The Marriage Game
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4.3 • 4 Ratings
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
The new novel from the New York Times bestselling historian Alison Weir tells the story of one of history's most scandalous love affairs: the romance between the new, young "Virgin Queen" Elizabeth I and her handsome married courtier, Lord Robert Dudley.
He is her dashing Master of Horse. She is the 25-year-old newly crowned English Queen, a title she holds only because there is no male heir to inherit it. Yet in spite of her tenuous hold on the throne, young Queen Elizabeth begins a flagrant flirtation with the handsome but married Lord Robert, taking long unchaperoned horseback rides with him and constantly having him at her side. Many believe them to be lovers, and over time the rumors grow that Elizabeth is no virgin at all, and that she has secretly borne Lord Robert's child. When Robert's wife is found dead, lying at the bottom of a staircase with her neck broken, there is universal shock followed by accusations of murder.
Picking up where Alison Weir's bestselling novel to date, The Lady Elizabeth, left off (but standing completely alone), The Marriage Game tells the dramatic story of the "Virgin Queen's" reign, framed by Elizabeth's long and tumultuous relationship with Lord Robert. Did they or didn't they? Rivers of ink have been spilled in determining the answer to this burning historical question, and you can be sure Alison Weir has strong opinions about Elizabeth's questionable virginity, based on a lifetime of research. But fiction gives her a free hand to explore this intriguing love affair in its every colourful detail, and the resulting novel is one of her best.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Weir deftly follows The Lady Elizabeth, her 2008 novel about the young Elizabeth I of England (1533 1603). Here Weir trains her spotlight on Elizabeth's equivocations over marriage from her accession to the throne in 1558 until the death of her most persistent suitor, Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, 30 years later. Weir posits that Elizabeth, deeply scarred by early experience, never intended to marry and had numerous personal and political reasons to avoid it. Yet her council pressured her repeatedly to provide an heir, while innumerable Catholic and Protestant courtiers and royalty sought her hand, hoping to cement an alliance. Elizabeth exasperated everyone with promises, flirting, impossible demands, and prevarication. Lively bedroom scenes and discordant council meetings reveal Elizabeth's complexities, depicting her as a wily coquette determined to rule England alone. Mindful always of England's interests and the vulnerability of her throne, Elizabeth made several anguished decisions regarding both "the marriage game" and her cousin Mary, Queen of Scots. A nuanced portrait of Dudley, whose love for Elizabeth remained steadfast despite her vacillation and his other marriages, balances Weir's sympathy for her subject. Weir's credible characters and blend of the personal and political will sweep up readers of this engrossing behind-the-scenes psychological portrait of Elizabeth.
