Ungrateful Daughters: The Stuart Princesses Who Stole Their Father's Crown

by Maureen Waller

In 1688, the birth of a Prince of Wales ignited a family quarrel--and a revolution. James II's drive towards Catholicism had alienated the nation and his two staunchly Protestant daughters by his first marriage, Mary and Anne, the "ungrateful daughters," who eventually usurped their father's crown and stole their half-brother's birthright.

Seven prominent men sent an invitation to William of Orange--James's nephew and son-in-law--to intervene in English affairs. But Mary and Anne also played a key role. Jealous and resentful of her hated stepmother, Anne had written a series of malicious letters to Mary in Holland, implying that the Queen's pregnancy was a hoax: a Catholic plot to deny Mary her rightful inheritance.

Distraught from being betrayed by his own children, James fled the kingdom. And even as the crown descended on her head, Mary knew she had incurred a father's curse. The sisters quarreled to the day of Mary's death at age 32. Anne did nothing to earn her father's forgiveness, and she declared her brother an outlaw with a price on his head.

Acclaimed historian Maureen Waller re-creates the late Stuart era in a compelling narrative that highlights the influence of the royal women on one of the most momentous events in English history. Prompted by religious bigotry and the emotions that beset every family relationship, this palace coup changed the face of the monarchy, and signaled the end of a dynasty.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Biography, 17th Century, British Literature, Royalty, Politics

480 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

Maureen Waller was educated at University College London, where she studied medieval and modern history. She received a master's degree at Queen Mary College, London, in British and European history 1660--1714. After a brief stint at the National Portrait Gallery, she went on to work as an editor at several prestigious London publishing houses. Her first book was the highly acclaimed 1700: Scenes from London Life. She currently lives in London with her husband, who is a journalist and author.

Reviews

[Wealhtheow · Rating 3 out of 5]

The history of the last three Stuarts to rule England: James II, Mary (of William&Mary) and Anne. Quick history run down: Charles I was executed by his people. His eldest son, Charles II, was invited back to rule after living in exile. Charles II died without legitimate issue, so his younger brother James II inherited. Unfortunately, James II had publicly converted to Catholicism during a time that England was so viciously anti-Catholic (just as the Catholic countries were viciously anti-Protestant) that Catholics were banned from serving in the military or holding office, and were still attacked in the streets. His choice of religion, his lack of political accumen or ability to compromise, and his complete lack of personal charm made him an unpopular king. When his new Catholic wife, Mary Beatrice of Modena, gave birth to a healthy baby boy (who would presumably be raised Catholic, meaning that the next King of England would *also* be Catholic), it served as the catalyst for Parliament to invite his oldest daughter to rule in his stead. Mary, who had married William (elected Prince of Orange), insisted that they rule jointly. William headed to England with an army, and James II fled. Mary and William assumed the throne, rocked the war of the Spanish Succession and a few other wars that all blend together, and in the end secured the right to trade slaves through Spanish territories, which basically made England's fortunes in the next century. Mary, then William died, and so Mary's younger sister Anne assumed the throne. Anne had [seventeen pregnancies, but none of her children survived, and so after her death the Stuart line of rulers was broken. Although their younger half-brother James III (the Pretender) was alive and constantly trying to become King of England, he never succeeded, and the throne went to the Hanovers in the form of George I.

The deck was stacked against this book from the start. The first problem is the title and central conceit: that Mary and Anne were "ungrateful" and "stole" their father's crown. Anyone who knows anything about James II knows he lost that crown all by himself. No one wanted that clumsy, narrow-minded bigot on the throne a second longer, and after reading about the numerous instances he could have saved his claim but didn't, either out of cowardice or misreading of the situation or just stupidity, I couldn't blame them. (Lisollet, my favorite historical figure of the time, said "The more I see of this King, the more excuses I find for the Prince of Orange, and the more admirable I think he is." Of his exile, Madame de Sevigne said it even more succinctly: "When one listens to him, one realises why he is here.") And as someone who grew up in a democratic nation, I find it very hard to believe anyone "deserves" a throne just by virtue of birth. From my perspective, James II had a more than fair chance of ruling, but he screwed it up repeatedly and so was justly removed. Waller talks about James II like his rights were violated, but if anyone's rights were violated, it was the countless peasants and slaves without a vote or voice at all. Waller stops trying to portray Mary and Anne in the worst possible light once James II is dead, and the book is better for the lightening of the authorial judgment. Her other mis-step is to switch between time points, so that first James is exiled in France, and then abruptly (without any transition) we're back in time watching William III grow up. Confusing!

