel, was captured twice by different pirates and spent 25 years in captivity, where he doubled his height, and then imprisoned again for his Catholic beliefs.

I came to "Lord Minimus" the wrong way though. I had read an article on Hudson which included a lot of salacious details that are absent in Page's biography. And, going by Page's writing style, I think that if said salacious details are true, Page would have included them.

For example (SPOILER) the article on Hudson states that the reason Hudson gave for his growth spurt while enslaved for 25 years was that he was buggered by his captors every day for those years. Page merely states that manual labour led to the growth spurt. Either "Manual Labour" is a euphemism new to me or the author was speculating (not a euphemism either).

Unfortunately, the said speculating led me to anticipate "Lord Minimus" being one of the great books of all time, and therefore being disappointed when I found no references to Hudson's appointment as "Keeper of the King's Monkey", as well as the already referenced "Manual Labour" issue. However, if "Lord Minimus" is your first contact with Jeffrey Hudson, then you will have a great introduction to "Britain's smallest man" and have the ability to track down the more salacious article. ( )

Considering what little (no pun intended) information there is available about Jeffery Hudson, the author did an excellent job recreating his life & life at court during the 17th-century. Determined to be more than just "the Queen's dwarf", Hudson fought & protected his queen during the civil wars, but was eventually banned from court for killing a man in a duel. If that were not bad enough, he was captured by pirates, & sold into slavery for approximately twenty-five years.
When finally released, upon his return to England, he found it quite changed. Instead of the favour he had previously been shown, he was imprisoned for his religious beliefs, & died, penniless a few years after being released. ( )

Hudson, Jeffrey, 1619-1681/Dwarfs > Great Britain > Biography/Great Britain > History > Charles I, 1625-1649/> Biography/Great Britain > Biography