Published 9th May 2024 by Headline.
From the cover of the book:
A DESTINY REWRITTEN. A ROYAL HEART DIVIDED.
Adored only child of Henry VIII and his Queen, Katherine of Aragon, Princess Mary is raised in the golden splendour of her father's court. But the King wants a son and heir.
With her parents' marriage, and England, in crisis, Mary's perfect world begins to fall apart. Exiled from the court and her beloved mother, she seeks solace in her faith, praying for her father to bring her home. But when the King does promise to restore her to favour, his love comes with a condition.
The choice Mary faces will haunt her for years to come - in her allegiances, her marriage and her own fight for the crown. Can she become the queen she was born to be?
MARY I. HER STORY.
Alison Weir's new Tudor novel is the tale, full of drama and tragedy, of how a princess with such promise, loved by all who knew her, became the infamous Bloody Mary.
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In the third book of Alison Weir's excellent Tudor Rose trilogy, she turns her attention to Mary I, a figure well known for a grisly reign - hence the familiar nickname 'Bloody Mary'. But who was she really? Based on Weir's typical in depth research, she approaches this book with the intention of examining whether Mary I really deserves the reputation associated with her, and the resulting mix of fact and fiction is an absorbing read.
Weir brings Mary alive in these pages, making her as human as she possibly can, beginning with her childhood and painting her as the adored child of devoted parents. This is a Mary who was studious; loved to dance and play music; revelled in the attention of her charismatic father; and was secure in her fate as a future Empress of the Holy Roman Empire, who would unite England and Spain under a devout Catholic banner. It is easy to feel sympathy for her when what followed shattered all her illusions - the trauma of her parent's broken marriage; the distress of her father's alienation from what she was brought up to consider the 'one true faith'; the way she was supplanted in his affections by a step-mother she despised; and the loss of her birth rite.
As the years pass, Weir continues to show great empathy towards Mary's situation, and brings out her softer side through her relationships with the kinder of Henry's later wives, the love she developed for both Elizabeth and baby brother Edward, and her yearning for an affectionate husband and motherhood. It was fascinating to read about her closeness with Anna of Cleves and Henry's surviving wife Katheryn Parr, which I did not know about previously. The Mary portrayed here had every right to feel indignant about the way she was treated - alternately brought into the royal fold and cast our again, especially when the brother she once loved ascended to the throne. Her life shrinks during Edward VI's reign like never before, and in many ways, these are the years that shape her womanhood the most. Feeling betrayed, denied the right to marry a husband she considered a suitable match, and constantly under pressure to convert to the new protestant Church of England, she begins to see herself as a martyr.
Finally Mary achieves her place as England's first Queen regnant, an honour which can never be taken away from her. There are positive aspects to her reign, which Weir touches upon, and at times, she was the darling of her subjects, but however hard our esteemed author tries, it is difficult to like the woman Mary becomes in her later years, and therin lies the rub. No matter how much you appreciate the turns of the wheel of power that unsettled her, the unfairness heaped upon her, and the beliefs instilled within her, she develops into a person ruled by religious fanatism, hypocrisy, suspicion, bitterness, and foolish decisions. Perhaps she might not deserve the 'bloody' epithet forever tied to her name in terms of actual numbers of people killed, but the political and territorial fallout that resulted from her marriage is undeniable; and her callous, single-minded persecution of 'heretics' (who had, after all, been required to embrace protestant beliefs) leaves a bad taste in the mouth, especially given her refusal to abandon her own faith. It is interesting to read, in Weir's excellent Author's Note that she ultimately feels the same way about Mary having revisited her story. Mary I: Queen of Sorrows indeed, and they were not all her own...
It is always a joy to immerse myself in an Alison Weir book, and this one is no exception. At over five hundred pages, this engaging novel simply flew by, and it provides rich fodder for a number of thought provoking subjects that beg to be discussed - making it the perfect book for a reading group setting. I cannot wait to see who Weir turns her attention to next!
Mary I: Queen of Sorrows is available to by now in hardcover, ebook and audio formats.
Thank you to Headline for sending me a proof of this book in return for an honest review.
About the author:
Alison Weir is a bestselling historical novelist of Tudor fiction, and the leading female historian in the United Kingdom. She has published more than thirty books, including many leading works of non-fiction, and has sold over three million copies worldwide.Her novels include the Tudor Rose trilogy, which spans three generations of history's most iconic family - the Tudors, and the highly acclaimed Six Tudor Queens series about the wives of Henry VIII, all of which were Sunday Times bestsellers.
Alison is a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and an honorary life patron of Historic Royal Palaces.
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