That said, Waller lards the book with the full texts of letters and copious quotes, so one truly gets a feel for their voices. And she has a good grasp of the history of the time, which is pretty complicated (due to being more globally-reaching than previous eras). I would have liked more citations and less insertion by the author of the motivations or feelings of the historical figures, but in the end I did feel like I learned a bit from this book. And it's written with a clear, lucid style which is all too rare.

[Bettie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bettie's Books

The shelving, status updates and star rating constitute how I felt about this book.

[Gareth Russell · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Ungrateful Daughters" showcases the ugly side of the Glorious Revolution, the event still celebrated by Ireland's Orange Order. By examining the events from the point-of-view of each major member of the Royal Family in 1688-1690, Maureen Waller delivers a devastatingly unpleasant story of filial betrayal and deceit. The one truly likeable character to emerge from the entire sordid narrative is Maria-Beatrice of Modena, the Italian princess who was destined to become the last Catholic queen of Britain when she married the future James II. In 1688, she was horribly traduced by her two stepdaughters, the future queens regnant Mary II and Anne, when they unfairly accused her of smuggling an impostor-baby into her rooms to pass off as James's long-awaited Catholic heir. Armed with this smear campaign, James's son-in-law, William of Orange, invaded England, by that point whipped up into a mood of hysterical anti-Catholicism, and seized the throne, completing his transformation into William III two years later at the Battle of the Boyne. Passionate, well-argued, and moving, "Ungrateful Daughters" was a very good read.

[El · Rating 2 out of 5]

Keeping track of the House of Stuart is like the children's nursery rhyme ("The toe bone connected to the foot bone, and the foot bone connected to the ankle bone..."), except without all the sense and order of basic anatomy. Going back to Mary, Queen of Scots you then have James VI of Scotland, who helped produce Charles I, who then helped produce James II. From James's loins of a first marriage comes Mary II and her sister Anne, and that is where the trouble begins in Maureen Waller's biography. His second marriage produced another James (try and keep up), who then pushed past Mary and Anne to be the rightful heir to the throne, creating a lot of anxiety and jealousy in Mary and Anne.

So then you throw into the royal mix a difference of opinion on religion and all bets are off. James II was extremely Catholic and wanted to force that upon his people during a time when Catholicism was just not in vogue. His daughters felt opposite of their father's beliefs also, and used that, according to Waller, as a way to take their father's crown away from him.

Lies and betrayal and a lot of cattiness ensue, William of Orange comes along and takes over; he marries Princess Anne, succeeds the throne, leaving James II high and dry. Princess Mary actually managed to feel some sympathy later for her father and is frightened by having a curse placed on her by her father and indeed she dies early, at the age of thirty-two, having not spoken civilly to her near and dear sister Anne.

This is a fascinating story, as most of those of the British monarchy, but Waller's version of it is rather watered down and a little too Melrose Place for my taste. There are a lot of different Jameses, Annes, Marys, etc. in royalty and unfortunately Waller did not manage to clearly keep them straight, even with the family chart and a 'Cast of Characters' in the beginning. The picture inserts in the first quarter and last quarter of the book were decent and helped add some familiarity to some of the names being thrown around. It was good to read about the princesses who often go un-represented in history, but I wish their story could have been told with a little more authority here.

[C.S. Burrough · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting account of the end of the Stuarts in England. Until the last century there remained vehement opponents of the switch to Hanoverian rule.

