This absorbing dual biography explores the concept
of destiny through the relationship of two of the most well known female rulers in history - Elizabeth the Great and Mary Queen of Scots. Both were descendants of Henry VII, thereby candidates for the English throne. Each was a regnant queen (inheriting the crown by birth rather than by marriage). However, each formed differing notions of power through their experiences before ruling their respective nations. Elizabeth endured persecution, betrayal and imprisonment before she ruled England for almost fifty years. Mary (
crowned as an infant and pampered throughout her childhood) ruled Scotland for only seven years.
Elizabeth watched three monarchs reign (with varying levels of competence) and five queens die during her twenty-five year wait for the throne. Henry VIII (obsessed with begetting a male heir) discarded five of his six wives. He divorced both Mothers of his daughters. His third wife died of complications soon after giving birth to Edward VI. Catherine Parr (Henry''s last wife) became Elizabeth’s guardian when Edward was crowned King. After Catherine remarried, she died in childbirth. Well-meaning but ineffectual, Edward VI died as a teenager. Parliament members (devoted to Catholic interests) executed Edward''s Protestant wife (Jane Grey) and crowned Henry''s eldest surviving daughter queen. ''Bloody Mary'' (fervently Catholic, vilified by her protestant subjects, spurned by her Spanish
husband) reinforced stereotypical prejudices against female rulers. When her half-sister died, Elizabeth (considered illegitimate by most Catholics) became queen of England.
Mary Stuart (only child of James V and Mary Guise) lived most of her life in exile. After her father died, Mary betrothed the crown prince of France. Mary Guise acted as regent of Scotland and sent her daughter to the French court where everyone (especially her powerful uncles) doted on her. After her Father-in-law died, Mary ruled France as a co-monarch for a short time. After her eldest son died, Catherine de Medici (dowager queen of France) seized power as the regent of her younger son and pressured Mary to leave her adopted country. Mary (neither prepared nor inclined to govern alone) re-married a Catholic English prince. Most of the Scottish nobility disliked Henry Darnley (Mary’s second husband). Nevertheless, they conspired with him to dethrone Mary when she was seven months pregnant. Mary vowed revenge, regained power and reconciled with her husband after their son, James VI was born. Soon after the christening, Mary moved out and the castle exploded. Oddly enough, Henry died in the woods beside the castle (strangled by persons unknown). Shortly after her second husband died, Mary wed the chief suspect in his murder. The Scottish nobility used the resulting scandal to force Mary to abdicate. She fled to England, hoping to secure English assistance in regaining her throne. Elizabeth (who might have empathized with Mary) was too politically savvy to aid a Catholic claimant to the English throne against Protestant activists. Mary spent almost twenty years imprisoned in the land she wished to rule.
They never met; yet, the two queens were compared to each other throughout their lives. Critics and counselors alike condemned Elizabeth''s refusal to marry. Mary (betrayed by her second husband and ultimately ruined through association with her third) was portrayed as a murdering adulteress by her political rivals. Some historians claim that one succeeded as a monarch and the other&nd as a woman.
England was an impoverished nation when Elizabeth was crowned; it was a world power by the end of her reign. Mary’s most enduring legacy was her son James, a devout protestant who commissioned the King James translation of the Holy Bible.