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English Reformation Trilogy #3
The Queen's Tragedy
"Upon the publication of former books of mine several kindly critics remarked that the reign of Mary Tudor told a very different story with regard to the Catholic character. It is that story which I am now attempting to set forth as honestly as I can. . . ."
300 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1907
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143 people want to read
About the author
Robert Hugh Benson
340 books187 followersMrsgr. Robert Hugh Benson AFSC KC*SG KGCHS was an English Catholic priest and writer. First an Anglican pastor, he was received into the Catholic Church in 1903 and ordained therein the next year. He was also a prolific writer of fiction, writing the notable dystopian novel Lord of the World, as well as Come Rack! Come Rope!.
His output encompassed historical, horror and science fiction, contemporary fiction, children's stories, plays, apologetics, devotional works and articles. He continued his writing career at the same time as he progressed through the hierarchy to become a Chamberlain to Pope Pius X in 1911, and gain the title of Monsignor before his death a few years later.
His output encompassed historical, horror and science fiction, contemporary fiction, children's stories, plays, apologetics, devotional works and articles. He continued his writing career at the same time as he progressed through the hierarchy to become a Chamberlain to Pope Pius X in 1911, and gain the title of Monsignor before his death a few years later.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
October 25, 2023
‘As the Bishop of Winchester observed during Mary’s December 1558 funeral sermon, “She was a King’s daughter, she was a King’s sister, she was a King’s wife. She was a Queen, and by the same title a King also.”’
The Queen's Tragedy is the third book in Robert Hugh Benson’s English Reformation Trilogy, By What Authority? and The King's Achievement being the other two which precede this. I think I put this particular book off because of history’s label, “Bloody Mary” which influenced me without me even knowing it. While both her father, brother and sister were responsible for many more deaths* than she was, they did not resort to burning so often as she did, something which no doubt horrified then as it does today.
However, Elizabeth’s preference for hanging, drawing and quartering, which also includes disemboweling (it is MUCH worse even than it sounds!) doesn’t strike me as any more humane, never mind her psychopathic henchman, the sadist, Sir Richard Topcliffe who loved using the rack and other hideous forms of torture to extract the desired confessions long before victims even got to the gibbet. Yet no one has ever called Henry, Edward or Elizabeth ‘bloody’. Would it be sarcastic to think that only Protestant deaths counted then? Every age and place have their prejudice(s) which subsequent generations unconsciously assume and must educate themselves to gain a fuller picture. It is a relief to note that recent scholarship is starting to put Mary’s reign in perspective with its times: Linda Porter’s The Myth of "Bloody Mary": A Biography of Queen Mary I of England and Sarah Gristwood’s Game of Queens: The Women Who Made Sixteenth-Century Europe.
Robert Hugh Benson has written this fictional account of the last years of Mary’s life partially from the perspective of a young student of Cambridge, Master Guy Manton, who comes to Mary’s court after ‘taking an arrow’ in her service. He is somewhat ambivalent at first, but his feelings change over the course of Mary’s reign as he carefully watches the queen, her ladies, her husband and the machinations of the court as a whole. Mary’s actions are also shown and we are allowed to judge for ourselves whether or not we want to join her growing camp of enemies or shrinking cohort of friends.
It's not a happy book to read but then Mary’s life was not happy after her idyllic childhood as beloved princess was swept away by her father’s determination to have a son and heir … and Anne Boleyn. The rest of Mary’s short life was a series of battles to do what she believed was right, to become queen so that she could return her country to its true faith, to get married and produce an heir; in the world’s eyes, she died a failure. That she underestimated the number and power of her enemies is not a crime, but it was her downfall.
Not a happy read, but worthwhile.
*Even though Henry VIII, Mary’s father, only had 81 people burned at the stake over the course of his 38-year reign, heresy was far from the sole charge that warranted execution in Tudor England. Estimates suggest Henry ordered the deaths of as many as 57,000 to 72,000 of his subjects—including two of his wives—though it’s worth noting these figures are probably exaggerated. Edward VI had two radical Protestant Anabaptists burned at the stake during his six-year reign; in 1549, he sanctioned the suppression of the Prayer Book Rebellion, resulting in the deaths of up to 5,500 Catholics. Mary’s successor, Elizabeth I, burned five Anabaptists at the stake during her 45-year reign; ordered the executions of around 800 Catholic rebels implicated in the Northern earls’ revolt of 1569; and had at least 183 Catholics, the majority of whom were Jesuit missionaries, hanged, drawn and quartered as traitors. -from The Myth of ‘Bloody Mary’
The Queen's Tragedy is the third book in Robert Hugh Benson’s English Reformation Trilogy, By What Authority? and The King's Achievement being the other two which precede this. I think I put this particular book off because of history’s label, “Bloody Mary” which influenced me without me even knowing it. While both her father, brother and sister were responsible for many more deaths* than she was, they did not resort to burning so often as she did, something which no doubt horrified then as it does today.
