63 of 68 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Other Tudor Girl, July 8, 2008
This review is from: The First Queen of England: The Myth of "Bloody Mary" (Hardcover)
Mary I of England (1516-1558), the elder daughter of Henry VIII, has long been overshadowed by her younger half-sister Elizabeth. As it happens, Mary's "Bloody" reputation is a partly a construct of the following era, due largely to John Foxe and encouraged by Elizabeth herself. But many of the successes of the Elizabethan period, resulting in economic prosperity and flourishing of the arts, were actually continuations of Mary's reforms and policies. One of Elizabeth's advantages was sheer longevity, together with the country remaining Protestant. As a result, historians have traditionally had a rather foreshortened view of Mary's reign.
In her new biography, Linda Porter aims to rehabilitate Mary as a good and competent monarch on balance, and as a pioneer among reigning queens. Porter sets out by explaining the woman that Mary became, examining the people and events that shaped her life--especially her increasingly complicated family and its drama. The resulting depiction of Mary, usually convincing and very well-written, is a worthy addition to historical studies of the Tudor era and queens regnant.
From her mother Katherine of Aragon, Mary learned at an impressionable age that "conscience was the most important justification for behaviour that anyone could make." Katherine refused to step out of the way for Henry's dynastic concerns--she wouldn't even countenance retiring to a nunnery, though Henry, by declaring their marriage invalid from the beginning, actually foreclosed that option. Because Henry divorced Katherine in the end, Mary had to be declared illegitimate.
Strangely--or naively--Henry didn't think that displacing Mary in this way would affect her negatively. But for the young lady who had yielded precedence within the kingdom only to her parents, being uprooted from her (as she saw it) God-given place was simply inconceivable. She objected to any perceived affront, and Henry in his lenience only made the matter worse by not forcing her obedience right away. "The delay raised false hopes and developed in her a pattern of opposition based on conscience and self-identity, where suffering almost became a goal in itself."
Anne Boleyn's jealousy towards Mary grew as the king's divorce dragged on, and in 1531 she became so defensive ("Did she fear that Mary could still salvage her parents' marriage?") that she didn't allow Mary at court at Christmas. Even after Henry married Anne, Mary refused to recognize her as queen, and their encounters always degenerated into rudeness and reprisals. The moral victory was always Mary's:
"A more subtle woman [than Anne] might have considered outmanoeuvring Mary by occasionally bringing her to court, treating her with kindness and consideration and letting her show the world that, if she continued to defy her father, she was just a sulky, jealous child and a disobedient daughter. The new queen, who liked to be the centre of attention, feared Mary too much to follow such a strategy."
After Anne's death (which Mary may have helped bring about indirectly) and a brief euphoric period in which Mary thought she would be restored to her former position, Henry finally forced his older daughter to submit and acknowledge her reduced status. Mary endured another fifteen years of subjection, first to her father (although she got along quite well with Catherine Parr, her last stepmother) and then to her half-brother Edward VI, whose tolerance of her Catholic observance did not last.
Against the background of this understanding of Mary's character, the events of the last six years of her life fall into place: She rose up with the support of the people to triumph over John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, who would have ruled in the name of his daughter-in-law, Lady Jane Grey. She resumed the practice of the traditional religion, whose beauty and mystery most people probably missed (Northumberland even reverted to the Catholic faith, a huge propaganda victory for the new regime). She married Philip of Spain somewhat reluctantly, it seems, and made it clear that her motherly relationship to her people would take priority. She encouraged trade and reformed the currency that both her father and brother had debased. As for her sobriquet, the level of violence during her reign, although inexcusable to our sensibilities, was not that different from other early modern regimes. As for Calais and its loss, the author glosses it over as ultimately untenable and not all that valuable (an explanation that is not completely satisfying). But when Mary's poor health finally overtook her, she brought about a smooth transition to the next regime by acknowledging Elizabeth as her heir.
Only in the last thirty years or so has Mary I has been rehabilitated and recognized for her own accomplishments, by a series of sympathetic (but not hagiographic) biographers starting with
David Loades (
newer version), and continuing with
Carolly Erickson,
J. A. Froude, and others. Porter's biography is not just the latest of these, but also one of the best, with an admirable level of detail and accuracy (especially in the characterizations of supporting figures like Catherine Parr). It is a riveting book, and I finished it with the sense that the traditional smears had been peeled back to reveal something of the pivotal ruler that Mary actually was.
