Elizabeth I and Mary Stuart: The Perils of Marriage

The story of Elizabeth I and Mary Stuart still fascinates historically interested readers to this very day. Their lives, tragically intertwined, is movingly retold in this new double biography, which is both a psychological as well as a fascinating political portrait of the queens. The two cousins were divided on the most fundamental question facing women of any era: to marry or not to marry. Elizabeth, a woman motivated by power, decided not to accept second place to any husband. The result: her bloodline ended with her and she therefore failed in this duty of a monarch. In contrast Mary, a woman ruled by passion, married three times. Her life, full of love, hate and political intrigue, ended tragically with her execution on the orders of Elizabeth. Yet it was her bloodline that continued and provided the monarch, who united the kingdoms of these two extraordinary women.