However, Elizabeth’s preference for hanging, drawing and quartering, which also includes disemboweling (it is MUCH worse even than it sounds!) doesn’t strike me as any more humane, never mind her psychopathic henchman, the sadist, Sir Richard Topcliffe who loved using the rack and other hideous forms of torture to extract the desired confessions long before victims even got to the gibbet. Yet no one has ever called Henry, Edward or Elizabeth ‘bloody’. Would it be sarcastic to think that only Protestant deaths counted then? Every age and place have their prejudice(s) which subsequent generations unconsciously assume and must educate themselves to gain a fuller picture. It is a relief to note that recent scholarship is starting to put Mary’s reign in perspective with its times: Linda Porter’s The Myth of "Bloody Mary": A Biography of Queen Mary I of England and Sarah Gristwood’s Game of Queens: The Women Who Made Sixteenth-Century Europe.
Robert Hugh Benson has written this fictional account of the last years of Mary’s life partially from the perspective of a young student of Cambridge, Master Guy Manton, who comes to Mary’s court after ‘taking an arrow’ in her service. He is somewhat ambivalent at first, but his feelings change over the course of Mary’s reign as he carefully watches the queen, her ladies, her husband and the machinations of the court as a whole. Mary’s actions are also shown and we are allowed to judge for ourselves whether or not we want to join her growing camp of enemies or shrinking cohort of friends.
It's not a happy book to read but then Mary’s life was not happy after her idyllic childhood as beloved princess was swept away by her father’s determination to have a son and heir … and Anne Boleyn. The rest of Mary’s short life was a series of battles to do what she believed was right, to become queen so that she could return her country to its true faith, to get married and produce an heir; in the world’s eyes, she died a failure. That she underestimated the number and power of her enemies is not a crime, but it was her downfall.
Not a happy read, but worthwhile.
*Even though Henry VIII, Mary’s father, only had 81 people burned at the stake over the course of his 38-year reign, heresy was far from the sole charge that warranted execution in Tudor England. Estimates suggest Henry ordered the deaths of as many as 57,000 to 72,000 of his subjects—including two of his wives—though it’s worth noting these figures are probably exaggerated. Edward VI had two radical Protestant Anabaptists burned at the stake during his six-year reign; in 1549, he sanctioned the suppression of the Prayer Book Rebellion, resulting in the deaths of up to 5,500 Catholics. Mary’s successor, Elizabeth I, burned five Anabaptists at the stake during her 45-year reign; ordered the executions of around 800 Catholic rebels implicated in the Northern earls’ revolt of 1569; and had at least 183 Catholics, the majority of whom were Jesuit missionaries, hanged, drawn and quartered as traitors. -from The Myth of ‘Bloody Mary’
October 10, 2021
3.5 stars. Worth reading for the last chapter alone, for the description of Holy Mass by her majesty's deathbed, but otherwise not as engaging as I'd hoped. Perhaps I've been spoilt by reading two other Benson novels which had much better characterisation and pace in my opinion.
November 13, 2023
I appreciate that Benson wrote a novel featuring Queen Mary, who has been libelled by history ("Bloody Mary" -- her sister Queen Elizabeth was much bloodier!)
The Queen's Tragedy shows the sadness of her life: she was cast aside along with her faithful mother, who died several years after the annulment. Her father, Henry VIII, had too much else going on to bother with his daughter much, and Benson portrays Mary as a woman starved for the love she's been denied.
Benson also shows the strength of her faith, which in some ways was really all she had. Towards the end there are some lovely scenes of (imagined) visions she had while dying, and her peaceful realization that she has failed at all she has tried -- but trusting Jesus, she can relinquish her life into his hands.
Mary was apparently a difficult woman to love. That may contribute to the fact that her character is difficult to love, or at least to care much about. She doesn't seem like a real person -- more like an outline or sketch.
The book's main character is a fictional person of the court. He too is not fully drawn enough to engender much interest.
This book has enough historical content to make it worth reading. It doesn't work well as a novel, though -- unlike Benson's other novels about this period: By What Authority? and The King's Achievement.
The Queen's Tragedy shows the sadness of her life: she was cast aside along with her faithful mother, who died several years after the annulment. Her father, Henry VIII, had too much else going on to bother with his daughter much, and Benson portrays Mary as a woman starved for the love she's been denied.
Benson also shows the strength of her faith, which in some ways was really all she had. Towards the end there are some lovely scenes of (imagined) visions she had while dying, and her peaceful realization that she has failed at all she has tried -- but trusting Jesus, she can relinquish her life into his hands.
Mary was apparently a difficult woman to love. That may contribute to the fact that her character is difficult to love, or at least to care much about. She doesn't seem like a real person -- more like an outline or sketch.
The book's main character is a fictional person of the court. He too is not fully drawn enough to engender much interest.
This book has enough historical content to make it worth reading. It doesn't work well as a novel, though -- unlike Benson's other novels about this period: By What Authority? and The King's Achievement.
September 2, 2016
This was an excellent novel, marred only by the dreadful print on demand format. English, Latin, and French all were mangled beyond legibility. The worst (best?) was the description of Mary Tudor and Philip of Spain as King and Queen of England and Spam. "Now England and Spam are one!" Oh, a moment of Pythonesque levity in the midst of tragedy! A work well worth reading, but not in this edition.
Want to read
June 25, 2010Book about Good Queen Bess and Bloody Mary. Never really read a book based in this time period so it should be interesting! BTW, the book was written by a priest.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews