The Last Tudor by Philippa Gregory- Book Review (August 2018)

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For this month's book review, we are looking at a historical fiction novel set in England during the Tudor time period. The book covers the years 1550-1573 and looks at real historical events and people involved with the succession crisis during the reigns of King Edward VI, Queen Mary I, and Queen Elizabeth I.

This book was written by Philippa Gregory, a New York Times Bestselling Author. She is well known for her historical fiction novels. You will probably be most familiar with her book, The Other Bolyen Girl, which was adapted into a movie in 2008.

Gregory has written a few books from different points-of-view set during the time period covered in The Last Tudor: The Queen's Fool, The Virgin's Lover, The Other Queen. And this is actually Gregory's 15th book in her Plantagenet and Tudor collection.

The Last Tudor 

By Philippa Gregory

The Last Tudor follows the lives of Jane, Katherine, and Mary Grey. The Grey Sisters are 1st cousins once removed to King Edward VI and possible heirs the throne. The book is divided into 3 smaller books, each focusing on the life of a different sister.

The story begins in 1550, a few years after the death of King Henry VIII. Henry's only living son, King Edward VI is on the throne. Edward is 12 years old and sickly, and the line of succession is unclear. King Edward would like a legitimate, Protestant, male heir, but there is none.

In 1553, Jane Grey (age 15) & Katherine Grey (age 12) are married off to prominent young men, in hopes they will have a son, who can be named King Edward's heir. While, Mary Grey (age 8) is betrothed to a man twice her age, with the promise they will marry when Mary is older.

But King Edward dies a few months later with still no clear male heir. King Edward names Jane Grey as his heir in"My Devise for the Succession." This skips over a number of Edward's closer relatives:

• Princess Mary (Later, Queen Mary I)



"My Devise for the Succession" by King Edward VI of England 
[Public domain],  via Wikimedia Commons

• Edward's half-sister, Catholic, considered a bastard since her mother's marriage was annulled
• Princess Elizabeth (Later, Queen Elizabeth I)
• Edward's half-sister, considered a bastard since her mother's marriage was annulled
• Mary Queen of Scots
• Edward's cousin, Catholic, Scotish, betrothed to the Dauphin (Crown Prince) of France
• Margret Douglas
• Edward's cousin, Catholic, married to a Scotsman.

Jane Grey is very reluctant at first to accept the throne, believing it should go to the closest blood relative, Princess Mary, regardless of Mary's Catholic belief. But Jane's parents and in-laws force her. Jane finally agrees, believing it is God's will that a Protestant be placed on the throne over a Catholic. 

"I suddenly feel the hand of God spread over me, I suddenly know my own mind. I am not a fool and I know the right thing to do here. I am no longer drowning in fear; I can see my way. 'I will accept the crown, since it is God's will that I should, since I can do God's work.'" (Page 56)

Lady Jane Grey is England's shortest-reigning monarch. She was the disputed ruler of England for 9 days before Princess Mary rises up support and takes the crown. 

While most historians would leave off there, in The Last Tudor, this is only the beginning. Most of the novel deals with the aftermath of Jane's 9-day rule. 

Jane Grey is imprisoned in the Tower of London. She throws herself into her religious studies while she waits for Queen Mary to forgive and release her. But when Queen Mary asks Jane to convert to Catholicism, Jane's Protestant faith is put to the test. 

The middle Grey sister, Katherine serves in Queen Mary's court, where the Succession Crisis continues. While Queen Mary eventually agrees to marry King Philip II of Spain, she remains childless and the country calls for her to name an heir. Who will she choose? Princess Elizabeth, Mary Queen of Scots, Margret Douglas, or Katherine Grey?

Queen Mary ends up naming her half-sister, Princess Elizabeth, as her heir. But the Succession Crisis continues during Queen Elizabeth's reign as she refuses to marry, having fallen in love with the already married Robert Dudley. Mary Queen of Scots returns to Scotland after the death of her husband, King Francis II of France. Tensions are high between England and Scotland partly over the religious divide and partly because Mary Queen of Scots declared her claim to the English Throne. 

Katherine Grey, whose 1st marriage was annulled, falls in love herself with a handsome noble connected to the Royal Family. They secretly marry and Katherine quickly becomes pregnant. Will this child be the perfect heir for Queen Elizabeth? or another threat to her rule?

Mary Grey, the youngest of the Grey sisters, has the least historical importance, yet her story receives the largest section of the book. Mary is never seriously considered to be an heir to Queen Elizabeth. And people expect very little of her as she is incredibly short with hunched shoulders and a curved spine.