James II's daughters, Mary and Anne, were Anne Hyde's daughters. They resented their stepmother, Mary of Modena, and were so bitter at her baby son's arrival (cue pushing towards their throne) that a family row ensued, escalating into a coup against their father aided by public fears and anti-Catholic prejudices.

James II, as Charles II's younger brother, had not always been expected to rule. The latter, however, left no legitimate heirs. Only when James came under greater scrutiny as king did his Catholicism come into much question publicly, the matter having been kept discrete like many sensitive royal details.

Malicious rumours erupted concerning the baby prince's legitimacy, the harshest being that he was an imposter smuggled into the palace in a bed-warming pan after Mary's real baby died. The likelihood, or not, of this is examined, as is the issue of post-reformation England's then governmental power mongers (and proletariat) dreading any return to a Catholic monarchy. The last had been Bloody Mary Tudor, under whose watch 283 Protestants had been executed for heresy, most by burning.

James II's baby heir, James Francis Edward Stuart, later to become nicknamed the Old Pretender, was taken to France by his mother who feared for his life, and kept by his cousin Louis XIV of France.

James II then fled England for his safety when it became apparent that his Protestant son-in-law, William of Orange would invade at the request of James' detractors. James' baby son was railroaded from the succession by Mary and William. That couple ruled jointly until William died, leaving just Queen Mary II. With no offspring, Mary's demise left Queen Anne to wind up the Stuart rule. Her disastrous run of 17 pregnancies left no living offspring either. So came their Hanoverian cousins, descended from the same Stuart grandparents via the maternal line.

These two 'Ungrateful Daughters' of James II, as the title suggests, are not portrayed sympathetically. This may not be author bias, but more likely the way many have remembered them. Neither went down in history as hugely popular monarchs, although Anne's reign saw nationalistic development, notably the 1707 Acts of Union whereby her realms of England and Scotland became united as Great Britain, creating Europe's largest free trade area.

Ungrateful Daughters is an insightful account of the 1688 Glorious Revolution and two rather troubled and troublesome sisters, neither of which became greatly revered. Anne became more iconic than Mary but without attaining much personal popularity with all those around her. Political and diplomatic achievements of Anne's governments, and the absence of constitutional conflict between herself and parliament, indicate that she chose ministers and exercised her prerogatives wisely. Her reign marked an increase in the influence of ministers and a decrease in the influence of the Crown

The Stuarts have been tagged a jinxed dynasty, with Mary of Scots and her grandson Charles I's executions, the latter's triggering England's republic. Then, after the long awaited and greatly hailed Restoration, Charles II's morally lax court attracted fresh disrepute; his many controversial bastards but no legitimate heirs signalled the beginning of the end for these Stuarts. Two unsuccessful invasions and coups by leftover Stuarts were plotted after the Hanoverian branch was called in: the 1708 Jacobite Rising, led by the Old Pretender, and the 1745 Jacobite Uprising led by his son, the Young Pretender (Bonnie Prince Charlie).

An important era to study in piecing together how the UK got today's royals, whose convoluted lineage runs from William the Conqueror ... via the tragic forbear of these very Stuarts: Mary Queen of Scots (and her Hanoverian descendants). Maureen Waller makes the characters and their motives accessible, coherent and dramatic without switching from meticulous documentation to melodrama.

Well-crafted high calibre biography.

[Luthien · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5

Also on my blog, Luthien Reviews

More a series of biographies in brief than an overview of the so-called “Glorious Revolution,” Ungrateful Daughters is so chock-full of family drama, fear mongering, ridiculous gossip, and backstabbing that it leaves your head spinning a bit. It also makes you wonder why the Tudors get so much press. Sure, having six wives (and executing two of them) is morbidly fascinating, but so is insisting that your baby half-brother is a changeling and encouraging others to think the same just so you can get your shot at being queen.

Seriously, a ton of people including James’ own daughters convinced themselves that James Francis Edward was, somehow, not actually James’ son, even though dozens of trustworthy sources witnessed his birth. I had to remind myself that JFE’s birth was just four years before the infamous Salem Witch Trials, a good reminder that the late seventeenth century was hardly the age of reason.

