 |
|
Title: Elizabeth and Mary: Cousins, Rivals, Queens
ISBN: 0375708200
Author:
Jane Dunn
Publicate Date: 2005-01-25
Publish: 2005-01-25
List Price: $16.95
Average Customer Rating: 4.0
Format: Paperback
 |
|
|
|
|
Amazon Lowest New Price: $6.70
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $3.00
Amazon Merchant Price: $11.53
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Customer Review: |
|
1: Compelling History
My wife and I read this book together, taking turns reading it aloud. We were drawn into the intrigues of the courtly life and the reading sparked much debate on how events could have turned out. This is precisely what a good history book should do! I highly recommend it, although you can't have my wife as a reader :)
We were driven to read more about Mary Queen of Scots after seeing the old Kate Hepburn movie about her. The movie was surprisingly accurate, as Hollywood goes, although the film had the two women meeting, which of course never happened.
If you enjoy well written history - this is an excellent choice.
|
2: Two queens. One island. One heck of a complicated relationship!
Elizabeth and Mary: Cousins, Rivals, Queens provides an insightful view of the complex relationship between Queen Elizabeth I and Mary Queen of Scots. This book focuses on the psychological aspect of the relationship. It is not a dual biography, and it is does not provide any new information. However, it does attempt to unravel the psychological components that created a rivalry between two queens and cousins that continues to spark debate centuries after their death.
Contrary to what some other reviews claim, this book was incredibly unbiased. Dunn explored the deep-rooted insecurities that haunted Elizabeth and influenced her relationship with the Queen of Scots: the questionable legitimacy of her reign, the violent fate of her mother, and the ever present threat of war from the formidable European Catholic powers. The book also explores Elizabeth youth, the lack of female intimacy and her imprisonment by her sister, Mary I. Mary Queen of Scot's youth is also discussed. Unlike Elizabeth, Mary was born a queen. She grew up sheltered and pampered in the extravagant French court influenced by authoritarian female figures such as Catherine de Medici.
When it came to exposing personal flaws in each ruler, Mrs Dunn did not play favorites. The fairy tale French princess was prone to dramatics and delusions. She was everything Elizabeth was not, bewitchingly beautiful, impulsive, and unabashedly ruled from the heart. Elizabeth was indecisive, insecure, and used her gender and marital status to keep the European powers at bay throughout her reign. It was Mary's flaws, however, which would ultimately lead to her undoing. Perhaps the most perilous flaw in Mary's character was her ability to be impulsively and emotionally swayed by the wrong suitors. First Darnley, then Rizzio, and finally Bothwell.
Elizabeth was first and foremost a sovereign. Mary Queen of Scots, on the other hand, placed her gender's desires first. Elizabeth may have been guilty of many of the same mistakes that Mary made, such as Elizabeth's controversial attachment to Robert Dudley. However, Elizabeth always placed her nation's interests before her own. Mary Queen of Scots was incapable of doing the same. Yet, Elizabeth refused to take action against her. Many authors attempt to sentimentalize Elizabeth's refusal to execute her cousin. We are told that after many hysterical fits of tears Elizabeth was finally talked into signing Mary's death warrant. Jane Dunn tells it like it really is. Elizabeth may have felt remorse over executing a royal princess of her own line, but this was not the motivating factor in Elizabeth procrastination. Elizabeth's inability to sign Mary's execution stemmed from fear of doing what she most feared would be her own fate, disposing a monarch. After all, Spain and the Pope encouraged english catholics to overthrow Elizabeth. However, Mary's incessant plotting against Elizabeth (which Dunn believes could have been due to mental instability) would force the English queen to have her cousin and fellow female queen executed.
Mary never admitted her guilt in plotting to have Elizabeth assasinated. She cleverly chose to die a Catholic martyr. Jane Dunn writes: "She was absolutely sure that the way to escape notoriety and claim immortality was to prove herself a martyr for her faith. Mary had to deflect the gaze from the wreckage of her reign and the ruination of her reputation through an act of nobility and courage. A heroic death went a long way towards reconciling a less than heroic life."
Elizabeth and Mary Cousins, Rivals, and Queens is a must read for anyone interested in either queen. There are many outstanding biographies out there, but I don't think I ever read a book that attempted to intertwine the history and personalities of the two queens in such a elegant and well-written manner.
|
3: Comprehensive and engaging window into the lives of two rulers on one island
This dual biography by Jane Dunn is an excellent and highly engaging work of history, and tells much of the Elizabethan age regarding not only politics but also society, religion relationships and gender.