But Mary Grey has a festy spirt and will not let her small stature belittle her. Mary Grey falls in love with Thomas Keyes, the Queen's serjeant porter, who is one of the tallest men at court. It is a marriage of true love. Thomas Keyes is no one of great importance and holds no noble title. But will Queen Elizabeth allow the last Grey sister to be happy? or will she be angry that Mary Grey was able to marry for love, while Queen Elizabeth was not. 

Some takeaways from: 
The Last Tudor

With each month's book review, I share with you some of the things from the book I thought most interesting, thought-provoking and inspiring, that will hopefully help you with your own writing. (And things I certainly will be thinking about in my own.)

Point-Of-View

The Last Tudor uses the 1st person point-of-view. So we see everything from the perspective of the main character. 

"I wanted to tell each sister’s life in her own voice, as they were separated so early, that no single narrator could have described the three lives. I find first-person present-tense narration very stimulating and effective in historical fiction, and I was relieved to find that moving from one character to another was quite smooth—as they were each so striking, and each had her own voice." - Philippa Gregory

The 1st person point-of-view works really well in this book. You have these historic events, but you see events through the narrator's eyes. So everything is colored by their unique perspective. (And Jane, Katherine & Mary Grey each had their own personalities.) This worked really well in this book because the events and issues aren't black and white. 

Jane is proclaimed Queen. That is a fact. But we also have opinions like, Jane Grey is the rightful Queen. Or Jane Grey is a usurper. Having a 1st person perspective clues the reader in on how they should be thinking and feeling about the different events. In this book, we take the Grey's side. 

The 1st person point-of-view also keeps us in the moment. We see things as they happen. Jane Grey is proclaimed Queen and is planning for the future. We might already know that Jane Grey's reign only lasts 9 days and what she is planning will never happen. But because we are in Jane's point-of-view and she doesn't know that, we can kind of forget and just be in the moment with her. (But I think Gregory also took advantage of the reader's knowledge of events to make things more emotional and heartbreaking.)

The Last Tudor is divided into three smaller books, each from the point-of-view of a different sister. I thought Gregory handled the change in perspective really well. She didn't change point-of-view constantly with every scene break. Rather telling one sister's story at a time. 

But it wasn't shocking or too jarring to switch from one sister to another. She made it clear she was changing the point-of-view. And you already got to know that sister and her personality from her interactions with the older sister. At the same time, there was always some new detail about the younger sister you didn't uncover till you were in her point of view.

Pacing of the Story

King Edward VI  circa 1550
By William Scrotts Follower
[Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

The novel took on the ambitious task of coving a 23-year time period, from 1550 to 1573. And the story included all the major events that happened in that period that were related to the Grey Sisters and the Succession Crisis. Covering such a long time period can be very hard for a novel. Especially without too many big jumps in time. 

The Last Tudor had good pacing. Gregory didn't use traditional chapters. Rather, she used a lot of short scenes and each scene was further divided into sub-scenes with fleurons (a little flowery line) in between each sub-scene. 

Gregory got what information she needed across, and then moved on. She didn't drag things out too much. But she also did a good job of making the reader really feel the length of each sister's imprisonment. 

I think her pacing worked well for this story because you have all these little events that aren't too important in the overall scope of things, but they happened. And in order to give an accurate picture of events, you need to include them.

Queen Elizabeth I circa 1570s
Painter unknown
[Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Each scene was labeled with the place, location, and date. Gregory often used just the season and year for the date, only mentioning a month or specific day if it is notable. I thought this was really great. It's nice to know you don't need to be constrained by giving everything a specific date. Especially when dealing with historical events where the exact date is not always known. Or you want to summarize what happened over a period of months in one scene. 

With the novel's long time period, Gregory also made sure to keep the audience conscious of the passage of time. Throughout the books, Gregory made casual references to the character's age or how many years had passed since some event. While it may not seem like much, these little references give a lot of context. 

When our story starts King Edward VI is unmarried and childless, but that is acceptable at age 12. When Queen Mary I takes the throne, she is also unmarried and childless, but at age 37 that is a whole different story.

Description

I really liked Gregory's descriptions. She does a really great job of "Show, Don't Tell." She has rich descriptions but keeps them fairly brief:

"Today, for some reason, my mother is all smiles and I have been told to wear my new dress, a gown of deep velvet, which came from London last week, with a rich black hood and sleeves, as we have honored guests for dinner." (Page 8)

Gregory could go on for quite a while describing the details of the dress. But she gave us just a little bit to get an idea of the dress in our mind and to understand that this dress has significance. We find out later the honored guests include the young man Jane will be betrothed to. 