Very few of the central figures of Waller’s book (James II and his wife, James’ daughters, and William of Orange) come off as particularly good or likable people. That’s not to say that they aren’t interesting to read about, just that the author doesn’t seem to care for most of them–for good enough reasons, but it did occasionally make me wonder why she was writing about a family that she paints as mostly loathsome–and as a result, neither did I.

She does make it clear why they were the way they were, at least. For example, James II was stubborn, prideful, and autocratic to the point of losing his throne. The seeds of his maddening personality, though, were sewn during his tumultuous childhood, which was dominated by the English Civil War and culminated traumatically in his father’s execution. Given those circumstances, his actions become much more understandable, though no wiser or more effective.

The most gripping part of the book is the middle section about the events leading up to and directly following the birth of James’ son James Francis Edward, “the Pretender.” Those chapters were almost unbelievably wild, so much so that the rest just came across as a bit melodramatic in comparison. I’m not particularly well-read on this period of English history, so the book read, overall, like a sort of very compelling historical soap opera. I knew what the ultimate outcome would be, but not exactly how things got that way.

Despite being populated by so many unappealing characters, the book also offers readers some genuine and touching love stories. In an age of arranged marriages, James and his two daughters all ended up quite happily married and truly in love with all their respective spouses.

So if you’re interested in the crazy melodramatic side of English history, or in the Glorious Revolution and the last Stuarts in particular, I would say that Ungrateful Daughters is a good choice. I don’t feel like I know a lot more about the finer political points of the “Revolution” (except that Catholics are bad, duh) but I definitely know more about the individuals involved–and while I still feel bad for Queen Anne’s tragic gynecological record, she was a real heartless backstabber more half the time.

It also made me wonder what could’ve been had James passed the throne on to his son. With Protestants still firmly in charge, persecution of Catholics was still a-okay, and after all, possibly the worst-persecuted place in the British Isles–Ireland–suffered all the more for being a majority Catholic country.

[Kelly]

More insane drama in the British royal family? I'm shocked! Shocked! To find that there is gambling going on in this establishment.

[Todd · Rating 5 out of 5]

I could not believe my eyes when I found this book. The tale of the so called Glorious Revolution is rarely told but was a significant change in the history of the British monarchy. I learned that the easily manipulated princess Anne desperately wanted to believe her brother, the Catholic Prince of Wales, was a fraud and ineligible for the crown. I saw the deep admiration William and Mary had for each other and how the sickly man that he was turned into a ferocious warrior against anyone who stood in his way. Most importantly, we see how James II just couldn't keep his mouth shut and it cost him in the end, even though his royal line was clearly usurped eventually in favor of a very minor relation. Overall, the book does take a critical view of the royal daughters, but it doesn't seem to indicate this whole series of events wasn't inevitable. Many nobles were interested in inviting William Prince of Orange to take the crown. All they really needed was an excuse.

[Emilija · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book followed the second half of the Stuart line, possibly the most disastrous line in the history of the British monarchy.

While I personally liked how this book was set out, with individual biographical chapters dedicated to each of the main players in the stealing of the crown (namely, James II, his wife Mary, Mary II, Anne and William of Orange), it made it feel incredibly slow and made the actual progression of events quite difficult to follow.

I actually find the Glorious Revolution quite interesting, but this book made it feel really boring. The majority of the book was spent on religion and feuds, which made the book feel quite vapid.

[Louise · Rating 4 out of 5]

Author Maureen Waller has delivered an overview of the Glorious Revolution. It is not for those who know the story, but good for someone like me, more steeped in Tudor than Stuart history. The genealogy chart is excellent and I referred to it often. There is a table of characters but the one time I consulted it, for Elizabeth Villiers, it was lacking. The color plates were mostly appropriate, especially the portrait of James II side by side with James Francis Edward.

The first section, comprised of biographies of the principle players in the Glorious Revolution, was a page turner for me. The second part, about the Revolution itself is a good summary, inspiring me to read more about it. Although this arrangement meant some duplication in the story, the reiteration of events paced the story in a way that I could absorb much better than if it were a single narration.