Elizabeth refused to marry and reigned for 45 years as the solitary monarch of England, at the time a revolutionary decision.
A women of great strength, a wise ruler (although as the author points out, unlike Mary, she was blessed with dependable and skilled advisers) and as we see a great orator and poet.
Her rallying of the people of England against the Spanish Armada certainly was something of a reflection of Churchill's rallying of Britain against the Nazi menace 400 years later.
We need leaders in the West today who can stand up against the threat of Islamo-Fascism and terror.
Mary was a passionate and wilful adventurer. married twice for political gain, but took several lovers, and certainly was passionate at different times in her love for Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley(who she came to despise for good reason later) and for the Earl of Bothwell.
Mary was a vengeful ruler and the more ruthless of the two queens, she felt nothing plotting the overthrow and death of Elizabeth, while it was with great anguish that Elizabeth was forced to sign Mary's death warrant, after Mary's plotting (The Throckmorton and Babington plots) made her end inevitable.
Essentially the book is about a fatal and tragic clash of interests.
"A fatal complication ensued when Mary turned her sights on the greater crown of England. believing it her rightful inheritance and a claim worth pursuing. Elizabeth's fundamental insecurity in her own legitimacy, where the whole of Catholic Europe was ranged against her , 'the bastard child of a whore' increased the tension and emotional volatility of the issue. The complex rivalry, the feint and parrying of their personal relationship, sprang from the challenge Mary made for Elizabeth's throne, and the unassailable legitimacy of her claim. The powerful passions this relationship engendered in each was a result of their strikingly different natures. The fact that they never met allowed their rivalries to inflate in each Queen's imagination, their qualities elaborated upon by ambassadors and courtiers intent on their own ambition".
Elizabeth was a prisoner accused of treason and threatened with execution as a young girl, before gaining the throne, seen by the majority of England's people as a great deliverer from her older sister 'Bloody' Mary I's 's tyrannic religious repression of the Protestants.
As was written in John Fox's 'Foxes Book of Martyrs' where he records the names and circumstances of ordinary people put to death for their faith under Mary I "When these at Maidstone were put to death
We wished for our ELIZABETH."
At the time of her mother's execution Princess Elizabeth was two years and eight months old.
She was soon stripped of her title of princess and declared illegitimate.
Elizabeth who was an incredibly bright child, did not notice that her mother was gone but she did notice the change of her name. She apparently said to her governess. "how haps it governor, yesterday my Lady Princess, today but my Lady Elizabeth?"
Elizabeth must have grown up under great trauma , her mother executed when she was three years old, on her father's orders, all but rejected by her father and declared 'illegitimate.'
Mary of Scots became Queen in a blaze of glory before a series of intrigues and catastrophes led to her being cast off the throne in a civil war, before fleeing to England.
She was detained on Elizabeth's orders as she was a very real threat to Elizabeth's life and throne on which she had designs, but lived in great luxury and with a large degree of freedom.
Elizabeth did all she could to be merciful but Mary's plotting and attempts to take the throne sealed her own fate.
As Elizabeth wrote to Mary "You have in various manners attempted to take my life, and bring my kingdom to destruction by bloodshed. I have never proceeded harshly against you but have on the contrary protected and maintained you like myself. These treasons will be proved to you, and all made manifest' before asking Mary again to answer for her actions and admit her guilt, and Elizabeth would again be merciful.
Mary's actions played into the hands of Elizabeth's council who then forced elizabeth to give the signal for her execution.
|
4: Pretty good, not great
This was an interesting book to read. The comapnion biographies gave me a fresh perpsective on the relationship between the two monarchs. My only criticism is that there is a lot of repetition. Dunn writes over and over again about the view of women during the 16th century and about the difficulties faced by a female sovereign. After a while I just kept thinking to myself, "OK! I GET IT!"
But at the same time it was interesting to read about their lives side by side. I never stopped to think about the fact that while Elizabeth was spending a difficult childhood being threatened with execution after being accused of treason, Mary was the star of the French court and already queen of Scotland in her own right. Elizabeth, as a result, learned very early to tread very carefully and never give away her true thoughts. Mary, on the other hand, never had to learn how to govern. She was priveleged, and was constantly the center of attention. Hardly surprising that she made some catastrophic decisions when she returned to Scotland.
So although this isn't what I would consider to be a great book, it did give a fresh perspective about how closely entwined the two queens were. If you are interested in the realationship between Elizabeth and Mary you may find this book to be worth your time.
|
5: A %1oo satisfied!
I received prompt and reliable service.... my book arrived so quickly and in perfect condition! I'm grateful!
|
|
|
|
|
