Author - Alison Weir
ISBN - 978-0-09-179672-3
My Copy - Purchased
My Rating - 4 /5
Where You Can Find It - Goodreads - Amazon UK - Amazon US
Genre - Adult > Historical Fiction
Alison Weir is known for her non-fiction about the Tudor period and this book is her second fiction book. It follows The Lady Elizabeth who becomes Queen Elizabeth I. This book follows Elizabeth from a Young Girl into a Young Woman and her relationship with her father all of her step mothers, her sister and her first love and the consequences of that love. This is a different take on why Elizabeth become known later in life as The Virgin Queen.
This book starts off with Elizabeth at two years old being told her mother has been executed for treason, then she goes to court and meets her new step mother Jane Seymour and then it goes very quickly throughout the next couple of wives until Henry marries Katherine Parr and dies four years later. Then the story really gets into the good stuff. We have love, anger, jealousy, pain, torment all in one relationship.The events that changed the course of her life and the decisions she makes.
Then you have the struggle with her sister and her right to her place in the line of succession. Elizabeth goes through so much from the age of Two till Twenty-Five. If you love historical fiction i suggest you give this book a read it was an entertaining and a roller coaster of a book.
SPOILERS IF YOU HAVE NOT READ THIS BOOK DON'T READ ANY FURTHER.
I mean where do i even start with this book it had me on the edge of my seat and trying to figure out where it would go next, I loved Henry and Elizabeth's relationship albeit they didn't have much of one but what we did see warmed my heart except for the flashbacks where she remembered him calling Anne a witch and a whore. then when Elizabeth goes and lives with Katherine Parr and Thomas Seymour, i started to feel like i knew where this was going when Elizabeth fell pregnant but i didn't know what route she would go down i was trying to think if we knew anyone it could be then when she had the miscarriage i knew that would be a huge factor in her life and that she wouldn't want to go through that ever again and watching Jane die.
I definitely had mixed feeling towards Katherine in this book on the one hand she was duped by Thomas as well but then she was telling Elizabeth to just let him tickle her and joining in by holding her down. So for me i personally didn't like her very much but then again you are more inclined to back the heroine than anyone else if we had the same book in Katherine's POV it might be different.
Thomas on the other hand having sex with your wife's step daughter, your nephews sister and the old kings daughter is sick and its Treason to plot it let alone act upon it no wonder he was executed.
Then when that part of her life is over and Thomas is Executed, then her brother dies and she has to fight for her right to the succession. There is a quote that i loved when Mary was deciding if she should marry him or not her adviser refrains from telling her "Great men married for Duty and bedded their mistresses for pleasure" and for me that just about summed up pretty much every single Medieval king baring a couple so i don't know why she would be shocked.
Mary is a Catholic and is trying to put England back to the true faith and Elizabeth is a threat to that so when she locks her in the Tower when she sees Anne's ghost it really hit me in the feels in one of the most terrifying times in her life her mother is there to comfort her and protect her. Then when Mary gives the OK to have Elizabeth found guilty and have her executed i never thought she would do that. To me that is far from the truth but we will never know.
When she is released from The Tower she is under house arrest with her closest friend taken away. Elizabeth gets more and more agitated with only one maid not allowed the reading material she desires.
Mary quickly becomes Bloody Mary when the burnings of the Protestants start.
When Elizabeth and Phillip meet for the first time and Elizabeth dresses to her advantage and wore her hair loose like an unmarried virgin. (royal married women were not allowed to have a bare head they had to wear a hood) and when Elizabeth felt that shock of lust my brain was screaming don't do it, don't do it and luckily she didn't but she knows she must have him on her side if she if to never be sent to the tower again.
When Mary becomes pregnant you know everything is coming to an end then when she goes into confinement and no baby is there then Philip leaves and goes back to Spain, she tries to help him by sending troops into France then loose Calais that had been held by England for over 100 years all for a Spanish Catholic who wanted her sister more than her.
Mary finally had to concede and finally name Elizabeth as her Heir but only if she promised to rule England as a Catholic Nation. Elizabeth agreed obviously. Then sitting under a tree in Hatfield Grounds Elizabeth Finally becomes Queen Of England.
Until Next Time
Happy Reading
