Mary Tudor

England's First Queen

Professor Anna Whitelock

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English

Bloomsbury
27 April 2010

History; British & Irish history; Early modern history: c 1450 to c 1700

Mary Tudor was the first woman to be crowned queen of England. Her accession, in the summer of 1553, took place against the odds and it was, in many ways, emblematic of her life.

Anna Whitelock's assured, impassioned and absorbing debut tells the remarkable story of a woman who was a princess one minute, feted by the courts of Europe, and a disinherited bastard the next. It tells of her Spanish heritage, the unbreakable bond between Mary and her mother (Katherine of Aragon), her childhood, her adolescence, her rivalry with her sister Elizabeth, and finally her womanhood. It explores the formative experiences that made Mary the determined and single-minded queen she became. She had fought to survive, fought to preserve her integrity and her right to hear the Catholic mass, and finally she fought for the throne. As queen of England, Mary retained her tenacity. She married Philip of Spain against much opposition and struggled passionately to restore Catholicism, the religion to which she had remained true all her life. Yet whilst she was brave as a queen, as a woman she was dependent and prone to anxiety. In an age when marriages were made for political and diplomatic advantage, Mary married a man she truly loved but whom did not share her passion. It is this tension between Mary's dominance as queen and her tragedy as a woman that is crucial to understanding her reign. Her private traumas of phantom pregnancies, debilitating illnesses and unrequited love were played out in the public glare of the fickle Tudor court. The Mary that emerges is not the weak-willed failure of traditional narratives, but a complex figure of immense courage, determination and humanity. Anna Whitelock's biography is an assured, impassioned and absorbing debut.

By: Professor Anna Whitelock
Imprint: Bloomsbury
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 198mm, Width: 129mm, Spine: 24mm
ISBN: 9781408800782
ISBN 10: 1408800780
Pages: 384
Publication Date: 27 April 2010
Recommended Age: From
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Author Website: http://www.bloomsbury.com/Authors/details.aspx?tpid=9100

Anna Whitelock gained her PhD in History from Corpus Christi College, Cambridge in 2004 with a thesis on the court of Mary I. Her articles and book reviews on various aspects of Tudor history have appeared in publications including the Guardian, the Times Literary Supplement and BBC History. She has taught at Cambridge University and is now a lecturer in Early Modern History at Royal Holloway, University of London.

Reviews for Mary Tudor: England's First Queen

'An impressive and powerful debut' David Starkey Whitelock offers an unforgettable picture of Mary alone in darkness, waiting for labour to begin for a child that never was ... Her book gives us a woman who met impossible challenges with courage and conviction' Diane Purkiss, Financial Times 'A rollercoaster of a story' Antonia Fraser, Mail on Sunday 'Whitelock's fine new biography tells, instead, the story of the road that Mary did take, from cradle to throne' Sunday Telegraph