For the Tudor period, and a more specific look at Tudor court life I'd always recommend Alison Weir's Henry VIII: King and Court. She gets very precise with her research into fashions, pastimes, building progress and expenditure at Henry's court as well as the general course of events. David Starkey's Six Wives: The Queens of Henry VIII is a very thorough volume on events, but I prefer the detail of Weir's writing when it comes to the court itself.

A great book for the 18th century English Georgian court is Courtiers by Lucy Worsley. It focuses on the events within Kensington Palace through the reign of the four Georges, and all of the varied and fascinating characters that lived in the palace, like Peter the Wild Boy, or the ladies of the bedchamber.

Worsley is Chief Curator at Historic Royal Palaces, and ended up writing this book because of a series of paintings that she passed every day at work that she decided to research further. It gives the book a really intimate feel, as she clearly knows the palace and period extremely well, and I also believe it's one that's recommended to any actors playing period roles at Hampton Court.