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selenakSince I had liked Nancy Goldstone's Winter Queen book, I was looking forward to her take on Maria Theresia and three of her daughters. I also hoped I'd finally have something available in English I can rec to people who might be interestd in the subject who don't have any background knowledge. Alas. My own background knowledge for this particular era and people completely ruined the book for me. Every othe page, I noticed mistakes, distortions, significant omissions which alter the content so that her interpretation of events and people doesn't have to deal with any inconvenient facts suggesting other possibilities, and misdatings. It wouldn't matter if this was a novel, but as it is a non-fiction book, it's irritating and in restrospect sours the enjoyment I had in the previous book, because who's to say she doesn't make similar mistakes there?
Fortunately, the other book I came across this last week was just the opposite - Game of Queens by Sarah Gristwood, whichkathyh mentioned to me. This was just what I was missing in Four Princes by John Julius Norwich: a take on the 16th century, starting with Isabella the Catholic and ending with Elizabeth Tudor, which covers specifically the many interesting-to-fascinating female rulers (Queens and Regents both) of that century, several of whom mentored each other, some of whom were rivals, some who were allies or both. For all that Gristwood, like Norwich, writes for an English market, here the continental ladies, including my Habsburg Margarets (and a Mary), get the same narrative space. (Well, except for the last fourth of the book, when the cast has narrowed down to Elizabeth Tudor, Catherine de' Medici and Mary Queen of Scots, but then the narrowing down and change, with Elizabeth as the last Queen standing and only male monarchs and regents remaining, is part of the story the book tells.) Gristwood is really great with context and showing the cross country interwovenness of politics, helped by the fact a great many of the cast spend their lives in several countries. (Here, too, a narrowing down happens when we get to Elizabeth who never leaves England.) Margaret of Austria and Louise of Savoy were both raised at the court of Anne de Beaujeu as children, and when they later faced each other negotating the famous "Ladies' Peace" for the HRE and France, respectively, they had that shared background in additiion to having been sisters-in-law for some years as well. Before reading the book, I hiadn't been consciously aware that this happened just at the same time when in England Katherine of Aragon showed up Henry VIII. at court, nor had I known where exactly Louise and Margaret had lodged, respectively, and what they did between negotiations, or that Louise's daughter Marguerite of Navarra was there was all as a temporary hostage to guarantee Margaret of Austria would not get kidnapped by the French while the negotations were going on.
Gristwood is great with all these details, as well as with the snarky quotes, such as Mary of Hungary's comment on Henry VIII's remarriage shortly after Anne Boleyn's execution. Bear in mind this is coming from Katherine of Aragon's niece, and thus not an Anne sympathizer, and yet:
"It is to be hoped, if one can hope anything from such a man, that if this one bores him he will find a better way of getting rid of her. I believe that most women would not appreciate it very much if this kind of habit becomes general, and with reason. And although I have no inclination to expose myself to dangers of this kind, I do after all belong to the female sex, and so I shall also pray God that that he may protect us from such perils."
(This book is generally good with the Henry put downs, from the humilating fact that he didn't get a single vote, not one, when campaigning for Emperor of the HRE against Charles and Francis, to all the refusals by potential continental brides when his people started looking after Jane Seymour's death.)
While knowing a lot of the general outlines, many of the details were new to me, including the fact that Heny's pal, the most gold-digging of Tudor cads, Charles Brandon (played by Henry Cavill in The Tudors), with two profitable mariagges already in the bag and several more head of him, started an intense flirtation with Margaret of Austria shortly after Henry had made him Duke of Suffolk, to the point where people thought the duchy might have been given so he could marry Margaret. Who, however attractive she might have found young Charles for a flirtation, knew better, and thus unlike Henry's sister Mary later stepped away in time, remaining the continents' most formidable lady in politics at that point and single. Witness to it all: teenage Anne Boleyn. No wonder she wasn't impressed by Charles Brandon later.
Perhaps the biggest difference between Goldstone and Gristwood is this: when Goldstone comes across an inconvenient fact not fitting the way she perceives the character in question, she either doesn't mention it or dismisses it as slander. Gristwood, otoh, is very sympathetic to Marguerite de Navarre, but she does mention that Marguerite's daughter Jeanne D'Albret later accused her of having literally beaten her into a marriage. She does suggest possible alternate interpretations, but she gives us Jeanne's quote first and concedes it could have happened this way. No such thing about meant-to-be-sympathetic historical figures in Goldstone.
In conclusion: I now have an entertaining and well researched book to rec if anyone wants to read up on powerful women in the 16th century!
