Product Description

Mary I is notorious for her persecution of Protestants and has been vilified by generations of partisan historians. H.F.M. Prescott brings a more humane and measured perspective to the life of this tormented woman. First published in 1940 under the title SPANISH TUDOR, Prescott's biography won the James Tait Black prize the following year. An extensively revised and updated edition was published in 1953 under the title MARY TUDOR. Prescott sums up her subject's life as follows: 'Perhaps no other reign in English history has seen such a great endeavour made, and so utterly defeated. All that Mary did was undone, all she intended utterly unfulfilled...mistaken often, almost always misguided in her public office, with much blindness, some rancour, some jealousy, some stupid cruelty to answer for, she had yet trodden, lifelong and manfully, the way that other sinners know.'

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #536628 in Books
• Published on: 2003-06-05
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 452 pages

About the Author
H F M Prescott was born in Cheshire. Hilda Prescott read Modern History at Oxford and later received MA degrees there and at Manchester, as well as an honorary doctorate at Durham. She is best known for her historical novel THE MAN ON A DONKEY and her biography of Mary Tudor which won the James Tait Black Prize in 1941. The daughter of a clergyman, she was a committed member of the church of England, and her wide-ranging interests included travel and a deep love of the English countryside that lasted all her life. She died in 1972.

Customer Reviews

Tragic Queen
Mary Tudor is considered by many to have been one of the most cruel and savage of monarch's in English history due to her persecution of protestants. After reading this biography you cannot help but feel that the person who was the biggest victim of savage cruelty was Mary herself. Rejected by her Father, betrayed and mislead by so-called friends and advisors and abandoned by the husband she adored, along with the loss of her Mother Catherine of Aragon whom she loved and admired greatly all went towards shaping the image of the vicious catholic martyr Mary is remembered as today. The reality is that, far from being a blood thirsty heroine of catholicism, all Mary truely desired in the world was to be a good wife and mother, and above everything else, to be loved. Until the end of her days, this was something she never really experienced. This book will really open your eyes to the true Mary Tudor.

a very human portrayal
I love the style of this book, which is written rather conversationally. Some chapters are, however,a bit hard going, and I found the easiest to digest are the ones which concentrate on the 'human' side of the queen, such as her plans for her marriage and the unbearable tragedy of the pregnancy that never was. What comes through most of all is the sadness of a woman rejected in her youth, starved of love and affection and whose greatest wish is to bring England back to the religion of her childhood. One feels that this was her only raison d'etre as queen, and of course it was an ultimate failure. Had she not had this over-riding ambition, we feel that Mary would have been happy to renounce her status and become a loving wife and mother, bringing up a family in obscurity. However, the burning loyalty to her mother and her mother's religion spurred her on, in the face of revolts and rebellions, disloyalty among her council members, and the failure of her marriage, which is surely a very human tragedy. When Philip leaves England her pain is almost palpable. It cannot have escaped her that her love was not passionately reciprocated. All in all, this is a very human and touching portrayal of England's 'Spanish' tudor queen, such a contrast to her successor Elizabeth.

Betrayed but a very silly woman.
I found this book a very good read, although i would say that you should have some grounding in the story of Mary before you read this book. I found a couple of the chapters very hard going but with this it also uncovered that Mary was let down and betrayed by people she trusted and loved. She was nowhere near as astute at leadership as her sister (elizabeth) and i think ultimately she paid the price for this. I would say to read this as its a very thorough look at her life.