Product Description

Mary I was the first queen to rule England (1553-58) in her own right. She was known as Bloody Mary for her persecution of Protestants in a vain attempt to restore Roman Catholicism in England. The daughter of King Henry VIII and the Spanish princess Catherine of Aragon, Mary as a child was a pawn in England's bitter rivalry with more powerful nations, and was later regularly offered for marriage to potential allics. Mary's life was radically altered by her father's marriage to Anne Boleyn. Henry had planned for some time to divorce Catherine in order to marry Anne Boleyn, claiming that, since Catherine had been his deceased brother's wife, her union with Henry was incestuous. As the Pope refused to recognise Henry's right to divorce Catherine, Henry broke with Rome and established the Church of England. Anne Boleyn, the new queen, bore the King a daughter, Elizabeth (the future queen), forbade Mary access to her parents, stripped her of her title of princess, and forced her to act as lady-in-waiting to the infant Elizabeth. Mary never saw her mother again. Even after Henry remarried, Mary was not able to free herself of the epithet of bastard, and her movements were severely restricted. Mary went on to win the throne when the odds were overwhelmingly against her. With her unique blend of scholarship and literary distinction, Carolly Erickson brings Mary Tudor to life in one of her most masterly and compelling books.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #646885 in Books
• Published on: 2001-11-05
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 528 pages

Review
To the outlines of a conventional, sympathetic view of Mary Tudor as a well-intentioned but rigid and naive monarch, Erickson has brought sophistication and richness in a large biography that may well become the counterpart to Francis Hackett's standard Henry VIII. Mary's womanhood is stressed throughout, but in historically specific fashion. More than her fervent Catholicism and the constant threat of execution or assassination during her youth, Erickson shows, it was the isolation pervading her entire life that made Mary so stubborn and brittle - and open to manipulation by the Spanish. Erickson, like Mary herself, dwells on dynastic, sartorial, and legalistic matters as Mary finally gains the throne, while H. F. Prescott's A Spanish Tudor (1940), the main comparison (since Milton Waldman's 1972 The Lady Mary is far slighter than either) gives more play to political and ecclesiastical matters. The political contest is memorably conveyed here, however, not only through factional intrigues but through a sharp replication of popular sentiment - especially broad English awareness of the horrors the Spanish Hapsburgs had inflicted on the rest of Europe, horrors Mary's subjects now feared would be transplanted through her husband Philip. But her marriage with the dull, selfish Philip turned to ashes after the fortyish Queen, "of low stature and great age," failed to produce an heir; the perpetual melancholy and outright prostration of her final years show a woman of bare endurance, not, as Erickson suggests at the outset, exemplary feminine courage - but a Mary whose intensity and stoicism match the moving Antonio Moro portrait like no other. (Kirkus Reviews)

About the Author
Carolly Erickson, a prize-winning historian and biographer, became a full-time writer in 1970. She has written ten books, all published in the UK by Robson Books, including To the Scaffold: The Life of Marie Antoinette, The First Elizabeth, Great Harry and Josephine: A Life of the Empress.

Customer Reviews

Fantastic Read!
After reading books on most of the Tudors particularly Henry VIII and Elizabeth I, i was desperate to read a good and honestly written biography of Mary, the unfortunate daughter of Catherine of Aragon. It protrayed Mary as a women first and foremost and speaks highly of her desire for a husband and children. A desire destroyed in her youth by her parents divorce. But happly it does focus entirly on Mary something i have found rarely happens in books about her. Usuanlly the author spends more time talking about her famous sister than her. A must read for anyone who has an interest in Tudor history. I could barely put it down!

An Enjoyable Read
All in all i would say that this is a great book for Tudor fans out there except for certain discrepancies. For example, Carolly Erickson has accepted the 1507 birthdate for Anne Boleyn that has been rejected for the best part of a decade and in one part of the book she names Edward Grey - not Henry Grey - as Jane Grey's father. Other than those inaccuracies and her rather too sympathetic portrait of Mary, this book is really quite good.

Superb!
A brilliant look at "Bloody Mary". It shows that far from being the ruthless tyrant of common belief, Mary was actually a devout woman who faced many challenges throughout her life. She was certainly no saint, in fact she was stubborn, wilful and fanatical in her beliefs. But nor was she an absolute villain. One puts down the book feeling that Mary was actually a tragic individual who will always be remembered for the loss of Calais and her persecution of Protestants.