What do you think?
Rate this book
The War Within Me
‘If I held my whole kingdom in one hand and my son in the other, I would toss them both to the bottom of the sea before I would let them impede me.’
Sixteenth-century Princess Jeanne d’Albret is twice her uncle is King of France, her father King of Navarre. She is small, she is often ill – yet she won’t allow that to define her. As a child, she is carried to the altar at the French King’s command – but she and her mother have a secret plan to get their own way...
Soon a new king is on the French throne. And when a second arranged marriage is forced on her, Jeanne is surprised by bliss. She can’t stop talking or thinking about Antoine, first prince of the blood; she throws her whole self into their life together, even when the battlefield parts them.
Fiery and stubborn, wherever she goes, Jeanne is reminded of her famous poet-mother, protector of reformers, who could not break with the Catholic church despite her attraction to the new religious ideas. Jeanne resolves to go further – and let nothing stop her. But what will this mean for her precious marriage? As the Civil Wars break out – the Wars of Religion – and Jeanne commits to the Huguenots, will her adored husband take the same path? How can she fend off the Pope, the Guises – and the wily, evasive Queen Mother of France, Catherine de Médicis, while struggling for her son’s rights and future?
Tracy Ryan’s second novel in the Queens of Navarre trilogy is a story of both flesh and spirit, of passion and obsession, and their often devastating consequences for self and others.
Praise for The Queen’s Apprenticeship, Queens of Navarre Book One:
‘a triumphant foray into historical fiction...a compelling exploration of patriarchy, privilege and resistance in Renaissance France, set amid a vividly sketched milieu...with convincing fictional characters.’ – Cheryl Akle, The Australian
‘the brilliant depth of character we want when reading historical fiction'...a buoyancy of storytelling’ – Jessie Tu, The Age
Sixteenth-century Princess Jeanne d’Albret is twice her uncle is King of France, her father King of Navarre. She is small, she is often ill – yet she won’t allow that to define her. As a child, she is carried to the altar at the French King’s command – but she and her mother have a secret plan to get their own way...
Soon a new king is on the French throne. And when a second arranged marriage is forced on her, Jeanne is surprised by bliss. She can’t stop talking or thinking about Antoine, first prince of the blood; she throws her whole self into their life together, even when the battlefield parts them.
Fiery and stubborn, wherever she goes, Jeanne is reminded of her famous poet-mother, protector of reformers, who could not break with the Catholic church despite her attraction to the new religious ideas. Jeanne resolves to go further – and let nothing stop her. But what will this mean for her precious marriage? As the Civil Wars break out – the Wars of Religion – and Jeanne commits to the Huguenots, will her adored husband take the same path? How can she fend off the Pope, the Guises – and the wily, evasive Queen Mother of France, Catherine de Médicis, while struggling for her son’s rights and future?
Tracy Ryan’s second novel in the Queens of Navarre trilogy is a story of both flesh and spirit, of passion and obsession, and their often devastating consequences for self and others.
Praise for The Queen’s Apprenticeship, Queens of Navarre Book One:
‘a triumphant foray into historical fiction...a compelling exploration of patriarchy, privilege and resistance in Renaissance France, set amid a vividly sketched milieu...with convincing fictional characters.’ – Cheryl Akle, The Australian
‘the brilliant depth of character we want when reading historical fiction'...a buoyancy of storytelling’ – Jessie Tu, The Age
- GenresHistorical Fiction
Paperback
1 person is currently reading
21 people want to read
About the author
Tracy Ryan
30 books4 followersTracy Ryan is a Western Australian poet and novelist. She was particularly well-known in the 1990s as a trailblazing feminist poet, with early collections as 'Killing Delilah' and 'Bluebeard in Drag'. Such poetry collections reflected the fraught nature of the the times regarding the end of second-wave feminism, through her experiences as poet, woman, mother, partner and the inhabitant of politicised body in a politicised space.
Ryan has worked various jobs in libraries, bookselling, editing, community journalism and university teaching. She has a BA in English from Curtin University, studied European languages at the University of Western Australia, and finished with a BA (Hons) in French from the University of New England in NSW. She is especially interested in foreign languages and the translation of poetry.
Ryan's poetry has been compared, by poet Dorothy Hewett, with Sylvia Plath, and Debra Zott, in her review of Hothouse, agrees, saying that "certainly, there are [in Ryan's poetry] the mythic underpinnings one finds in Plath's poetry, as well as that quality of imbuing the personal with highly dramatised mythic proportions" and that "it is no secret that Ryan has been influenced by Plath". However, she argues that "the very mention of Plath's name shapes, and threatens to place limits on, the reader's experience of Ryan's poetry", that "Tracy Ryan's poetry does not need the Plath myth to prop it up".
