Recent reads – December 2012
Here’s what I’ve been reading lately!
Mary Boleyn: The Mistress of Kings – Alison Weir
I’ve been fascinated by the true story of Mary Boleyn since reading Philippa Gregory’s classic The Other Boleyn Girl. Obviously eclipsed by her sister, Queen Anne, Mary’s story has been contorted and exaggerated over hundreds of years. Her reputation eroded into a wanton, love-lorn woman and mother of King Henry VIII’s bastard children. Weir details Thomas Boleyn’s decision to send his daughters to European courts to receive a proper education and finishing and Mary’s disgrace and banishment from the French court after her tryst with King Francis I. Another legend of Mary Boleyn is that her two children, Katherine and Henry Carey, were actually fathered by Henry. I would recommend this to anyone wishing to learn more about the Boleyn family or a more-than-casual Tudor history reader.
Elizabeth & Mary: Cousins, Rivals, Queens – Jane Dunn
it is a fascinating exploration of the lives of Elizabeth Tudor and Mary Stuart, or Elizabeth I and Mary, Queen of Scots. Instead of comparing these cousins and rival queens regnant, Ms. Dunn brilliantly contrasts their seemingly similar yet different lives from parental marriages to death. She thoroughly considers each aspect and event in each woman’s life. I quite enjoyed Elizabeth & Mary: Cousins, Rivals, Queens. Jane Dunn succeeds in writing a dual biography of two enigmatic women. Just a word of advice, you might want to keep a dictionary handy.
Elizabeth’s Women: Friends, Rivals, and Foes Who Shaped the Virgin Queen – Tracy Borman
Instead of a traditional biography from birth to death, Tracy Borman examines Elizabeth’s life through the relationships to women at each stage. Clearly, Anne Boleyn opens followed by the first governesses. Her familial ties with her many step-mothers, sister, and cousin also helped shape her long life and views on marriage and a woman’s natural role. Elizabeth ruled her roost ruthlessly and treated her ladies severely if they disobeyed. This apparently couldn’t trump love as many of them chose to marry without royal permission and found themselves banished from court. It’s interesting to see how she prized consistency in the small world of women who surrounded her. I would definitely recommend Elizabeth’s Women. It’s easy to read and quite informative. Tracy Borman did have a penchant for the words “precocious” and “pragmatic.”
The Sisters Who Would Be Queen: Mary, Katherine, and Lady Jane Grey: A Tudor Tragedy – Leanda de Lisle
The rather lengthy title aside, it is a great, comprehensive study of the Grey sisters, their importance as cousins to the Tudor monarchs, and the ultimate tragedy of their lives. Ladies Jane, Katherine, and Mary Grey were the daughters of Sir John Grey and Frances Brandon, daughter of Mary Tudor, Queen of France, by her second husband, Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk. Jane, Katherine, and Mary were royal cousins and were raised accordingly to befit potential English monarchs. This book traces their lives. The tragedy of Jane, the “Nine Days Queen.” Katherine and Mary both married for love and suffered greatly for it.
The Sisters Who Would Be Queen is a comprehensive and fascinating exploration of the Grey sisters. Obviously, Jane is the most famous, but her sisters also played a role in the ever-complicated Tudor successions. Their short, tragic lives capture the emotion of the times and portray in dramatic fashion the cutthroat world of court politics.
A Kingdom Strange: The Brief and Tragic History of the Lost Colony of Roanoke – James Horn
Horn opens by exploring Sir Walter Ralegh and his role in the development of a British colony in the New World. Ralegh, his half-brother, and a close knit group of friends and colleagues enthusiastically pursued the English settlement of North America and viewed it as a means of attacking Spanish treasure convoys. The English established a colony named Virginia on modern-day Roanoke Island in the Outer Banks of North Carolina.
Despite England’s increasing enmity with Spain, a third journey launched in 1587. Unlike the previous missions, these ships included families who planned to make Virginia their home. The ships separated during a rather eventful crossing but reunited on the island. Due to low supplies and morale, the settlers scrapped the original plan to settle the Chesapeake Bay delta. They established a small colony in North Carolina and sent their governor back to England for supplies. The colonists were never heard from again. I personally subscribe to the theory that the English moved to and assimilated into Indian tribes. A rescue mission in 1590 found no signs of struggle or major tragedy (fire, piles of dead bodies, etc) at Roanoke. Given the choice of dying or moving, I would move, too. I enjoyed A Kingdom Strange by James Horn and would recommend it. It’s very easy to read and quite informative.
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