Game of Queens
The Women Who Made Sixteenth-Century Europe
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- £4.99
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- £4.99
Publisher Description
A BBC History magazine Book of the Year and an amazon.com Best Book of the Month
As religion divided sixteenth-century Europe, an extraordinary group of women rose to power. They governed nations while kings fought in foreign lands. They ruled on behalf of nephews, brothers and sons. They negotiated peace between their warring nations. For decades, they ran Europe. Small wonder that it was in this century that the queen became the most powerful piece on the chessboard.
From mother to daughter and mentor to protégée, Sarah Gristwood follows the passage of power from Isabella of Castile and Anne de Beaujeu through Anne Boleyn – the woman who tipped England into religious reform – and on to Elizabeth I and Jeanne d’Albret, heroine of the Protestant Reformation. Unravelling a gripping historical narrative, Gristwood reveals the stories of the queens who had, until now, been overshadowed by kings.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Gristwood (Blood Sisters), a commentator on British royal affairs, reframes the Renaissance as an "Age of Queens" in a fast-paced chronological narrative bursting with intrigue. Opening with Spain's Isabella of Castile (1451 1504) and concluding with England's Elizabeth I (1533 1603), Gristwood successfully demonstrates how mentors, such as Margaret of Austria (whose court included a young Anne Boleyn), and power wielders, such as the resolute Isabella, helped influence generations of ambitious, high-ranking women through networking and clever manipulation. Some of these women (such as Louise of Savoy and Catherine de Medici) enjoyed great success, while others endured and sometimes caused great misery (notably Mary, Queen of Scots, and Mary I). Gristwood places each woman's story in the context of her own realm as well as in that of contemporary Europe, using multiple sources and providing clear, impartial explanations. She sympathetically describes limited options for women, especially regarding marriages, and also bluntly details self-destructive decisions. Surprisingly, Gristwood barely mentions some of the powerful and well-known medieval queens (Eleanor of Aquitaine, Isabella of France) who preceded the women here, perhaps because too much emphasis on them would have shifted the book's steady focus. Gristwood's fresh take on a well-documented period and the achievements, failures, and relationships of some of Europe's most powerful players is intriguing, cohesive, and accessible. Illus.
