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A review by jmatkinson1
Mary I: Queen of Sorrows by Alison Weir
informative
reflective
slow-paced
4.25
Mary is born of love and into a family rich with honours and status. The only child of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon, Mary is raised to be a queen but her father longs for a male heir. When he supplants her mother with the 'witch' Anne Boleyn, Mary is cast aside in favour of her half-sister. Then Anne's star falls and Henry gets his heir. Mary is getting older though and longs for a marriage and child of her own. Finally she ascends to the throne but life gets harder, not easier for this devout woman.
Mary I is a very divisive character and Weir is completely honest when she says that she finds it hard to sympathise. In fact I feel that she has written quite a balanced novel here despite the extremely radical Catholicism that Mary believed in. Every Tudor monarch has their positives and negatives and in this book, Weir tries to show the motivations behind Mary's later actions. What I love about these books is the strong research interwoven with the story
Mary I is a very divisive character and Weir is completely honest when she says that she finds it hard to sympathise. In fact I feel that she has written quite a balanced novel here despite the extremely radical Catholicism that Mary believed in. Every Tudor monarch has their positives and negatives and in this book, Weir tries to show the motivations behind Mary's later actions. What I love about these books is the strong research interwoven with the story