The third part does not measure up to the first two. While it is titled "Consequences" it is really a continuation of the story. It relies heavily on quotes from letters and in some sections has more cut and paste than text.

These girls were raised by staff while their parents hoped for sons. Add to it James's philandering, his autocratic personality and that their stepmother was introduced to them as a playmate and you can envision a childhood of emotional need. One thing they were clearly taught by these distant parents was the value of having the crown. From their tutors they were steeped in the righteousness of Protestantism and the evils of Catholicism. I'm not sure that "grateful" and "ungrateful" are words to be applied here, since they essentially did what they were raised to do. Anne operated, like so many claimants to thrones before and after, using religion and the events of the day to her advantage and Mary operated as the dutiful/obedient wife, which was heralded as saintly perfection in her time, as her husband took the throne.

This is not a book for those who are knowledgeable about this period. It worked for me, because I am not. The first part will keep you glued.

[Caroline · Rating 2 out of 5]

Rarely can a biographer have had less liking for their subjects. One marvels that Maureen Waller managed to stomach living with the individuals in these pages long enough to research and write this book, they all come across so poorly. The title alone gives away her position on Mary and Anne, but James II and William of Orange don't fare any better. And indeed it's hard to judge whether Mary and Anne genuinely did steal their father's crown (and it was more William than either of them) or whether James threw it away - but either way, family loyalty was definitely lacking.

I'll confess, this is my first real introduction to Stuart history and the Glorious Revolution. I'm a medievalist at heart - my passion for history stops around lunchtime on the 22nd August 1485 - so I brought no real depth of understanding or perspective to my reading of this book. But I did find it curiously shallow and lacking in authority - perhaps the lack of any detailed references or footnotes contributed to that. I also found the first part of the book repetitive - Waller's devoting a chapter to each of the participants means that much the same ground and events were repeated several times over. And the history recounted in these pages seemed to exist in a strange sort of vacuum; there was little contextual history before and no real analysis of the ramifications of the Revolution afterwards. Certainly, reading this book one would never even know that the events taking place were among the most pivotal in British political history and paved the way for the constitutional monarchy and representative democracy that we know today.

I found that once I looked on this book as a family saga instead of genuine history I enjoyed it much more. It's well-written and well-paced, and even though the tangle of family relationships is knotty in the extreme I was rarely confused as to personalities or lineages. But I'd hesitate to refer to this as reliable history.

[Louise Culmer · Rating 4 out of 5]

The title of this book is a bit on an exaggeration. Mary and Anne did not 'steal' their father's crown. James II was deeply unpopular because of his Catholic faith, and his daughter Mary and her husband William were invited to England by Parliament. Mary at least did not want the English crown, she was very happy living in the Netherlands and did not want to come to England at all. But William did want to be King, and Mary always did what William wanted. Anne did want to succeed her sister, as a devout Anglican, she deplored the idea of a Catholic King, as did most of her subjects. William, the only one of her children to survive infancy, seems to have been an intelligent, precocious child, and it very sad when he dies at only eleven years old. Interesting to speculate how different things might have been had he survived. The story of the fall of James and the rise of his daughters is a very interesting one, and the author tells it well, even if she is a bit biased at times - for instance she accuses Anne of showing no affection for her younger half brother, James Edward, but Anne had not seen him since he was a baby, so it's hardly surprising she didn't have much interest in him. besides, she doubted that he was her brother at all (she was not alone in this). The author's occasion personal bias aside however, this is a very interesting and enjoyable book.

[Michael Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Stuarts were more than a series of Scots-English monarchs, they were a contentious family filled with ambitious, egotistical, often ignoble figures who were not above slipping the knife in to advance their own careers. The generational and religious tension chronicled in this well-written true-to-life soap opera began with James II’s move toward the Catholic Church, which alienated both his people and his two staunchly Protestant daughters, Mary and Anne, each of whom reigned after him. Whether Mary’s husband, William of Orange, usurped the crown in the Glorious Revolution depends on your point of view, but Anne (who wasn’t speaking to her older sister at the time of her early death) declared her half-brother, James ("The Old Pretender"), an outlaw — having previously claimed, in letters to Mary, that their hated stepmother’s pregnancy was a Catholic hoax and plot. Waller’s narrative is compelling and enjoyable as well as informative. You can almost see a screenplay waiting to be written. . . .

