As Henry VIII's only child, the future seemed golden for Princess Mary. She was the daughter of Henry's first queen, Katharine of Aragon, and was heir presumptive to the throne of England. Red-haired like her father, she was also intelligent and deeply religious like her staunchly Catholic mother. But her father's ill-fated love for Anne Boleyn would shatter Mary's life forever. The father who had once adored her was now intent on having a male heir at all costs. He divorced her mother and, at the age of twelve, Mary was banished from her father's presence, stripped of her royal title, and replaced by his other children--first Elizabeth, then Edward. Worst of all, she never saw her beloved mother again; Katharine was exiled too, and died soon after. Lonely and miserable, Mary turned for comfort to the religion that had sustained her mother.
In a stroke of fate, however, Henry's much-longed-for son died in his teens, leaving Mary the legitimate heir to the throne. It was, she felt, a sign from God--proof that England should return to the Catholic Church. Swayed by fanatical advisors and her own religious fervor, Mary made horrific examples of those who failed to embrace the Church, earning her the immortal nickname Bloody Mary. She was married only once, to her Spanish cousin Philip II--a loveless and childless marriage that brought her to the edge of madness.
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23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A fascinating, tightly-written study,
This review is from: Behind the Palace Walls: The Rise and Fall of Britain's Royal Family (Paperback)
For some American readers like me, the tragedy of Princess Diana's death may have pointed up how little we know about the British royal family and sent us looking for sources. After starting and discarding several tendentious "histories" of the House of Windsor, I found this one to be a breath of fresh air. Peter Fearon has written an objective, concisely-written, exhaustive account of the royal family (beginning with the death of Queen Victoria), and yet has done so in a highly readable way. Unlike every other author I've seen so far, Fearon doesn't seem to have an axe to grind about the Windsors. I'm in my 40s and hadn't been exposed to much of the history here and found it fascinating. I was sorry to finish the book.
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