Maybe it's time for me to admit that the Stuarts and the English Civil War don't interest me as much as the periods which precede and follow them. I've enjoyed Alison Plowmen's biography of Queen Victoria and (so far) 3/4 of her quartet on Elizabeth I, but Women All on Fire wasn't particularly memorable, and neither were Antonia Fraser's books on the era. Perhaps I should free up some shelf space for Plantagenets or Hanoverians.
Henrietta Marie should have been interesting. Her political match with Charles I started badly due to her advisors, but it soon blossomed into a love match in which she was a trusted advisor. Unfortunately, Charles I was politically tone deaf and Henrietta's advisors wanted her to return Catholicism to a country which thought that Elizabeth's Anglican compromise wasn't pure enough. I admire Henrietta's will and wiles during her exile, but I just wasn't compelled by her story. It's not Plowden's fault - I'd rather read about the artistic and social changes of the era than the political lives of the 17th Century royal family.
No comments:
Post a Comment