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srash 's review for:
Rival Queens: The Betrayal of Mary Queen of Scots
by Kate Williams
I only finished this book out of morbid curiosity. The author is not a bad writer and she has some good information in here, but it is not really a dual biography of Mary Queen of Scots and Elizabeth I. It is more balanced in focus in the beginning, but the author is an ardent Mary defender, to the point that she seems to lose all objectivity.
Ironically, the more she tried to convince me that Mary was brilliant, the more she convinced me that she was terribly inept and not really worthy of so much strident defending. She repeatedly points to instances where Mary made the worst possible choice possible and then tries to jump through incredibly specious hoops to claim it was a good decision or a reasonable decision. She also ignores how Mary brought a lot of suffering on herself with her poor decisions. Her claim that Elizabeth I also somehow betrayed Mary is also bizarre and pretty thin.
The author also seems to be lacking a lot of context about 16th century Scotland that I really enjoyed in Jenny Wormald's book.
I'd love to read a better, more balanced book on MQOS, but at this rate, I won't be reading any more of this author's books.
Ironically, the more she tried to convince me that Mary was brilliant, the more she convinced me that she was terribly inept and not really worthy of so much strident defending. She repeatedly points to instances where Mary made the worst possible choice possible and then tries to jump through incredibly specious hoops to claim it was a good decision or a reasonable decision. She also ignores how Mary brought a lot of suffering on herself with her poor decisions. Her claim that Elizabeth I also somehow betrayed Mary is also bizarre and pretty thin.
The author also seems to be lacking a lot of context about 16th century Scotland that I really enjoyed in Jenny Wormald's book.
I'd love to read a better, more balanced book on MQOS, but at this rate, I won't be reading any more of this author's books.