Sixteenth-century Europe was a time of destabilization of age-old norms and the waging of religious warsâyet it also witnessed the flowering of a pacific culture cultivated by a cohort of women rulers who sat on Europe's thrones, most notably Mary Tudor; Elizabeth I; Mary, Queen of Scots; and Catherine de' Medici. Recasting the stories and political relationships among these four women rulers, Maureen Quilligan rewrites scholarship that sought to depict intense personal hatreds among them.
What The Reviewers Say
Robert S. Davis,
New York Journal of Books
An epic saga.
Publishers Weekly
Intriguing.
Kirkus
At times, it is difficult to separate the rulers’ political exigency from their familial loyalty, but the book is a useful addition to the literature on European royalty.