Bringing History to Life

Gregory does a good job of sticking close to historical events and the time period depicted in The Last Tudor. She has clearly done a lot of research. And even includes some real letters and poems in the book. 

With historical fiction, authors vary greatly in how strict (or loose) they stay to historical events and the time period. Some authors like to highly fictionalize their work and create a bit of alternate history or fantasy. Others try to stay much more true to the history. 


However strict you want to be in your own historical fiction it is important to do research about the events and time period. Things were different back then and you need to understand that world before you can put your own take on it.  

While Gregory does try to be historically accurate, this is still fiction. Gregory uses a bit of her own imagination and creativity to bring these real events to life.

"By and large the fiction fills in the gaps of the known historical record and brings it to life." - Philippa Gregory

One of the things Gregory did particularly well, was she understood what happened before and after the events in this book, as well as what knowledge the reader had. She often made little references to past Royal history, a lot which set into motion the events in The Last Tudor.

I really like the scene where Jane Grey has just been proclaimed Queen and she is being showered with the riches of her new position, and you have these references to Henry VIII's six wives: 

"The door bangs open and the grooms of the royal wardrobe heave in a cavalcade of great chests of gowns and jewels from the wardrobe and treasury. All the beautiful gowns worn by Kateryn Parr are here. I remember her in them. The capes that belonged to Anne of Cleves, the Seymour pearls, the French hoods of Anne Boleyn, the Spanish goldwork of the very first queen, dead before I was born. The only gowns that fit me are the pretty little ones that belonged to Katherine Howard, beheaded for treason when she was only a few years older than me, forced into marriage like me, named as a Queen before she had learned to be a grown women." (Pg. 53-54) 

Parliamentary Art Collection [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

I like this excerpt because it is these vague references about six former Queens, none of whom appear in the novel. And two of the Queen's aren't even explicitly named. There is no mention of who they were married to, or when they reigned. Yet, most readers will know exactly who Jane Grey is referring to.

The Importance of Religion

One thing I try to pay attention to in Royal Novels is the use of religion. Religion can be a very important part of a monarchy given that the monarch is often thought to be appointed by God. (Or, in some non-Christian monarchies, the monarch is sometimes considered a descendant of god/s).

Religion played a very important role in the historical events depicted in The Last Tudor. King Henry VIII had converted the country from Catholic to Protestant only 20 years earlier. (He did this so he could annul his marriage to Catherine of Aragon and marry Anne Boleyn.) Jane Grey, being Protestant was a big reason why King Edward VI named her as his heir. It was important to him that England remain under Protestant rule.

Gregory did a very good job of bringing the importance of religion through in the novel. For example, Jane Grey used religion to compares the possible heirs to the throne and her superiority over them:

"The king's half sisters do not follow my example in either study or religious devotion. [...] None of the Royal Couisins walks in the light as I do. Princess Mary is a determined Papist, and only God knows what Elizabeth beleives. The other direct heir, Mary [Queen] of Scots, is a papist, being raised in sinful luxary at the court in France, and Margaret Douglas, daugther of my great-aunt Margaret who married a scotsman, tucked away in Yorkshire is said to be a papist too." (Page 16)

Even in modern Monarchies religion is very important and is deeply tied to a lot of their traditions and duties. When reading The Last Tudor, I could definitely see how these events shaped the current British monarchy and their ties to the Church of England. 

Feminism in the 1500s

The 1500s where definitely a time of male dominance. Men held most of the power in society and often had control over whatever land or money their wives may possess. But in The Last Tudor, we see a lot of strong, powerful women, who are very independent. In fact, in the beginning, all of the possible heirs to the English throne are women. 

I really enjoyed the feminist themes throughout the book and the emphasis that a Queen doesn't need a husband to rule for her. I think this narrative is really strengthened by the fact that it is all based on real events. Gregory may have presented the events in a particularly feminist light, but the facts remain the same.

Jane Grey had a wonderful moment when her husband, Guildford Dudley, suggests he should be crowned king consort and co-rule with Jane:

"'No.' [Jane says.] I feel, wildly, that this is worse than my usurpation. I, at least am Tudor. I, at least, an in line. My line at least was named in King Henry's will. But Guildford is the grandson of a tax collector executed for treason. [...] 'It is I who inherit the crown from King Edward, God bless him, and Guildford, my husband takes the throne at my side.' I sense, rather than see, that my sister Katherine had drawn a little closer, as if to say that she is here as my heir, that we are the girls of Royal blood who are named to inherit. We are not fools or pawns. My husband will not be crowned king; her husband will not be crowned king." (Pg. 55-57) 

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