The Myth of "Bloody Mary" by Linda Porter http://www.amazon.com/Myth-Bloody-Mary-Biography-England/dp/0312564961 is billed as the first popular biography of Mary I in thirty years.
I've been fascinated by Anne Boleyn since high school when I read the novel, The Concubine by Norah Lofts. I even wrote my senior year term paper on Anne. I currently have 12 novels/biographies about Anne on my bookshelves. I started to expand my reading of the period beyond Anne and now have 5 books on other Tudor subjects.
Most of what I've read about Mary has been tangential to other subjects and focused on her early years. Her world was thrown upside down by her father's repudiation of his marriage to her mother; she went from princess to illegitimate offspring in a flash. From her reign, I remember that she had an unpopular marriage to Philip of Spain and that she executed many enemies.
I still have about a hundred pages left to read, so I can't make a final review. But I have been impressed with how Mary protected England in her marriage contract. The fear of a female monarch was that once she married, England would become an afterthought in the king's realm. Mary avoided that pitfall by putting England first.
She should be applauded for that, if nothing else.
No comments:
Post a Comment