Understanding Bloody Mary

Article by Christopher Howse @ the Telegraph:

Executions were in the spirit of the age. Henry VIII had burnt Lutherans for heresy, and his daughter did the same in greater numbers. In less than four years her judges sent 280 Protestants to the stake. It was "the most intense religious persecution of its kind anywhere in Europe" writes Eamon Duffy in his new book Fires of Faith (Yale, £19.99). But he argues that the "received perception of the campaign of burnings, as manifestly unsuccessful and self-defeating, is quite mistaken".

Professor Duffy is our leading expert on religion in the Tudor period, and his account of the reign of Mary (1553-58) is an expansion of a chapter in The Stripping of the Altars (1994). That book was a lastingly influential picture of the vitality of traditional belief in England between 1400 and 1580. Now he has done for the policy of Mary Tudor (below) what Henry Kamen did in 1998 for the Spanish Inquisition in a book of his own – exploding myths and explaining thinking of the time.

Review - The Poisoned Queen

But to give the Ann Dukthas' novel its full title: "In the Time of ..... The Poisoned Queen: A Nicholas Segalla Time Travel Mystery".

"The Poisoned Queen" in question is Mary Tudor - Queen Mary I of England, or as many know her, "Bloody" Mary. Events are centered around the final months in the life of this Queen - she is very ill and the Pope is concerned. Enter Nicholas Segalla to delve into political and court intrigue to discover just who would wish to harm the Queen of England. And the list of suspects is quite long!

The story begins rather curiously - enter the author, Ann Dukthas, a character in her own novel, as she meets with the mysterious Nicholas Segalla - a man whose antecedants are questionable. And so Nicholas recounts to Ann the events surrounding Mary's last months. We are then returned to "modern" times, where Nicholas ties all the events together - with references to all the relevant documentation that can still be found today.

I am, personally, not a great fan of Tudor fiction - but did enjoy this rather interesting approach. Yes, initially, I thought more HG Wells and science fiction than historical fiction - but don't be put off. You will find yourself drawn into the mystery as the suspects, and the body count rises!

There are three other books: "The Prince Lost to Time"; "A Time for the Death of a King"; and "The Time of Murder at Mayerling". All are novels based on true events in history - events, however, shrouded in enough mystery and intrigue that there are many possible, and plausible reasons for many possible, and equally plausible outcomes. I have yet to read these other titles, but shall look for them. I hope that you do!