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26 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Long Overdue Fresh Look at 'Bloody' Mary, August 6, 2008
This review is from: The First Queen of England: The Myth of "Bloody Mary" (Hardcover)
Dr Linda Porter has meticulously researched the tragic life of England's first queen regnant in her vivid and well-written book. For readers who only know the 'myth' of Bloody Mary, Porter's book offers a real glimpse of the all-too-human queen behind that myth. For those who think they know the 'real' Mary, they, too, will have a stunning surprise and fascinating read. We see Mary hurtling toward disaster after disaster, from the moment she's put in the care of her tutor, Jean de Vives; to the confrontations of long, obdurate duration with her father, Henry VIII; through the separations from her mother and her half-siblings; and headlong into a disastrous, love-struck marriage with Philip II of Spain. Mary's story has been much neglected by historians to date -- with the great Dr David Starkey even lumping her together with her half-brother Edward VI as the 'forgotten Tudors'. Yet Mary's reign (as well as that of her brother Edward) was a watershed, not only in English history, but in the history of the Protestant reformation movement that spread with England's nascent empire during her half-sister Elizabeth I's reign. Without understand Mary Tudor, we can't understand why and how Elizabeth and other monarchs acted after her. This is a must read for anyone interested in British history, family history, or the history of Catholicism and the Protestant reformation.
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27 of 30 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A book about the Mary Tudor you never knew., January 2, 2009
This review is from: The First Queen of England: The Myth of "Bloody Mary" (Hardcover)
The name Mary Tudor often conjures the image of a rather dull and unattractive Catholic queen. Mary is long remembered for her unpopular marriage to Philip of Spain and the burning of hundreds of Protestants. In the Myth of Bloody Mary: The First Queen of England, Linda Porter has attempted to bring to light information that have been overshadowed by Mary negative image.
When you think of Queen Elizabeth's sister, you probably imagine a very stoic and reserved woman. While it is true that Mary did not share Elizabeth's people person personality, Mary Tudor was anything but dull. She loved music and especially dance. She was also considered quite the fashionista trendsetter of her times. Mary loved beautiful gowns in the French design. She also loved beautiful jewelry and owned many exquisite pieces. Like her sister, Elizabeth, Mary had coppery red hair, a long nose, and a heart shaped face. Porter writes that although Mary was not considered a beauty, she well known for her beautiful complexion and graceful manners.
Mary's decision to marry a foreigner, especially a Catholic one who clearly did not love her and was even physically repulsed by her, made Mary incredibly unpopular to some in her day. However, Porter claims Mary's marriage to Philip was made after much deliberations and careful planning. Mary saw marriage to a great European power as a way of bolstering England's power in sixteenth-century world politics. After all, marriage to an English subject would bring nothing to the table for England. Instead, Porter claims that Mary carefully considered the pro and cons and made the best decision for her country.
Mary made a special effort to restrict Philip's powers. He would not appoint Spaniards to posts and offices and most important he would not have any place at court after Mary's death. This contradicts the well known story of Mary falling helplessly in love and throwing caution to the wind upon viewing Philip's portrait. Philip's lack of interest in Mary is a well known fact. The author does write of Philip's romantic and sexual indifference towards Mary, however, she claims Philip did care for his wife. In fact, his charming manners and attentive ways may have been mistaken for romantic love by Mary.
The nickname of bloody Mary has been attributed to Mary due to the burning of three hundred Protestants during her reign. Porter writes that the majority of these deaths were ordered by local authorities and consisted of common people. Mary Tudor ordered few executions. The executions that Mary did order involved high profile Protestants, one of them being the Archbishop Thomas Cranmer, who pronounced her father's divorce from her mother, Katherine of Aragon. Overall, Mary had little to do with the burning of other Protestants. Porter claims Mary support of the execution of Protestants had more to do with her attempt to enforce her role as monarch and less to do with religious intolerance. Instead Mary favored peaceful means of converting Protestants. She encouraged fervent sermons to educate the young and the publication of Catholic literature to counter the numerous Protestant pamplets circulating throughout England.
Linda Porter credits Mary's negative image to Protestant reformer and historian, John Foxxe, a man that Mary most likely never met. John Foxxe left England for Protestant Basle in 1554 where he wrote his Acts and Monuments, a book of Christian martyrs who died during Mary's reign. It was this book that Linda Porter believes created the negative image of Mary that survives to this day.
I found The First Queen of England: The Myth of Bloody Mary extremely enlightening. I always thought I knew everything there was to know about Mary Tudor, but this book proved me wrong. Behind the stories of Protestant executions and an unrequited love to a Spanish prince, there is a story of a brave and strong-willed woman who lost everything, her father, her mother, her title, and her place in the line of succession. One thing Mary Tudor refused to ever give up is in her faith in the Catholic church. It is unfortunate that Mary's loyal devotion to the Catholic doctrine is what tarnished her reputation.
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