What do you think?
Rate this book
The Reign of Mary Tudor
This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.
532 pages, Kindle Edition
Published May 11, 2012
62 people are currently reading
412 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
September 16, 2011
Finally Done with this history book. Poor Deranged Mary, Bloody Mary as she was dubbed, because of her persecution of the Protestants of England. Poor girl was rejected by her Father, because he wanted to marry another woman, then she was courted by her father and given her "place of legitimacy" back before her father died. Then she was married to a foreign man, for convenience and political reasons. She fancied herself in love with this cold man, who never cared for her. She thought herself pregnant, with out ever having been known by her husband, sounds like she had very bad case of endrometriosis, or some other type of horrid bleeding disease, nearly felt she was normal during that part.
I used to think being Queen or Princess would be a fabulously wonderful thing, I don't think so much anymore. These ladies were used by the men in their lives pitifully, and never a thought was paid to their happiness or wants or even needs. They couldn't really be allowed to act for themselves without having a male justify the thought. When Elizabeth took the throne, she was able to somewhat use her intellect to her advantage, but she had to give up the idea of love and marriage, to prove a point to the men that surrounded her, and to rule her country the way it needed at the time.
I used to think being Queen or Princess would be a fabulously wonderful thing, I don't think so much anymore. These ladies were used by the men in their lives pitifully, and never a thought was paid to their happiness or wants or even needs. They couldn't really be allowed to act for themselves without having a male justify the thought. When Elizabeth took the throne, she was able to somewhat use her intellect to her advantage, but she had to give up the idea of love and marriage, to prove a point to the men that surrounded her, and to rule her country the way it needed at the time.
July 16, 2015
History certainly has not been kind to the queen known best as "Bloody Mary". The author makes an attempt to humanize, sympathize and at very least account for who she was and perhaps why she is so infamous. I did not feel he was speculative in his descriptions of her personality. Many facts about Her life and court were previously unknown to me as well as the sincerity she felt in her unfortunate marriage. It is obvious that she did not possess the same powers of leadership as her sister, and perhaps this marks a beginning in the deviation of reliance on "Devine right".
Admittedly, I am forever a sucker for anything to do with the reformation and the last name of Tudor guarantees my attention if not affection!
Admittedly, I am forever a sucker for anything to do with the reformation and the last name of Tudor guarantees my attention if not affection!
August 12, 2015
Poor delusional Mary Tudor
She would want her mother to of been proud of her redeeming her and making right the precived wrong doing of her father, Henry VIII. She failed and nearly destroyed England by following poor advice of those she trusted. Bloody Mary died not early enough to save losses in France as well as England.
She would want her mother to of been proud of her redeeming her and making right the precived wrong doing of her father, Henry VIII. She failed and nearly destroyed England by following poor advice of those she trusted. Bloody Mary died not early enough to save losses in France as well as England.
October 29, 2009
An effective study of the disastrous five year reign of Queen Mary I. The author is sympathetic to her to a point, but chapter by chapter documents the terrible religious, political, military, financial and dynastic decisions that brought Mary from wild popularity to reviled memory.
April 30, 2012
History from the days when historians felt free to write whole chapters as fictional dialogue and judge everyone harder than an episode of Chopped. But, that's the way they rolled in the 1800s. At least Froude does it with style.
April 1, 2009
im almost done with this book. its pretty good, it also has some paragraphs and footnotes in latin, french, italian, and spanish.
February 26, 2015
Throughout her reign, Mary was unequipped to deal with the tasks set before her, and basically a slave to love. She was in love with a man that did not love her in return, but instead saw the potential of a windfall for himself from England.
Had Mary better advisers, decided on tolerance instead of religious fervor, and united instead of divide, she would have had a better reign, and might have kept the people on her side.
As I was reading through this book, I was struck with how she trusted a person, someone she saw a father figure, and was almost determined to rectify all wrongs she felt had been done to her during her father's reign. I felt sorry for her, but then angry with her, as she was slow to act when she could have been decisive, and vengeful when she would have been forgiving. She alone incurred the wrath of her people, not without help, but the wrongs fall to her.
Great read overall, good concise history and factual relating.
Had Mary better advisers, decided on tolerance instead of religious fervor, and united instead of divide, she would have had a better reign, and might have kept the people on her side.
As I was reading through this book, I was struck with how she trusted a person, someone she saw a father figure, and was almost determined to rectify all wrongs she felt had been done to her during her father's reign. I felt sorry for her, but then angry with her, as she was slow to act when she could have been decisive, and vengeful when she would have been forgiving. She alone incurred the wrath of her people, not without help, but the wrongs fall to her.
Great read overall, good concise history and factual relating.
October 10, 2022
I found this book available for download from the Books app on my iPhone. I downloaded and read it as it immediately seized my interest. It was written by one of England's most famous 19th century historians between 1856 and 1870 as part of a twelve volume series titled "Froude's History of England". The volumes in their entirety can be downloaded from the Internet Archive. James Anthony Froude was a colourful and controversial character judging by his Wikipedia entry. I found Froude's account of Mary's unfortunate life quite absorbing and have downloaded the entire history in order to read at my future leisure.
April 3, 2011
Admittedly, this is very "textbookish" and not exactly a page turner. It is extremely well researched and very conclusive. It only covers her life as Queen of England, which is to say, was not very long. I've been compelled to read "Foxe's Book of Martyrs" because of this book.
April 21, 2011
Snore, snore. Way too textbook; very difficult read. There are far more enjoyable books on Mary I than this one.
July 25, 2024
There are a huge number of books with this title. The one I am reviewing has a novel concept (published by Continuum) which sets out an introduction ( over 21 pages) by a modern authority, Eamon Duffy, on the work of a past historian ( the nineteenth century historian, James Anthony Froude) followed by extracts of his work (in this case, that part of his 12 volume study of "The History of England from the fall of Wolsey to the Defeat of the Spanish Armada") published between 1858 and 1870. Obviously in this Continuum book spanning only 167 pages in total it uses selected extracts of Froude's work about the nail biting few days leading up to the coming to power of Mary and particular events during her 5 year. Thus, this is an advert for, not a book covering, the reign of Mary.
Froude was evidently a writer in love with words and phrases, and has a way of mixing pacy narrative with his own opinions on Mary's character and of some of the leading and misled power players. Reginald Pole, who died of a broken heart on the same day as Mary, comes in for special distaste by Froude. The account of the burnings of Ridley, Latimer and Cranmer is harrowing and Froude considered these unnecessary and counter-productive to the cause of restoring the Catholic church to prominence.
Overall this was an interesting short read of events that are covered in greater detail in numerous other history books on the Tudor period.
Froude was evidently a writer in love with words and phrases, and has a way of mixing pacy narrative with his own opinions on Mary's character and of some of the leading and misled power players. Reginald Pole, who died of a broken heart on the same day as Mary, comes in for special distaste by Froude. The account of the burnings of Ridley, Latimer and Cranmer is harrowing and Froude considered these unnecessary and counter-productive to the cause of restoring the Catholic church to prominence.
Overall this was an interesting short read of events that are covered in greater detail in numerous other history books on the Tudor period.
Want to read
May 18, 2013$0.0
August 25, 2015
Most of this book bored me. It was a very tedious read.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews