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Title: Ungrateful Daughters: The Stuart Princesses Who Stole Their Father's Crown by Maureen Waller ISBN: 0-312-30711-X Publisher: St. Martin's Press Pub. Date: 21 January, 2003 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $35.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4 (4 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Gripping tale of religion dividing a country and a family
Comment: This book is an exciting and entertaining look at the power struggle in Restoration England, and how the divide between Catholics and Protestants caused a King to be dethroned by his own daughters. I really liked Ms. Waller's tone and her storytelling abilities, using the actual letters written between Queen Mary and Princess Anne, making them seem that much more real to us as the reader.
I also like it that you can't really see a bias for or against any certain person or religion...you will read good things and bad things about everyone involved, you'll feel anger and pity for these people and their lives. I was completely engrossed from start to finish.
Rating: 3
Summary: How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is.
Comment: Ungrateful Daughters treats the last days of the house of Stuart as seen through the perspectives of the major characters: James II, Mary of Modena, Mary II, William of Orange, and Queen Anne. It begins essentially with the restoration and ends with the handover of power to the Hanovers.
The material is absorbing and the book was seemingly quite well-researched. However, for me, much of the pleasure was spoiled by Waller's organisation and tone. The narrative is not linear, but shifts with the perspectives of the different players. I found the effect jarring and occasionally confusing. I also heard more than I wanted of Waller's opinions about the people involved (particularly Queen Anne).
It's funny that I'm willing to forgive a history writer like Mitford her harsh asides, but I wasn't willing to forgive Waller. I found her judgements heavy-handed and they made me suspicious of how (and from what perspective) she was telling the story. Too bad-- because it's a really great story.
This shouldn't discourage others from reading the book-- it's still a good use of time and a book that I'm going to keep in my collection.
Rating: 4
Summary: Excellent read, ill-considered title
Comment: A well-written history of the last Catholic king of England, and one of the most inept, and his two daughters.
The title is unfortunate because no royals of that period (or our own?) ever expressed gratitude. Princesses were raised apart from their parents, and in this case Charles II wisely
decided that James' daughters, Mary and Anne, had to be raised
Protestant. As Pepys points out, James was a talented administrator at the Admiralty (and a friend of Pepys) but a stupid, politically incompetent determined Roman Catholic, at a time when the French Catholics were murdering Protestants in the streets. The English nobility felt threatened, and they, together with William of Orange, kicked out James.
The title is also a misnomer in that the princesses did not steal their father's crown; the credit belongs to the English nobility such as the Duke of Marlborough and the gay King William (a fact not mentioned in this story except very obliquely).
Queen Anne, by the way, did have many children but none survived.
Neither Mary nor Anne was an educated or personable Princess or Queen; both were ill-suited for England. It is even more remarkable, therefore, that Maureen Waller makes them interesting, and the asthmatic but determined William of Orange
completely fascinating.
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Title: Mary, Queen of Scots and the Murder of Lord Darnley by Alison Weir ISBN: 034543658X Publisher: Ballantine Books Pub. Date: 01 April, 2003 List Price(USD): $27.95 |
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Title: Elizabeth and Mary : Cousins, Rivals, Queens by JANE DUNN ISBN: 0375408983 Publisher: Knopf Pub. Date: 06 January, 2004 List Price(USD): $30.00 |
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Title: In the Lion's Court: Power, Ambition, and Sudden Death in the Reign of Henry VIII by Derek A. Wilson ISBN: B0000W70BA Publisher: St. Martin's Press Pub. Date: April, 2002 List Price(USD): $35.00 |
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Title: The Sisters of Henry VIII: The Tumultuous Lives of Margaret of Scotland and Mary of France by Maria Perry ISBN: 0306809893 Publisher: Da Capo Press Pub. Date: December, 2000 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
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Title: The King's Mother : Lady Margaret Beaufort, Countess of Richmond and Derby by Michael K. Jones, Malcolm G. Underwood ISBN: 0521447941 Publisher: Cambridge University Press Pub. Date: 22 April, 1993 List Price(USD): $28.00 |
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