Tudors Versus Stewarts: The Fatal Inheritance of Mary, Queen of Scots - Hardcover

Porter, Linda

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0312590741 ISBN 13: 9780312590741

Publisher: St. Martin's Press, 2014

Synopsis

The war between the fertile Stewarts and the barren Tudors was crucial to the history of the British Isles in the sixteenth century. The legendary struggle, most famously embodied by the relationship between Elizabeth I and her cousin, Mary Queen of Scots, was fuelled by three generations of powerful Tudor and Stewart monarchs. It was the marriage of Margaret Tudor, elder sister of Henry VIII, to James IV of Scotland in 1503 that gave the Tudors a claim to the English throne―a claim which became the acknowledged ambition of Mary Queen of Scots and a major factor in her downfall.

Here is the story of divided families, of flamboyant kings and queens, cultured courts and tribal hatreds, blood feuds, rape and sexual license, of battles and violent deaths. It brings alive a neglected aspect of British history―the blood-spattered steps of two small countries on the northern fringes of Europe towards the union of their crowns. Beginning with the dramatic victories of two usurpers, Henry VII in England and James IV in Scotland, in the late fifteenth century, Linda Porter's Tudors Versus Stewarts sheds new light on Henry VIII, his daughter Elizabeth I and on his great-niece, Mary Queen of Scots, still seductive more than 400 years after her death.

About this title

About the Author

Linda Porter has a Ph.D. in history from the University of York, England. She was the winner of the 2004 Biographers Club/Daily Mail prize in England and is the author of The Myth of "Bloody Mary", also available from St. Martin's Press. She is married with one daughter and lives near London.

Reviews

Members of England’s Tudor dynasty have been the subjects of books, films, TV series, and more. Their contemporaries, Scotland’s Stewarts, remain largely in the background until Mary, Queen of Scots, emerges from the shadows to bedevil Elizabeth I. Author Porter (Katherine the Queen: The Remarkable Life of Katherine Parr, the Last Wife of Henry VIII, 2010) interweaves the stories of both dynasties to show how the history of Great Britain was shaped by their uneasy relations. She begins with the struggles that brought crowns to both Henry VII of England and James IV of Scotland, whom she calls one of Britain’s greatest kings. James’ marriage to Henry’s daughter Margaret united the families but also intensified their rivalries, since it gave the Stewarts a claim to the English throne. The rivalries were carried into the next generations, particularly in the conflicts between Henry VIII and his nephew James V, ending only when Mary’s son, James VI, was crowned as England’s James I. Porter’s highly readable account offers a fresh perspective for readers who look forward to each new book on the Tudors. --Mary Ellen Quinn

Edition details

• Publisher: St. Martin's Press
• Publication date: 2014
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0312590741
• ISBN 13: 9780312590741
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 544