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The First Queen of England: The Myth of "Bloody Mary" | 
 enlarge | Author: Linda Porter
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Category: Book
List Price: $27.95
Buy New: $14.29
You Save: $13.66 (49%)
New (31) Used (9) from $13.48
Avg. Customer Rating:  6 reviews
Sales Rank: 372622
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 464
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.4
Dimensions (in): 9.2 x 5.8 x 1.4
ISBN: 0312368372
Dewey Decimal Number: 942.054092
EAN: 9780312368371
ASIN: 0312368372
Publication Date: July 8, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Condition: Brand New Hardcover With Dustjacket exactly as pictured; In stock for fast shipping; Satisfaction is Always guaranteed!
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Product Description
In this groundbreaking new biography of “Bloody Mary,” Linda Porter brings to life a queen best remembered for burning hundreds of Protestant heretics at the stake, but whose passion, will, and sophistication have for centuries been overlooked. Daughter of Henry VIII and Katherine of Aragon, wife of Philip of Spain, and sister of Edward VI, Mary Tudor was a cultured Renaissance princess. A Latin scholar and outstanding musician, her love of fashion was matched only by her zeal for gambling. It is the tragedy of Queen Mary that today, 450 years after her death, she remains the most hated, least understood monarch in English history. Linda Porter’s pioneering new biography—based on contemporary documents and drawing from recent scholarship—cuts through the myths to reveal the truth about the first queen to rule England in her own right. Mary learned politics in a hard school, and was cruelly treated by her father and bullied by the strongmen of her brother, Edward VI. An audacious coup brought her to the throne, and she needed all her strong will and courage to keep it. Mary made a grand marriage to Philip of Spain, but her attempts to revitalize England at home and abroad were cut short by her premature death at the age of forty-two. The first popular biography of Mary in thirty years, The First Queen of England offers a fascinating, controversial look at this much-maligned queen.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 1 more reviews...
 Very detailed and interesting take on Mary I. October 5, 2008
This book took me a lot further into a story I thought I already knew. Though I haven't read any of the works that condemn Mary as a monarch, I hardly felt that this work was overly-sympathetic or forgiving. I think everything was explained very clearly and I enjoyed the book a lot. I give the book five stars because I feel like I learned a lot from it, it was an enjoyable read, and I think the author did a great job putting all of this information together.
 Service review September 19, 2008
0 out of 3 found this review helpful
We were sent two of these books rather than the one that was ordered. Of course, they were shrink-wrapped together so that had to be broken in order to keep one. The extra was sent back THAT day but the choices on line to explain why the return was made were very vague. We received about $6.00 back on a $23.00 book. When I tried to email the company to explain, the system wouldn't work. Figures. So, this is my chance, but I'm sure this will never be viewed by readers. Nonetheless, I'll go on record as saying that I'll never order again from Amazon.com due to the lousy service. I dare you to post this.
Surprising book September 7, 2008
I've read a lot about "Bloody Mary" and this book gave me a "devil's advocate" approach if you would. It takes into account all the things she went through in her life, including the horrible way I feel she was treated by her family(Hapsburgs, included) and gives you a look into why she made the decisons that she made. It hasn't changed my mind about her, but it's nice to see a book that isn't totally negative for once.
A Long Overdue Fresh Look at 'Bloody' Mary August 6, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Dr Linda Porter has meticulously researched the tragic life of England's first queen regnant in her vivid and well-written book. For readers who only know the 'myth' of Bloody Mary, Porter's book offers a real glimpse of the all-too-human queen behind that myth. For those who think they know the 'real' Mary, they, too, will have a stunning surprise and fascinating read. We see Mary hurtling toward disaster after disaster, from the moment she's put in the care of her tutor, Jean de Vives; to the confrontations of long, obdurate duration with her father, Henry VIII; through the separations from her mother and her half-siblings; and headlong into a disastrous, love-struck marriage with Philip II of Spain. Mary's story has been much neglected by historians to date -- with the great Dr David Starkey even lumping her together with her half-brother Edward VI as the 'forgotten Tudors'. Yet Mary's reign (as well as that of her brother Edward) was a watershed, not only in English history, but in the history of the Protestant reformation movement that spread with England's nascent empire during her half-sister Elizabeth I's reign. Without understand Mary Tudor, we can't understand why and how Elizabeth and other monarchs acted after her. This is a must read for anyone interested in British history, family history, or the history of Catholicism and the Protestant reformation.
 Not impartial, more of a whitewash July 28, 2008
5 out of 10 found this review helpful
Periodically some historian writes a new biography of "Bloody" Mary I, queen of England from 1553-1558, seeking to rehabilitate her reputation. Her short reign was marked by a rise in religious reaction that resulted in some 270 deaths through judicial murder, the flight of some 800 important Protestants abroad seeking to save their lives, and largely alienated the English public from the Roman Catholic Church. In this book, author and historian Linda Porter sets out to show Mary as a cultured Renaissance monarch, moderate, but determined to revitalize England.
Overall, I found this to be a disappointing book. I think that the author did a good job of showing how Mary had been cruelly treated by her father, and by the powerful men who ruled Tudor England before her ascension to the throne. However, once the narrative reaches Mary's coronation, that earlier treatment seems to be forgotten - as showing her to have been vengeful, or perhaps just another player in the Tudor blood sport of politics, would have undercut the author's recasting of Mary as enlightened monarch.
Further, the author eschews any discussion of Mary's mental instability, for example not going into any great detail on Mary's two phantom pregnancies, or their significance. The author laid a great deal of blame for Mary's subsequent reputation on the person of John Foxe, the author of the Book of Martyrs, but fails to go into any detail on how one book could so overcome the "truth" of Mary's enlightenment.
No, I must say that I did not find this to be a good, impartial book on Queen Mary I, but saw it as more of a whitewash of her flaws. Has Mary been mistreated by historians since her reign? Most certainly. But, was she an enlightened and humanistic ruler, one of England's best monarchs? I think that that is going more than a little too far. Overall, I do not recommend this book.
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