Product Description

This is the first biography of the fateful relationship between Elizabeth I and Mary Queen of Scots. It was the defining relationship of their lives and marked the intersection of the great Tudor and Stuart dynasties. At its core were their rival claims to the throne of England.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #96366 in Books
• Published on: 2004-03-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 592 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Jane Dunn's double biography Elizabeth and Mary takes as its rich and explosive subject matter the ultimately fatal relationship between Queen Elizabeth I of England and her cousin Mary, Queen of Scots. Throughout much of the second half of the 16th century, these two women found themselves queens of their kingdoms and locked in a battle for possession of the British Isles, which only ended with Mary's eventual downfall and execution at Elizabeth's hands in 1586.

As Dunn points out in her meticulous and compelling recreation of the complex relationship between the two women, "from that one act of regicide, a queen killing a fellow queen, has spun a mythology of justification, romance, accusation, and blame that retains its force right to the present day." Her approach attempts to avoid myth and romance and understand the complex bond that existed between the two women. Elizabeth, the apparent victor, "was haunted by a deep-rooted insecurity as to her own legitimacy", while Mary was pursued by claims of sexual excess and immersion in murderous plots against husbands and enemies, variously seen as "a wronged Madonna or a murderous jezebel."

Dunn elegantly follows the ups and downs of both monarchs as they strive for political power. Mary's tumultuous reign as Queen of Scotland is particularly well handled, as is Elizabeth's agonised vacillation over her decision to execute Mary. In the end, death triumphed over both, and ensured that each was "elevated to an idealised majesty" for very different reasons. Dunn has marshalled an impressive body of evidence that never overwhelms this psychologically nuanced account of these two remarkable women. --Jerry Brotton

The Spectator
‘She writes with vigour and grace. This is an engaging and thoughtful new rendering of a story worth retelling.'

Observer
'This is a supercharged family romance’

Customer Reviews

Biased towards Elizabeth?
I enjoyed reading this book but am uneasy about it being pitched as historical biography since so much of it, in my opinion, is conjecture on the side of Dunn. The very qualities that make it so readable (and which other reviewers have loved) are also the qualities that make it vulnerable as 'history': the idea of getting inside the heads of these characters and understanding their thoughts, feeling and emotions is, for me, absolutely fine in a novel but dubious in something purporting to be factual when there is no, or very little, evidence. While I absolutely agree that all history is interpretive, this goes a little too far.

I also thought it was heavily biased towards Elizabeth, and the patterning of the two women was too polarised: Elizabeth the cool, intellectual virgin (which Dunn accepts literally) and Mary the fascinating but over-emotional, over-sexed and spoilt femme fatale. Dunn's reading of the politics between the two queens was itself overly emotional, rather naively, in my opinion, accepting Elizabeth's supposed reluctance to have Mary executed and her post-event grief as genuine - when scholars in the field have offered far more Machiavelian readings than that, especially from a woman who Dunn herself portrays as putting rationality over emotion.

That aside, this is undoubtedly an enjoyable read, and the novelty of a dual biography of the two women gives it its own niche in an over-crowded tudor/elizabethan book marketplace. I would just add a historical reality check, or at least a caveat about keeping in mind alternative readings and interpretations of the evidence.

P.A.J.Oswin ''Artefactman''
This is perhaps one of the best books ever written on the subject of Elizabeth and Mary; (those reviewers who feel that it overly favours Elizabeth, should consider the possibility that Mary was indeed the lesser of the two - full-stop!). Jane Dunn beautifully balances scholarship with an easy, but distinctive style - it reads like the best of novels. I place this work in the 'top three' of my all-time favourite history books; and I've read hundreds!

A Satisfying Read
This book is highly historically accurate, and Jane Dunn maintains a steady transition while giving information about the two Queens. This book is certainly not for beginners in English since this book contains a complicated vocabulary which even I do not understand. Elizabeth and Mary is not a novel and is only about various events that occur in chronological order. You can even list the events that are described by Jane Dunn in the book. The only reason I rate this book four stars instead of five stars is because this book has an interesting grip in the beginning but becomes monotonous towards the middle. That is when Jane Dunn increases the intensity level of just naming events that took place. The quotes Ms/Mrs. Dunn uses in the book are from people during the time of Queen Elizabeth and Mary itself and the spelling is in old English which I do not know how to read or make out what word it is, and Jane Dunn does not provide much clarifications either.