Mary I - Rosalind K Marshall

Known to history as "Bloody Mary", Henry VIII's eldest daughter was, in fact, a learned and accomplished woman, a sincere and devout adherent to Roman Catholicism at a time of great religious controversy. She endured many reversals of fortune, almost from infancy, with fortitude and obstinate courage. This illustrated biography looks at the real woman behind the image of Mary I as a villainous queen, guiding us through the religious and dynastic struggles which helped shape her character: her childhood and adolescence wrecked by her parents' divorce and her father's bullying of her to renounce her legitimacy; the exciting events of her succession and the disappointments and disasters of her reign; and the brief happiness of her marriage to Philip of Spain.;Hated for her persecution of her Protestant subjects and tormented by ill-health, Mary died lonely and reviled. Here, Rosalind K Marshall paints a stark portrait of Mary as an anguished woman living in a turbulent time.