Review by New York Times Review
THE SIREN TEMPTRESS Anne Boleyn. Bloody Mary Tudor. Virgin Elizabeth. Mary, Queen of Scots. And the bulldog queen mother of France, Catherine de Medici. The stories of these charismatic 16th-century royals have long had our bookshelves groaning. Enter the British journalist turned historian Sarah Gristwood. Her "Game of Queens" (a nod to the pulling power of George R. R. Martin as well as to the chessboard) sets out to widen our vision. Her subtitle is more nuanced: "The Women Who Made Sixteenth-Century Europe." She begins the century early, with Queen Isabella of Castile uniting Spain through marriage, then goes on to highlight Margaret of Austria and Louise of Savoy, both regents rather than rulers in their own right, who helped broker a muchneeded peace between Spain and France . So far, so persuasive. But the political and dynastic map of early-16th-century Europe is eye-wateringly complex, and as the story jumps back and forth across countries, trying to weave a line of power between women who were often more pawns than queens, even the most dedicated reader risks getting lost in a forest of family trees. There is a detailed chronology, accompanied by charts of dynastic structures and a 40-strong list of dramatis personae, but it's difficult to ignore the fact that popular history works best when it keeps us turning the pages, not flipping back to find our bearings. The landscape clears as the familiar Tudor soap opera begins. Twelve-year-old Anne Boleyn is the first one we meet, and she pops up regularly, sometimes where history offers no direct proof of her presence. Like Katherine of Aragon before her, Anne was a woman who could be said to have "made" Europe - but by failure rather than success. Forget queens, this was a game of wombs. However smart a seductress, Anne would never have bagged the crown (and sparked the break with Rome) had Katherine given Henry the male heir he so desperately needed. And it was her own failure on that score that signed Anne's death warrant. As an example of female power, it's the most painful and flawed sort. But Gristwood goes further: She claims that this "age of queens" produced "a sisterhood that recognized both their own bonds as women and their ability to exercise power in a specifically feminine way." Did female rulers really feel sisterhood? While there are moments they might claim it - Mary Stuart and Elizabeth could be lavish with the concept in their letters - beneath the obligatory courtesy there's little evidence of any nascent feminism. A woman ruler's loyalty was to country (and family), not gender. Four and a half centuries on, Britain's Theresa May and Scotland's Nicola Sturgeon are largely still playing the same game. There is one area where Gristwood's thesis does bite. Sixteenth-century Europe was violently torn asunder by the birth of Protestantism. Male rulers often favored cutting out the "gangrene" of heresy. Women, for a while at least, tended to err on the side of tolerance. The Roman Catholic Catherine de Medici and the Protestant Jeanne d'Albret of Navarre might have been enemies in faith, yet they did their best to keep the peace. (D'Albret, a worthy addition to the female canon, deserves to be better known.) Elizabeth famously chose not to "open windows into men's souls." However, when the going got tough, the women could be as ruthless as the men. These days, history is a little kinder to Catherine over the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre, but there's no doubt that the flame she lit ended with as many as 20,000 Protestants slaughtered. And when British Catholics plotted to dethrone Elizabeth, she had no problem sending the ringleaders to agonizing deaths. Hugely politically astute, Elizabeth Tudor remains the star in this female firmament. While she may have been prey to womanly vanities, she defied the natural order of her gender by having no husband or children. Instead, she encouraged a cult of the Virgin Queen, a powerful alternative, as Gristwood argues, to the Marian cult pushed by the Counter-Reformation. In our own crisis-filled 21st century, it's both salient and dispiriting to note that most of Europe's current female leaders are childless. For a moment it seemed that a powerful American grandmother would join them on the world stage. How quickly a few yesterdays harden into history. ? SARAH DUNANT'S "In the Name of the Family," a novel of Machiavelli and the Borgias, will be published in March.
Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [December 11, 2016]
Review by Booklist Review
In sixteenth-century Europe, a particular set of circumstances propelled more than a handful of powerful women to the forefront of history, creating an age where female rulers and regents flourished. In her latest intriguing collective biography about overlooked women of historical significance, Gristwood (Blood Sisters: The Women behind the War of the Roses, 2013) portrays the sisterhood of Renaissance movers and shakers that includes such feminine, royal power brokers as Isabella of Castile, Margaret of Austria, Mary of Hungary, Catherine de Medici, Anne Boleyn, Mary Queen of Scots, and Elizabeth I of England. While many of their individual achievements are well documented, Gristwood interweaves their respective accomplishments and failures, placing the group dynamic firmly into historical and social context. The complete portrait that emerges reveals a complexity of interactions and relationships among these exceptional, now legendary women, their families, and their nations that greatly contributed to the political, intellectual, and cultural achievements as well as the climate of the Renaissance era. A fascinating work of world and women's history.--Flanagan, Margaret Copyright 2016 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Gristwood (Blood Sisters), a commentator on British royal affairs, reframes the Renaissance as an "Age of Queens" in a fast-paced chronological narrative bursting with intrigue. Opening with Spain's Isabella of Castile (1451-1504) and concluding with England's Elizabeth I (1533-1603), Gristwood successfully demonstrates how mentors, such as Margaret of Austria (whose court included a young Anne Boleyn), and power wielders, such as the resolute Isabella, helped influence generations of ambitious, high-ranking women through networking and clever manipulation. Some of these women (such as Louise of Savoy and Catherine de Medici) enjoyed great success, while others endured-and sometimes caused-great misery (notably Mary, Queen of Scots, and Mary I). Gristwood places each woman's story in the context of her own realm as well as in that of contemporary Europe, using multiple sources and providing clear, impartial explanations. She sympathetically describes limited options for women, especially regarding marriages, and also bluntly details self-destructive decisions. Surprisingly, Gristwood barely mentions some of the powerful and well-known medieval queens (Eleanor of Aquitaine, Isabella of France) who preceded the women here, perhaps because too much emphasis on them would have shifted the book's steady focus. Gristwood's fresh take on a well-documented period and the achievements, failures, and relationships of some of Europe's most powerful players is intriguing, cohesive, and accessible. Illus. (Dec.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
Gristwood (Blood Sisters) chronicles the unusual happenstance of the 16th century whereby most of Europe was under a female ruler's control either in her own right or as a regent. The women portrayed here are well known to history (e.g., Anne Boleyn, Isabella I of Castile, Catherine de' Medici, and Marguerite de Navarre) and are shown interacting with one another as rulers, friends, or family; playing primary roles in domestic and foreign affairs; and even creating the atmosphere for incidents such as the Ladies' Peace (1529) and the Saint Bartholomew's Day Massacre (1572). It is this complex relational web of sisterhood, interwoven by the women as either mothers, daughters, or mentors, that marks the era and its historical events. This web, started in the late 1400s, was eventually broken in the latter half of the 1500s by an ideological battle that tore at the foundations of society: the Reformation. By focusing exclusively on these female figures, Gristwood argues that they are the primary movers of historical developments in this century. VERDICT While the analysis isn't groundbreaking, it casts a well-researched time period in an intriguing light. Readers of popular history, especially of Tudor England, and of women's history will find much to enjoy.-Laura Hiatt, Fort -Collins, CO © Copyright 2016. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
