Customer Reviews

Bloody Mary

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I found this book extremely interesting and absorbing to the point where I did not want to put it down. I would recommend it to anyone who, like me, wanted to find out what the foundations were of Mary Tudor's policies and also what she was really like as a person. The detail is so great that one learns even what her voice sounded like. It is as though Mary were alive again and not a figure from the 16th century. As some other reviewers have noted here somewhat critically, the book spends a lot of time discussing Mary's life before her accession to the throne. To me, this is to its' credit as an understanding of the forces, personalities and occurrences in Mary's early life are ESSENTIAL to answering questions about Mary's policies and actions as queen. I enjoyed Carolly's writing style. She is able to convey the complex interweaving of people and events in Mary's time in a manner that is easy to understand and follow along. Highly recommended, as is "Great Harry" also written by Carolly which I am reading now.

Carolly Erickson goes beyond the stereotype and searches for Mary Tudor's real character in Bloody Mary. An in-depth view of the beliefs of Mary's educators gives the reader a fascinating glimpse of Mary's motives and the ideas that shaped her life. Mary emerges as a strong woman, challanged by society's strictures and the demands she placed upon herself.

Erickson tends to gloss over Mary's role in the many executions that took place during her reign, but this book is an excellent read for anyone interested in Mary's life.

While Carolly Erickson does a commendable job in addressing the topics of the time she spends more time on the associates of Queen Mary then with the Queen herself. Perhaps this is because of the lack of information on the Queen's early years but perhaps a more scholarly assessment of her reign and how it affected England in the long term would contribute more to the success of the book. Erickson does a very good job in presenting an unbiased view of the woman who has been degraded in 350 years of English Protestant Literature. While Mary did have her strong religious convictions that did bring many to the stake she was not a "bloody" tyrant as the Protestants would like her to be remembered. Her successor Elizabeth deserves this title more than this great Queen. Erickson however does not write enough on two famous executions during her reign, those of Lady Jane Grey and Archbishop Cranmer. It seems that these 2 proponents of the Protestant cause deserved more then the passing reference to their exections. On the whole, the book was extremely entertaning and well written. Erickson has a way to capture her audience and evoke both pathos and awe for the only Catholic Queen of England.

First-rate biography of one of England's most well-known, but least-understood, monarchs. Mary comes across as frail, human, passionate and intelligent, no surprise considering her royal lineage. Erickson is obviously sympathetic to Mary, and as such, the most far-reaching impact of her reign--the burnings of Protestant heretics--seem a bit downplayed. That said, the rest of the book is marvelous.

This book takes far too many liberties, and uses documents that are as biased towards mary's favor as any, most of which seem to come from Chapuys, who, although chronicled the happenings of the court well, always wrote to favor mary, and demonize Anne and Elizabeth. It seems there is a focus on the harshness of her teenage years (which were unquestionably harsh), in order to justify her malice as queen. Even then, the author tries to paint things in a light far more positive than they were. I was really looking forward to a book about mary, and was incredibly disheartened to have chosen one that seemed more historical fiction than fact. She described Mary as being an exceptional beauty as an 18 year old girl, and yet I have read nothing but the opposite. She writes for us to dislike anyone who is not splendid to mary (saying that george moved into her house like he planned to stay. Well duh, it's his new house, of course he is going to move in, it doesn't mean he was an evil individual for doing so.), and to treat mary like a perfect individual.

Now, I know in a Mary Tudor Bio, there will be facts and information that may be skewed here or there, but this book was ridiculous. It will not paint an accurate portrait of the personalities, flaws, and graces of mary and the people around her.

Highly recommended for Mary Tudor fans. Not so much for someone looking for cold hard facts without the stain of obvious bias.

The major merit of this book -- and that merit is considerable -- is that Erickson provides a sympathetic portrait of a monarch who is usually dismissed as a Papist monster or an irrelevant prelude to the great Elizabeth I. Erickson does not pretend that Mary was a particularly competent, effective, or even ethical monarch, but she gives insight into how Mary's upbringing and her experiences as a woman of her times shaped the kinds of mistakes she made as Queen. At the very least, the book is a detailed portrait of an interesting failure.

