38 of 40 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A well written compelling and moving story!, February 24, 2004
I found this book by accident when I was browsing through new items in a bookstore and the cover caught my attention. Since I'm interested in the Tudor and Stuart period and the introduction in the back seemed exciting, I bought it.
Because english is not my mother tongue I expected to have some trouble reading through this book since historical books often display language that is more complex than we use in every day life. However, the book is so well written that occasional trouble with unknown words didn't trouble me much and I suddenly found myself reading it for hours at a time!
The story in itself is very moving and exciting and Gristwood is able to clarify the complicated situations in England in the end of the Tudor reign and in the beginning of the Stuart reign quite well. Although the book is full of characters and anecdotes, it is easy to follow. Gristwood describes the court life, people, environment and situations so vividly that it makes the reader feel like almost being there. Even though Arbella's story is the kind that forces the writer to make assumptions since there are gaps in the story, Gristwood doesn't push her ideas. She is able to add even some humour to this tragic saga and despite the sad ending, you actually find yourself laughing at times.
The background and resources to this book are extensively displayed in the end of the book and the references are listed as well.
I warmly recommend this book to anyone interested in historical biographies and life in England in the 16th and 17th century. It's a must!!!
NOTE: There is one drawback in the paperback version though; the gilt on the cover seems to wear off easily.
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24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
An excellent historical biography, March 31, 2006
This review is from: Arbella: England's Lost Queen (Hardcover)
What I enjoyed most about this book was that it tied together historical figures I had read about elsewhere -- the earls of Leicester and Essex, Bess of Hardwick, James I, Elizabeth I -- in a completely different context and from a widely different perspective. Sarah Gristwood did an excellent job placing Arbella and her struggles within the larger political stories of her day. Her writing, although mostly accessible, does have its moments of insiderism -- such as when she refers to Penelope Rich as Sidney's Stella, for seemingly no reason and without further elaboration. I think you're better off reading this book if you already have a working knowledge of the court of Elizabeth I.
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50 of 60 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An necessary reintroduction to Arbella Stuart, January 2, 2004
Not sure why this is called 'Arabella' as the subject matter's name is 'Arbella', nevertheless...
It's a given that any one raised in a school in England is thoroughly grounded in Tudor history. I recall spending several years at a young age learning all about Henry VIII, his wives and Elizabeth I (plus the rest of the dynasty) so it came as a major surprise to learn of Arbella Stuart, claimant to the throne after 1603 whom history has effectively written out through Sarah Gristwood's excellently accessible scholarship. With a title (as the author notes) designed to capture the emotive intellect that surrounds our perception of England's glorious Tudor period, we plunge headfirst into the intricate and politically dangerous world of England's Tudor/Stuart hereditary tree in a manner that opens up a whole new view on the period. And a fascinating one at that....
Arbella Stuart was considered during the late sixteenth century as no less than the second claimant in line for the English throne, potentially the successor if the no foreign monarch can succeed `clause' was invoked, thereby negating the claim of Mary, Queen of Scots' son, James. It was to be a claim that was to cause Arbella no end of personal distress.
The book opens with Arbella's birth and the inherent dangers of her claim to the throne. As Gristwood wryly notes, Arbella's godparents where mainly aunts and uncles on the maternal side, rather than those on the royalty side, most of her ancestors having been decimated in the post Henry VIII melee. By the age of six her mother and father had died and she was under the considerable influence of one of the richest women of the Elizabethan, age, Bess Cavendish. We move on in the next few chapters to deal with Arbella's coming of age at the Elizabethan Court, her young faux pas with Elizabeth and her life growing up under Bess. She is portrayed as an adolescent fully aware of her part in the dynasty and is used as a pawn by the aging Elizabeth to dangle in front of the European nobility as a potential successor, highlighted by her swift removal from danger when the Spanish armada neared in 1588. However, as Gristwood acknowledges, the 1590's were a period that reflected the changing nature of Elizabeth's reign and correspondence on Arbella is somewhat silent until the last few months of Elizabeth's reign.
During the spring of 1603 the author has full access to a range of epic (in length) letters written by Arbella to the court in an attempt to escape her enforced `prison' at Hardwick. Effecting a lover, profoundly affected (as was Elizabeth) by the execution of Lord Essex and drawing on all manner of aspiring courtiers she enters the political game with what appears to a loose grip on reality, prompting a discussion on the effects of porphyria. It all comes to naught as the Tudor period comes to an end and the Stuart begins under the guise of James I. By the end of it the accession of James is very easy, backed as he is by Robert Cecil, and Arbella faded once more into the background, yet still bound to her close position to the throne to be a manipulated pawn. We delve into the two Cecil-uncovered conspiracies of July 1603, which recent findings imply Arbella's complicity more keenly, though she escaped untouched, with Ralegh and Lord Cobham sentenced for treason. From here Arbella's life spirals into a loss of control as she is sidelined during the increasingly patriarchal society of James. During 1608, from Bess' death to Arbella's survival of smallpox, her fortunes waned until we enter the final phase of her life from 1610 - 1615 during which she desperately tried to snatch some personal freedom and self-control and ended up failing and starving to death in the Tower.
Gristwood spends Part V looking at more detail at Arbella's letters and discussing her relationship with William Seymour, her daring to fall in love, secret marriage, King's fury and the last attempted flight to France that was reported on right at the beginning. Her fateful becalming and capture whilst William Seymour escaped led to her incarceration where she spent her remaining years wasting away.
If there was ever a historical lesson in how high birth can lead to personal misery then Gristwood has portrayed it. A total captive of her royal birth, a political pawn used without much personal regard, Arbella Stuart faded out of English royal history with the intended whimper that her stronger rivals intended to the degree that her name is uncommon to the Tudor/Stuart history class. What Gristwood has done, admirably, is redraw our attention to this almost-queen in a manner that explains much of the politics of not only a change in monarch, but a change in dynasty. Three appendicies go on to explain some more detail of Arbella, such as her potential porphyria and this piece of scholarship would have been further improved by inclusion of more of her letters (I think we only see one page template) in order to better verify the author's conclusions, but this aside anyone interested in Tudor/Stuart dynasties or English medieval succession should read this book.
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