British Author Challenge April 2023: British Queens (Non-fiction)

April: British Queens (non-fiction)


Matilda, Elizabeth I, Mary II, Victoria, Elizabeth II

A queen is more than the wife of a king. April is dedicated to non-fiction books about women who ruled Britain.

suggestions
Queen Emma and the Vikings: Power, Love, and Greed in 11th Century England by Harriet O'Brien
Queens Consort: England's Medieval Queens by Lisa Hilton
Eleanor of Aquitaine by Alison Weir
The Six Wives of Henry VIII by Antonia Fraser
Lady Jane Grey: A Tudor Mystery by Eric Ives
She-Wolves: The Women Who Ruled England Before Elizabeth by Helen Castor
Elizabeth: The Struggle for the Throne by David Starkey
The life of Queen Henrietta Maria by Ida Ashworth Taylor
Ungrateful Daughters: The Stuart Princesses Who Stole Their Father's Crown by Maureen Waller
Queen Anne: The Politics of Passion by Anne Somerset
The Unruly Queen: The Life of Queen Caroline by Flora Fraser
Queen Victoria by Lytton Strachey
Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother by William Shawcross

I'll be reading Queens of the Crusades by Alison Weir.

Hi -there seem to be two Alison Weir Eleanor books:

Eleanor of Aquitaine

and The Captive Queen - are they the same by different names?

>3 m.belljackson: Nope, they're two different books. The Captive Queen is a novel, so it's not eligible for this month, but the other is a biography.

Okay, I'll read Eleanor

All set with my library copy of:



Queen Victoria: Twenty-Four Days That Changed Her Life by Lucy Worsley (2018).

I've seen Worsley in lots of TV programs, but have never read her books. If for some reason it doesn't suit me, I'll switch to the Lytton Strachey Queen Victoria, which I own.

I happen to have on my shelves Queen Consorts of England by Petronelle Cook so that's what I'll be reading.

I want to try to get to Victoria : A Life by A.N. Wilson

I'm throwing in the towel on Queens of the Crusades; it takes a special kind of talent to make Eleanor of Aquitaine that boring.

Since calling it quits on Weir's turgid book, I read two of the Penguin Monarchs series.

William III & Mary II: Partners in Revolution by Jonathan Keats

A very short dual biography of the dual monarchs. Despite the brevity of the book, I learned a great deal about a king and queen who are often overlooked in the history books: I had no idea William and Mary were first cousins or that William advocated for greater religious tolerance than Parliament was willing to grant.

My one complaint about the book is that Mary doesn't get as much ink as William, but that's partly because she died early and partly because there are fewer primary and secondary sources about her. Still, Keats does make an effort to keep her in the narrative.

Mary I : The Daughter of Time by John Edwards

A very short biography of "Bloody" Mary Tudor. Edwards argues that Mary isn't nearly as bad as her reputation, and while no one will ever call her a good ruler, she really wasn't worse than the rest of the rest of the Tudors.

I'm slowly making my way through Lucy Worsley's Queen Victoria: 24 Days that Changed Her Life. Worsley takes 24 separate dates (her birth, meeting Albert, her wedding, etc.) and skillfully weaves lots of additional information about Victoria in each of the corresponding 24 chapters. Very readable as well as entertaining, with lots of small domestic details that Worsley does so well.

I finished The Queens of the Crusades. I liked the time period and revisiting the time period of Thomas Becket.

I finished Queen Victoria: Twenty-Four Days That Changed Her Life by Lucy Worsley (2018). This biography takes 24 individual dates in Queen Victoria's life and provides background and context to the events of that day. Besides the obvious dates (birth, coronation, marriage, death), Worsley describes lesser celebrated but significant dates that pull together various aspects of Victoria's life and personality.

I found Worsley's writing style chatty but not simple, detailed without being tediously exhaustive. The book is full of quotes from Victoria's own journals, as well as journals and letters of relatives and contemporaries. Worsley is especially good with domestic details: the clothes, furnishings, homes, servants and food of Victoria's daily life. There are hundreds of notes and references, so it felt well-researched.

Some people may find this an unsatisfying book because it doesn't try to give a complete history of Victoria's life. And if you're looking for a whirlwind life of passion and scandal, then you'd best find a bit flashier Royal to read about. But if you want a taste of everyday life for Queen Victoria, with a basic look at the most important events in her life (and 19th century Britain), this might be a good book for you. It was perfect for what I was looking for; as they say, it does exactly what it says on the tin.

The May thread is up.

https://www.librarything.com/topic/350529