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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Curse of Being Royal - the lives of three Tudor Princesses, 23 May 2009
The Royal succession in Tiudor England was a very dangerous and unstable. Henry VIII's Third Succession Act 1543 granted Henry the right to bequeath the Crown in his Will. It returned both of Henry's daughters Mary and Elizabeth to the line of succession, behind Edward, any potential children of his, and any potential children of Henry by his current wife Catherine Parr. His Will specified that, in default of heirs to his children, the throne was to pass to the heirs of his younger sister Mary Tudor, The French Queen and Duchess of Suffolk, bypassing the line of his elder sister Margaret Tudor, Queen of Scots. Edward VI confirmed this by letters patent.
This put suddenly Frances Brandon, the eldest daugther of Princess Mary and the Duke of Suffolk, and her three daughters by the Marquess of Dorset, the Ladies Jane, Katherine and Mary Grey into the spotlight. They were suddenly pretenders to the throne. They were Tudor princesses without having the title of princess.
Leanda de Lisle re-creates the lives of these women in a most extraordinary period of English history, a time of great uncertainty and danger, of great changes, of religious divisions and of great political intrigue. The Tudor dynasty had more female heirs than every other, great women but a female ruler was regarded a liability.
Mrs de Lisle tackles the difficult subject with great knowledge, passion and understanding. She forms her own opinions and does not just go with "historical reputation". Her views of Frances Brandon or on Lady Jane Grey are refreshing, more objective and I feel more accurate and in the end more convincing than previous books had presented these figures. Very interesting are the pages on the Lady Katherine and Lady Mary, especially the later is a rather forgotten person.
The only objections I have is that Mrs de Lisle fills gaps with phrases like "have felt"... well that is merely guesswork. But all in all that does not make this book less interesting or less valuable. It is indeed a great inside into the politics surrounding the English's throne in the 16th century. I enjoyed every page and learned a lot. This is a great book and a great addition to every Tudor library.
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0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent, 5 Dec 2009
This book covers an extremely complex bit of history, so I will try to keep this as short and sweet as possible. We all know about Henry VIII and out of six wives he had one son, Edward, and two daughters, Mary and Elizabeth. Henry's favorite sister Mary had a daughter Frances who in turn had three daughters - Jane, Katherine and Mary. Upon the death of Edward, well that is when things get complicated as those three sisters (or more specifically any sons they might bear) were potential heirs to the throne of England.
Most Tudorphiles are familiar with the eldest daughter Jane, who becomes the Nine Day Queen and her tragic end. What's refreshing in this book is that de Lisle also shows us *the rest of the story* of the younger sisters Katherine and Mary, who as potential heirs to the throne are unable to marry without the Queen's permission - and Elizabeth was not about to give it and let them have sons who could threaten her crown. Katherine comes to court to serve Elizabeth and falls in love with Edward Seymour, 1st Earl of Hertford, but without Elizabeth's permission to marry so they do so in secret, although the lovers face the Queen's wrath when the marriage is discovered. Years later a grown Mary arrives at court and she incurs the Queen's anger when she also marries in secret.
And that's about as far as I'll go, if you know the basic history you know where the rest of the story goes and if you don't, well then read it for yourself. The author does a great job of breaking down some old myths (no, Frances wasn't quite the power hungry harridan she's always been portrayed as) as well as breaking new ground with solid facts and research and puts it all together in a very readable book. It was a tad bit dry at first (I don't normally read non-fiction) but once we got into Katherine and Mary's stories I was hooked and had a hard time putting it down.
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