I have read this book, time and time again. While it is not a pure academic book, it does bring to light the reality of Mary's time, her circumstances, and the fact that she was quite a strong woman in her own right, the first reigning Queen of England. She kept her father's temper at bay, preserved her life and her faith, and against all odds, won the throne. And although the book does not go into enough detail as to the revolt, nor the effect her reign had on England, it does paint a complete picture of the woman that Mary was.

In Carolly Erickson's "Bloody Mary", the life of Mary Tudor, the author provides an in-depth analysis of a monarch much maligned in her own -- and our -- time. From her early years as Henry VIII's cherished daughter, to his rejection of her and her mother (Catherine of Aragon), to the parade of wives Henry used and abused, Erickson paints a vivid picture of English court life during the mid-1500s. Sometimes, the picture is too vivid and the digressions from the main story of Mary and her trials and tribulations are too extensive. By the time Mary miraculously becomes queen in 1553, the reader is exhausted; the author also seems to have run out of steam, and all the painstaking research and background give way to an almost cursory examination of Mary's brief reign. The book also stresses Mary's Catholic piety a little too much, perhaps as a justification of the persecution of Protestants that earned her the nickname of "Bloody". On the good side, Erickson makes Mary a real person -- a very troubled real person; on the slightly negative side, Mary gets lost in the details provided on the court, the machinations, and the politics of the age. You'll need a lot of time and patience to finish this book, but the reward is an excellent interpretation of a woman who paved the way for her much more popular sister: Elizabeth I.

One cannot properly learn about someone from the past without taking their surroundings into account. People often don't consider the broad spectrum of things that, trivial as they may seem, greatly influence one's behavior and needs. Erickson does a brilliant job of painting the backdrop for this misunderstood and abused Queen. Taken in her context, the vile myth of Bloody Mary is shattered to reveal the woman underneath. Emotionally engaging, highly descriptive, and wonderfully written, this book provides a wealth of knowledge in a format wholly enjoyable to read.

Mary Tudor was the daughter of the infamous Henry VIII and his Spanish wife Katharine of Aragon (the daughter of Ferdinand and the indomitable bellicose Isabella of Spain.)
Mary was a Roman Catholic who succeeded to the throne following the early death of her young half-brother Edward VI
the son of Henry and Jane Seymour.Mary was religious, smart,
tough and infertile! She wed Phillip II of Spain arousing hatred in England against her wedlock to a Roman Catholic Spaniard. Only a year after Mary's death in 1587 the Spanish Armada sailed against England and their new queen Eliabeth I. She was Mary's
half-sister the daughter of the bewitiching and beheaded Anne
Boleyn.
Mary was a good woman who lived in perilous times. During Henry's affair and wedlock to Anne Boleyn her life was in danger.
She and her mother Katherine were exiled from court; the cynosure of several plots against Henry and the hope of Catholicism in Great Britain.
Mary's reign was short and bloody. During her monarchy hundreds of Protestants died at the stake or were beheaded for their beliefs. Mary was incapable of producing a child and heir to the throne. Her half-sister Elizabeth and Mary had a lifelong rivalry with Elizabeth emerging as the stronger and more successful of the siblings. During Eliabethan rule religious toleration was advanced.
Erickson is an expert on Tudor England and she writes like a
novelist making the convoluted tale of plots, murder, executions, dynastic jousting and descriptions of 16th century
England and European politics palatable for modern readers.
Erickson illuminates a dark,violent, cruel and frightening time when thosands died for their beliefs in fire, dungeon and
by sword.
This is a well researched, well written and well illustrated book on Mary Tudor England's first real reigning queen. The book is very detailed and is long. If you stick with it to the end you wil never forget the sad tale of Mary and the sad age in which she lived and ruled.