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

I learned a lot about the politics and circumstances surrounding the Glorious Revolution. The book has tons, tons of detail which is why I gave it three stars. The detail was good but made it rather cumbersome to read. The first part of the book was particularly laborious to read. The author goes into almost excrutiating detail to describe the lives and characters of the principal figures (James II, Mary, William, and Anne particularly). While I agree that the information helps to understand why each did what he/she did, I think it might have been presented a bit better. Once the author began describing the events of the actual Revolution, the pace sped up and improved the book greatly.

Overall, I would recommend this to anyone who wants to understand why the Revolution happened and why the princesses behaved as they did. Even though there are still questions, the reader will be much more informed about this very important turning point in British history.

[Reds_reads · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book tells the story of Mary and Anne, the 'ungrateful' daughters of James II who rule England after he is deposed. This is a period in history that I was not familiar with, I was embarrassed to realise how little I knew of 'The Glorious Revolution' and of Mary and Anne, so I enjoyed the chance to fill in these gaps provided by this book.

I did take a while to get into the book however, the first few chapters broadly cover the same events, but from different characters perspectives which I did find a bit annoying. Once these strands came together later on though this was no longer a problem.

I did find that the book explained the events well (and having just finished the Pepys biography many of these were fresh in my mind) plus I enjoyed reading a historical book that focussed on both the women and men of the time. However rather like the Pepys biography, I didn't come away liking the main characters that much.

[Christina Baehr · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very well written. Would be of no use, however, as an introduction to the Glorious Revolution and the end of the Stuarts. Waller's choice to structure the book around each individual key player would be confusing to the uninitiated (actually, it was occasionally confusing for me, I confess), though it did hold my interest to follow her unfolding the story in layers. You can probably guess from the title that she looks with rather a jaundiced eye at Mary and Anne's justifications for accepting the crown of England in defiance of their fugitive father. It seems to me that the Glorious Revolution is good example of the doctrine of the lesser magistrate, in which case Mary and William's actions are entirely defensible, but I'll have to give it further thought. The numerous detailed eyewitness accounts certainly disprove the silly warming-pan baby propaganda, but I think Waller is a bit too dismissive of the threat to England of imposed Catholicism.

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good book about James II and his two daughters, Mary and Ann. Mary takes the throne with her husband William of Orange, when some of the English nobility and clergy despair of James' Catholicism. The book has a good structure, giving detailed portraits of all the principals - James, his first wife Ann, his second wife Mary of Modena, the two daughters, William of Orange. It also does a good job dealing with the complicate politics of the time, and shows how James might have kept his throne.

It covers from the period of the Restoration (1660) til Queen Ann's death.

The weakness of the book is the author clearly dislikes a couple of the people, most notably James II and Ann. To be fair, they are stubborn and at times unpleasant people, but a bit more balance in the language used around they would have made the book better for me.

Still a good book if you want some in-depth explanation about this period.

[Kelliec · Rating 3 out of 5]

Clearly the British Monarchs were caught in their moral belief of the laws of Succession, head of church and just how to interpret the Word.

In 1670 I thought I understood that the battle over religion had been long over (since the reign of Elizabeth I).

I'm finding out how wrong I was. I also think that a study of the monarchs between Elizabeth I and Charles I would have been a better choice for me.

All of Europe is raging at the Religious battle of Protestant vs. Catholic in this book.

I skimmed the last 70 pages. In the end, I'm saddened that the Stuart Princesses didn't understand their family dynasty ended with their refusal to allow their 1/2 brother to succeed.