In 2001, Ryan said the following about her writing in a session with the Virginia G Piper Centre for Creative Writing:
I don’t adhere to any particular school of thought, except in the broadest sense that my writing is inextricably bound up with my feminism. This would be the only real connector between my books. I am interested in trying to find ways in which language may be interrupted, disrupted and rejigged for feminist purposes (among others). Usually this attempt would arise from something in either my personal life or the world around me. My home state is currently enacting a legal clamp-down on women, with regard to street prostitution—passing laws that restrict women’s movements and rights to occupy space. Though such factors are often what ‘provokes’ me into a poem, the poem equally draws life off other books (like most poets, I spend a lot of time reading). I work by a kind of principle of immersion in particular poets at particular times."
Notable awards and short-listings:
Western Australian Premier’s Book Award, Poetry (Shortlisted 2014)
NSW Premier’s Literary Award, Kenneth Slessor Prize (Shortlisted 2012)
Western Australian Premier’s Book Award, Poetry (Winner 2012)
Australian Book Review Poetry Prize (Winner 2009)
The Age Book of the Year Award, Poetry (Shortlisted 2008)
Trudie Graham Award for Memoir (Winner 2007)
Western Australian Premier’s Book Award (Winner 2000)
National Book Council’s Banjo Award (Commended 1997)
Western Australian Premier’s Book
Award (Shortlisted 1994, 1998)
Mattara Poetry Prize (Winner 1987)
Ryan has worked various jobs in libraries, bookselling, editing, community journalism and university teaching. She has a BA in English from Curtin University, studied European languages at the University of Western Australia, and finished with a BA (Hons) in French from the University of New England in NSW. She is especially interested in foreign languages and the translation of poetry.
Ryan's poetry has been compared, by poet Dorothy Hewett, with Sylvia Plath, and Debra Zott, in her review of Hothouse, agrees, saying that "certainly, there are [in Ryan's poetry] the mythic underpinnings one finds in Plath's poetry, as well as that quality of imbuing the personal with highly dramatised mythic proportions" and that "it is no secret that Ryan has been influenced by Plath". However, she argues that "the very mention of Plath's name shapes, and threatens to place limits on, the reader's experience of Ryan's poetry", that "Tracy Ryan's poetry does not need the Plath myth to prop it up".
In 2001, Ryan said the following about her writing in a session with the Virginia G Piper Centre for Creative Writing:
I don’t adhere to any particular school of thought, except in the broadest sense that my writing is inextricably bound up with my feminism. This would be the only real connector between my books. I am interested in trying to find ways in which language may be interrupted, disrupted and rejigged for feminist purposes (among others). Usually this attempt would arise from something in either my personal life or the world around me. My home state is currently enacting a legal clamp-down on women, with regard to street prostitution—passing laws that restrict women’s movements and rights to occupy space. Though such factors are often what ‘provokes’ me into a poem, the poem equally draws life off other books (like most poets, I spend a lot of time reading). I work by a kind of principle of immersion in particular poets at particular times."
Notable awards and short-listings:
Western Australian Premier’s Book Award, Poetry (Shortlisted 2014)
NSW Premier’s Literary Award, Kenneth Slessor Prize (Shortlisted 2012)
Western Australian Premier’s Book Award, Poetry (Winner 2012)
Australian Book Review Poetry Prize (Winner 2009)
The Age Book of the Year Award, Poetry (Shortlisted 2008)
Trudie Graham Award for Memoir (Winner 2007)
Western Australian Premier’s Book Award (Winner 2000)
National Book Council’s Banjo Award (Commended 1997)
Western Australian Premier’s Book
Award (Shortlisted 1994, 1998)
Mattara Poetry Prize (Winner 1987)
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
September 26, 2025
I don't read a lot of historical fiction set during the 16th Century so I was a little apprehensive about reading The War Within Me. However, I found it very easy to read and immensely engaging.
The War Within Me is the second book in Tracy Ryan's Queens of Navarre trilogy, however it reads well as a standalone as each book centres on a different period of time.
In a time when women were married to promote allegiances Jeanne was lucky to find love. However her commitment to the Huguernots and obsession with the Protestant Reformation threatened her marriage and her standing with the king. This religious and political divide across the continent led to uprisings and a civil war.
