Book description
In the summer of 1553, against all odds, Mary Tudor was the first
woman to be crowned Queen of England.
Anna Whitelock's absorbing debut tells the remarkable story of a woman
who was a princess one moment, and a disinherited bastard the next. It
tells of her Spanish heritage and the unbreakable bond between Mary and
her mother, Katherine of Aragon; of her childhood, adolescence, rivalry
with her sister Elizabeth and finally her womanhood. Throughout her life
Mary was a fighter, battling to preserve her integrity and her right to
hear the Catholic mass. Finally, she fought for the throne. The Mary
that emerges from this groundbreaking biography is not the weak-willed
failure of traditional narratives, but a complex figure of immense
courage, determination and humanity.
â  Whitelock's fine new biography tells, instead, the story of the
road that Mary did take, from cradle to throne'
Anna Whitelock
gained her PhD in History from Corpus Christi College, Cambridge in
2004 with a thesis on the court of Mary I. Her articles and book
reviews on various aspects of Tudor history have appeared in
publications including the Guardian, the Times Literary
Supplement and BBC History. She has taught at Cambridge
University and is now a lecturer in Early Modern History at Royal
Holloway, University of London.
