These two novels finish the trilogy by Margaret George (The Autobiography of Henry VIII was previously reviewed). Of the two novels, Mary Queen of Scotland has the more complex character development, and while Elizabeth is good, it seems Ms. George must have been worn out by the time she got to the last book in the trilogy.
Despite the above shortcoming, anyone who wants a quick (ok, the three novels contain well over 2,000 pages) course on the period covered (roughly 1500-1650) will walk away from the novels with a much better understanding of the political and religious stresses of the times. And indeed it was a strange time; the break with the Church done by Henry and indeed his dynasty was fragile as Queen Mary, who rules for a few years before Elizabeth re-introduced the Catholic Church to England and then Elizabeth did away with it once again. Meanwhile, Mary, born a Catholic and for a short time, Queen of France, sailed to Scotland, a land recently converted to the Protestant faith by the famous (or infamous) John Knox. The novels nicely cover the questions of the day, such as:
- Will Elizabeth marry in order to produce a heir to the crown
- Will Mary be able to rule and manage the unruly Scottish lords who are Protestant and are pushed by Knox not to accept the rule of a woman
- Will Elizabeth be murdered thus putting Mary on the throne of not only Scotland, but also England
- And many more questions
The novel on Mary in particular having much more character development can drag at times (sometimes it almost reads like a bodice ripper novel) so skip over the overly “female” parts and you will not miss much. Overall however, they give a very nice overview of the times and if you do not know the history of the times, you will enjoy the tension of the story.
