Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Danger to Elizabeth - Second book in series of Quartet, 16 Aug 2001
By A Customer
Danger To Elizabeth - The second in the series of four books on the life of Elizabeth I. This volume concentrates mainly on the years from her ascention to the throne of England and its various troubles, in 1558 to 1586, the eventual death of Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots. The main story within this volume is the continual battle between Elizabeth I and Mary Stuart, through friendship and conflict. It concentrates intensly on Mary`s unwise decisions which were the eventual downfall of her throne and her head. This occurs on a backdrop of the continuing struggle between the supporters of Elizabeth and the Catholics of England and the rest of Europe. It provides enough background on the story to fully inform a new reader of the subject on previous issues. Throughout the book, it charters the change of Elizabeth`s image from Queen, Heretic, Bastard and an unlawful usurper to the crown of England. The book is written in a way to be accessable to someone with just a general interest in the topic yet still of enough depth to keep interested an ardent reader with a specialist degree of knowledge in the subject. Wether read in successon with the other three books, or read individually, it is in its own right an interesting and absorbing book. The text flows smoothly, so at times you forget the historic nature of the book and it achieves a novel-like read. There are however, times where the volume of quotes and dates makes the reading of certain chapters slightly heavy going, these seem to be mostly around the sections that concentrate on the religious topics and their associated acts of parliment. The sections on the competitive, yet still goodwill competition between the Queen of England and the Queen of Scots is at times almost charming, bringing the characters of these two women to life, in a way not accomplished by many of the books written by other authors on the topic. On the sidelines are the ever present conflicts and aggrements between England and the Spanish and French nations based on the religious climate of the day. Towards the end of the book the pace slows but returns to its absorbing pace with a consice epilogue which ties in the book very well and capping it off superbly for those readers who do not wish to further the story with the next two books in the series. In conclusion, this book is not the most colourful of the quartet with its roots been in the more difficult years of Elizabeth's reign, but it stiil proves itself to be an accessable addition to the wealth of literature available on the subject of Queen Elizabeth I (particulary on this period of her life which is often glanced over, with little or no historical evidence). An entertaining and informative read mixing well, historical accuracy with anecdotal accounts from journals of the time. A good beginners book on the topic for the more advanced reader.
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4.0 out of 5 stars
Very good, especially on the role of Catholic exile priests, 2 Oct 2007
An interesting account of the lives, work and fates of Catholics in Elizabeth's reign. Not just the standard story of Mary Queen of Scots, but accounts also of those Catholic priests trained abroad and who infiltrated into England to support domestic Catholics, continue to spread the Word and, latterly, also to support indirectly at least the efforts of Catholic powers to overthrow Elizabeth. Undoubtedly many of these priests were personally brave, and no doubt many ordinary Catholics in England wanted to be loyal to their country while still resenting the fines and loss of property or liberty for attending Mass. Equally one can see why Elizabeth's government regarded them with suspicion, considering the priests traitors and the ordinary Catholic Englishmen a potential fifth column, especially following the Papal Bull Regnans in Excelsis, which excommunicated Elizabeth and not only absolved English Catholics from their duty of allegiance to the Queen, but even specifically required them not to be loyal to her - a serious misjudgement by the Vatican in that it put English Catholics into an intolerable dilemma and enabled them to be portrayed as potentially disloyal purely by virtue of their faith.
Plowden is impartial throughout, though her use of anachronisms grates, especially her use of the term "left wing" to describe Protestants and "right wing" to describe Catholics, and one description of a place of not particularly bad imprisonment of Catholics as a concentration camp. In sum, a good read.
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