Books from the Backlog, hosted by Carole's Random Life in Books, is a fun way to feature some of those neglected books sitting on your shelf unread.
Why did I add Mary Tudor: Princess, Bastard, Queen to my TBR?
This may come as a shock to some, but the Plantagenets were not always my fave dysfunctional family. The Tudors were my first love and I have always felt extremely sad for Mary and the lot she was cast in life, thanks to her father.
Have you read this book, or is it on your TBR? If you've read it, would you recommend it to others?
Sorry for 'Bloody Mary'? Really? OK, she was probably actually crazy (or ended up that way) and probably always resented her sister Elizabeth but still...... They're not really excuses for all those people she had killed.....
ReplyDeleteYep, I do feel sorry for her. I think that Henry's treatment of her when he divorced her mother, the cruelty of keeping them apart even as Catherine fell ill and was obviously dying, and the hounding she endured by Suffolk and others to sign the documents all made her into the queen she became. I feel like Mary felt that the only way to make things right was to completely reverse everything that Henry had started and that Edward's council continued. I truly do not believe that she would have earned the horrible nickname of 'Bloody Mary', had she and her mother at least been treated better than they were. And let's not forget that Elizabeth totally executed a fellow queen when she had no authority to do so after holding her prisoner for years. And then she had the nerve to fly into a fit after she signed the death warrant and it was delivered immediately to Cecil. He'd been nearly beside himself for years, trying to get the execution carried out and Elizabeth knew damn well it would be carried out practically before the ink was even dry.
Deleteokay...i guess i need to check this out because i don't know what cyberkitten is talking about. lol
ReplyDeletesherry @ fundinmental
Mary I was the only surviving child of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon. I think had her life been different in those years after Henry divorced Catherine, her reign might have been quite different as well.
DeleteI've been curious to learn more about her. And it's a;ways good to read outside my normal genre. Keeps it fresh:)
ReplyDeleteJohn Guy has an absolutely superb book about Mary and I always recommend that one first above others. She is a tragic figure.
DeleteI do like reading about the Tudor period. This one sounds like a really interesting read. I hope you enjoy it!
ReplyDeleteThank you Carole! I hope to get to it soooooon!
DeleteI have not read this one. I keep saying I am going to read more about the British Kings and Queens but I rarely do. My current book from the backlog is set in Poland!
ReplyDeleteIf you want to read about Mary, read John Guy's bio. It is the best I have read so far, truly superb.
DeleteAre you reading this one soon?
ReplyDeleteI hope so! I am trying to finish up the last of my library books - it is so hard to get to the library as often during the school year as we do during the summer. After those are done and I stop putting zillions of books on hold, I am going to start in on the books I have featured in these posts that I already own, and go from there.
DeleteI understand what you said about sympathy for many. Beloved Princess to bastard at the whim of her father's lust for Anne Boleyn, seperated from her mother and not even allowed to write and visit which is cruel. Even when reunited with Henry, she was still called bastard and never given the chance to marry. I'm not surprised she ended up bitter and fanatical. She is a fascinating women.
ReplyDeleteEXAAAAAAACTLY!! People can not honestly be surprised by how she turned out, and horribly her reign went. She never had a chance to be a good ruler, or to learn how to do so.
DeleteI always felt bad for Mary's lot in life but at the same time I detest so many things she did under her rule that I just can't like her. One thing is for sure, she's interesting!
ReplyDeleteI understand. But I feel like everything she did was in this wide over-reaction to her father's reign and his treatment of her and her mother specifically. She was treated so horribly by him, even after they 'reconciled', and I don't think she ever forgave herself for signing the documents, despite Chapuys' urging her to do so to save her own life. I think that was the breaking point for Mary, and after that she was never the same. She couldn't forgive herself, so she tried to atone for it - in a really terrible way, but thinking she was still doing God's work by bringing back the 'true religion'.
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