Fortunately, the other book I came across this last week was just the opposite - Game of Queens by Sarah Gristwood, which
kathyh mentioned to me. This was just what I was missing in Four Princes by John Julius Norwich: a take on the 16th century, starting with Isabella the Catholic and ending with Elizabeth Tudor, which covers specifically the many interesting-to-fascinating female rulers (Queens and Regents both) of that century, several of whom mentored each other, some of whom were rivals, some who were allies or both. For all that Gristwood, like Norwich, writes for an English market, here the continental ladies, including my Habsburg Margarets (and a Mary), get the same narrative space. (Well, except for the last fourth of the book, when the cast has narrowed down to Elizabeth Tudor, Catherine de' Medici and Mary Queen of Scots, but then the narrowing down and change, with Elizabeth as the last Queen standing and only male monarchs and regents remaining, is part of the story the book tells.) Gristwood is really great with context and showing the cross country interwovenness of politics, helped by the fact a great many of the cast spend their lives in several countries. (Here, too, a narrowing down happens when we get to Elizabeth who never leaves England.) Margaret of Austria and Louise of Savoy were both raised at the court of Anne de Beaujeu as children, and when they later faced each other negotating the famous "Ladies' Peace" for the HRE and France, respectively, they had that shared background in additiion to having been sisters-in-law for some years as well. Before reading the book, I hiadn't been consciously aware that this happened just at the same time when in England Katherine of Aragon showed up Henry VIII. at court, nor had I known where exactly Louise and Margaret had lodged, respectively, and what they did between negotiations, or that Louise's daughter Marguerite of Navarra was there was all as a temporary hostage to guarantee Margaret of Austria would not get kidnapped by the French while the negotations were going on. Gristwood is great with all these details, as well as with the snarky quotes, such as Mary of Hungary's comment on Henry VIII's remarriage shortly after Anne Boleyn's execution. Bear in mind this is coming from Katherine of Aragon's niece, and thus not an Anne sympathizer, and yet:
"It is to be hoped, if one can hope anything from such a man, that if this one bores him he will find a better way of getting rid of her. I believe that most women would not appreciate it very much if this kind of habit becomes general, and with reason. And although I have no inclination to expose myself to dangers of this kind, I do after all belong to the female sex, and so I shall also pray God that that he may protect us from such perils."
(This book is generally good with the Henry put downs, from the humilating fact that he didn't get a single vote, not one, when campaigning for Emperor of the HRE against Charles and Francis, to all the refusals by potential continental brides when his people started looking after Jane Seymour's death.)
While knowing a lot of the general outlines, many of the details were new to me, including the fact that Heny's pal, the most gold-digging of Tudor cads, Charles Brandon (played by Henry Cavill in The Tudors), with two profitable mariagges already in the bag and several more head of him, started an intense flirtation with Margaret of Austria shortly after Henry had made him Duke of Suffolk, to the point where people thought the duchy might have been given so he could marry Margaret. Who, however attractive she might have found young Charles for a flirtation, knew better, and thus unlike Henry's sister Mary later stepped away in time, remaining the continents' most formidable lady in politics at that point and single. Witness to it all: teenage Anne Boleyn. No wonder she wasn't impressed by Charles Brandon later.
Perhaps the biggest difference between Goldstone and Gristwood is this: when Goldstone comes across an inconvenient fact not fitting the way she perceives the character in question, she either doesn't mention it or dismisses it as slander. Gristwood, otoh, is very sympathetic to Marguerite de Navarre, but she does mention that Marguerite's daughter Jeanne D'Albret later accused her of having literally beaten her into a marriage. She does suggest possible alternate interpretations, but she gives us Jeanne's quote first and concedes it could have happened this way. No such thing about meant-to-be-sympathetic historical figures in Goldstone.
In conclusion: I now have an entertaining and well researched book to rec if anyone wants to read up on powerful women in the 16th century!
no subject
Date: 2021-10-03 03:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-10-03 03:51 pm (UTC)Still, do you have any good books on the Habsburgs and/or Maria-Theresia you can recommend (I have one biography of hers that came out in 2016 or 2017 I still need to read) - Deutsch ist ja für mich jetzt kein Problem (German not being an issue for me).
Thanks for the recs!
no subject
Date: 2021-10-04 09:53 am (UTC)Habsburgs:
Monika Czernin: Der Kaiser reist inkognito. Joseph II. und das Europa der Aufklärung. Uses Joseph's travels as a structure for a portrait of him, his era and by necessity also his family, especially his mother, and is way more easily accessible from a readability pov (also: not as long. And she has read Stollberg-Rilinger.)
Stefan Zweig: Marie Antoinette. Decades old classic, for a reason. It's biographie romancee and of its time (1930) in that Zweig is a committed Freudian (in every sense - he actually was Freud's patient, too), but Stefan Zweig schreibt wunderschönes Deutsch und einfühlsame Prosa.
18th Century Europe as a highly entertaining royal soap opera:
Leonhard Horowski: Das Europa der Könige. Includes the Habsburgs along with the rest of the bunch (and their sidekicks, sarcastic critics and vengeful memoirs writing courtiers), is as voluminous as Stolberg-Rilinger but way more frivolous and entertaining.
Maria-Theresia biography: Stolberg-Rilinger is actually the most reliable and informative I know, but also really hard work. Elisabeth Badinter also wrote a new one for MT's anniversary year, which is way shorter and easier to read, but it suffers from lack of knowledge of German language sources and an overreliance on reports by various French envoys vs underuse of all the the other envoys' reports.
no subject
Date: 2021-10-03 04:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-10-04 09:55 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-10-03 06:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-10-04 09:55 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-10-04 11:18 am (UTC)That said, I have quite a few blanks in the 16th century, therefore Gristwood it is.
no subject
Date: 2021-10-04 04:12 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-10-04 09:57 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-10-11 05:17 am (UTC)