[Jim · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a very well-written look at the Glorious Revolution of 1688 that deposed King James II of England, the factors that led to the event, and the roles played by the two future queens, Mary II and Anne, in their father's downfall. Of particular interest to me was the portrayal of Princess/Queen Anne, whom Waller paints as being an exceedingly ordinary woman, but one with a staunchly Anglican Protestant worldview coupled with a streak of ruthless cunning, both of which come to the fore when the birth of her half-brother means the threat of a Catholic dynasty taking over the throne. Recommended to anyone interested in English history or early modern European history.

[Bev · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating account of a period I had not previously bothered with much, it being both too late for what I am usually interesting in and too early.
Politically it was full of surprises, I knew the basic premise of course, but the details were amazing. For sheer stupidity combined with blind ruthlessness, the Stuarts took some beating.
From the point of view of the relationship between a father and his daughters it was even more interesting.
For anyone who wants to know more about a turning point in the history of this country and wants it told in an intelligent, but also entertaining fashion, I recommend this.

[Amanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved, loved, loved this book. Brilliantly written. There aren't that many books about Queens Mary and Anne. Its one of my favourite periods of history. Full of intrigue, from how The Duke of York and his first wife married in secret, to the rumours about the warming pan baby. Its a total page turner, and I LOVED IT. Heartrending in that neither sisters were able to produce a living heir to the throne of England. Even though Queen Anne herself had gone through 17 pregnancies. From political differences to religious difficulties. This book tells the story of how two sisters reformed England which led up to the Hanoverian era.

[Peter McConnell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Maureen Waller's narrative of the Stuart sisters is engaging and accessible to a modern audience. Her facts are well documented and infused with just enough imagery and emotional interpretation to create a reasonably accurate and credible picture of specific events in the lives of this fated and absurd family--like the night of James II's escape from London via boat, and the reaction of King William III to his devoted (and badly used) wife Mary's death. Easy to read with a remarkable grasp of the historical framework, Waller presents a complex moment in history in terms that leave little to be desired. Full thumbs up, and ready for the next read from this promising author.

[Fab Librarian · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the challenges of belonging to a Reading Group is that occasionally someone will choose a book that you really don’t want to read. My heart dropped when Ungrateful Daughters was suggested; I’m not really interested in history, don’t read a lot of non-fiction and this looked like a weighty tome. It turned out to be fascinating; a wealth of research turned into an enthralling family saga that really brings the main protagonists to life.

[Chelka Posladek · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Ungrateful Daughters" is the first non-fiction book I enjoyed reading. Really! I used it during research on Queen Anne, and found myself unable to put the book down. Waller does a fantastic job bringing the characters and the landscape to life, making this read more like a novel than nonfiction.

[Lois · Rating 1 out of 5]

Decent if somewhat surfacely biased against Queen Anne who seems to be blamed for abandoning her father and rightful king but for which the author excuses her sister abd co conspirator Queen Mary II.
The one star rating is for the erroneous use of 'slave' as interchangeable with 'indentured servant'. 2 very different experiences and a historian should know better.

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting look at England's "Glorious Revolution." Author changes her opinion in the very last paragraph of the book though (throughout has seemed to have a very poor opinion of Queens Mary and Anne, and then suddenly decides what they did for the best).

[Ruth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellently-researched and thoroughly absorbing biography of the events leading up to the depose of James II of England. I always wandered what the sisters who seized his crown were like. All I knew about Anne was her tragic childbearing history. This book cleared much of that up. Great book.

[Louise Chambers · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is very well written and organized. The book gave me a good idea of what the family dynamics were while all of these events were progressing. I was engrossed and also learned about the castles, the living arrangements, the "secondary players" and all the rest of the details.

[Rick Schoen]

The author was clearly biased against Mary and Anne. Although they were certainly actively involved in the Revolution, I believe James II was as responsible for his own downfall as were his daughters.

[Clarissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well, now I know a little bit about how the House of Hanover became kings and queens of England, and what happened after Cromwell stopped being in charge of England. If anyone deserved to lose their crown because of damn fool behavior it was King James.