The Bride: The Story of Louise and Montrose

by Margaret Irwin

Historical novel based on the life of Princess Louise, sister of Rupert of the Rhine, betrothed to James Graham, first Marquis of Montrose.

Genres: Historical Fiction

431 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1947

About the author

Born in 1899 and educated at Oxford, Irwin was recognized as a novelist of well-researched and occasionally heart-breaking historical fiction. She is best known for her trilogy about Elizabeth I: Young Bess, Elizabeth Captive Princess, and Elizabeth and the Prince of Spain. Young Bess was made into a movie starring Jean Simmons.

Irwin also wrote passionately about the English Civil War, causing generations to fall in love with the ill-fated but charismatic Earl of Montrose.

Reviews

[Muriel Schwenck]

Back in Highschool, I read a lot of historical romances. This one really stayed with me, and still holds up. (I was afraid, my teenage sensibilities had clouded my judgement.) In restrospect, fortunately, my taste in historical romance was pretty good, I liked the well researched stories with minimum sex, but maximum romance.
So, 30 years later, I got curious about some of the cracking yarns I enjoyed in my youth, and found that most of them hold up very well.
This is especially one of them.
Louise was quite a lady on her own, a painter and writer with the ability and social position to follow through on some of her ambitions.

[Carolyn Cash · Rating 5 out of 5]

Princess Louise, daughter of the Winter Queen, falls in love with the dashing, gallant James Graham, Marquis of Montrose before he returned to Scotland to lead one last campaign for King Charles II.

The Princess studied painting at her mother's court exile in The Hague whilst the Marquis had previously won a series of victories for King Charles.

However, when King Charles surrendered to the Scots in 1646, he told Montrose to lay down his arms and to go into exile.

Montrose eventually arrives in The Hague where he meets Queen Elizabeth of Bohemia and her daughters, but he is attracted to Louise.

However, Montrose meets his fate in Edinburgh and Princess Louise follows a different path.

And you will probably need a box of tissues when reading the end ...

It's best to read Margaret Irwin's book, 'Proud Servant', for those interested in Montrose's story.l

[Indra · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mixed feelings about this one. There were things that I liked, some beautiful and witty lines, moving passages, sharp observations, the romance between Louise and Montrose was pretty good, but I can't help but think that this book would be better if Irwin hadn't worshiped Montrose so much. Also, I didn't like the author's strange penchant for a rakish, 'dashing hero' type of characters here, and her treatment of Sophia of Hanover, Elizabeth of Bohemia's youngest daughter, struck me as particularly unfair. I have read that Sophia was intellectually curious and loved her husband but Irwin has none of that. It felt as though Irwin was punishing Sophia for turning down Charles and it just left a bad taste in my mouth, the Epilogue was particularly infuriating in that respect and reduced my rating from 3 to 2 stars. It seems that the Elizabeth trilogy indeed is the author's best work.

[Martha Reed · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although the book was old and the language slightly archaic, I enjoyed reading The Bride. I knew very little about the execution of King Charles I and exile of Charles II and this book introduced me to the secondary players.