Tracy Ryan's writing is immersive, her characters rich and passionate making The War Within Me an outstanding read set during a period of religious upheaval and ongoing wars over territory.
The War Within Me is the second book in Tracy Ryan's Queens of Navarre trilogy, however it reads well as a standalone as each book centres on a different period of time.
In a time when women were married to promote allegiances Jeanne was lucky to find love. However her commitment to the Huguernots and obsession with the Protestant Reformation threatened her marriage and her standing with the king. This religious and political divide across the continent led to uprisings and a civil war.
Tracy Ryan's writing is immersive, her characters rich and passionate making The War Within Me an outstanding read set during a period of religious upheaval and ongoing wars over territory.
June 17, 2025
The second novel in the Queens of Navarre trilogy, The War Within Me from Tracy Ryan continues with Princess Jeanne d’Albret a woman who is determined, purposeful and intelligent. She is a twice born royal, her father the King of Navarre, her Uncle the King of France.
Sickly as a child she is wed at an early age to William of Jülich-Cleves-Berge, in a political move to strengthen alliances. This marriage in name only was annulled in 1545. She was later married to Antoine of Bourbon in 1548, a handsome man who she loved to desperation. Together they ruled Navarre after the death of Jeanne’s father in 1555.
Their life together became embattled as Antoine was forever absent fighting one battle or another, a man who was of the Catholic faith, and eventually a man who could not be trusted as he spread his alliance thin, courting whoever he felt could better achieve his ends.
In The War Within Me Tracy Ryan as captured in great detail the turbulence of the times of Jeanne’s rule, the influence of her mother, Margaret of Angouleme respected and revered through Navarre and France, who desired to move into the Protestant faith but found she was unable to severe the ties to the Catholic religion. Jeanne as a young woman accepted the Protestant faith, becoming a true and faithful believer until her death.
Moving through the pages of history Ryan has created a work that while based on the few documents that have survived the turbulent times of Jeanne’s life and rule, illustrate that Jeanne was a woman who committed to her life course with courage and conviction.
Determined to try and achieve the freedom to choose your faith, she took on the might of the Catholic Church and the French Court, thankfully not living to see the horror that took place in 1572, when France ordered the slaughter of the Huguenots which was then retaliated.
Beautifully written and detailed this return to the turbulent times of history is most enlightening. It is a time in history which had profound influence on religion throughout France and Spain.
The third book in the series, To Share His Fortune follows the life of Princess Margot, wife of Jeanne’s son Henri, one of her two surviving children, as she takes up the role of Queen of Navarre.
Sickly as a child she is wed at an early age to William of Jülich-Cleves-Berge, in a political move to strengthen alliances. This marriage in name only was annulled in 1545. She was later married to Antoine of Bourbon in 1548, a handsome man who she loved to desperation. Together they ruled Navarre after the death of Jeanne’s father in 1555.
Their life together became embattled as Antoine was forever absent fighting one battle or another, a man who was of the Catholic faith, and eventually a man who could not be trusted as he spread his alliance thin, courting whoever he felt could better achieve his ends.
In The War Within Me Tracy Ryan as captured in great detail the turbulence of the times of Jeanne’s rule, the influence of her mother, Margaret of Angouleme respected and revered through Navarre and France, who desired to move into the Protestant faith but found she was unable to severe the ties to the Catholic religion. Jeanne as a young woman accepted the Protestant faith, becoming a true and faithful believer until her death.
Moving through the pages of history Ryan has created a work that while based on the few documents that have survived the turbulent times of Jeanne’s life and rule, illustrate that Jeanne was a woman who committed to her life course with courage and conviction.
Determined to try and achieve the freedom to choose your faith, she took on the might of the Catholic Church and the French Court, thankfully not living to see the horror that took place in 1572, when France ordered the slaughter of the Huguenots which was then retaliated.
Beautifully written and detailed this return to the turbulent times of history is most enlightening. It is a time in history which had profound influence on religion throughout France and Spain.
The third book in the series, To Share His Fortune follows the life of Princess Margot, wife of Jeanne’s son Henri, one of her two surviving children, as she takes up the role of Queen of Navarre.
October 15, 2025
Having enjoyed The Queen's Apprentice it was a no-brainer that I would read this second in the series of the macchinations of French royalty.
It is evident TR delves deeply into the history to create a story around the time catholicism was being challenged which enjoyed being immersed in.
It is evident TR delves deeply into the history to create a story around the time catholicism was being challenged which enjoyed being immersed in.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews