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Elizabeth I and Mary Stuart: On the Perils of Marriage Interstate 60: Episodes of the Road trailer Bordello of Blood divx By Anka Muhlstein, translated by John Brownjohn Haus Books, 2007 Renowned Tudor-era historian Anka Muhlstein has written a book whose premise is as simple as it is thought-provoking. She looks at the queenly careers of Elizabeth I and Mary Queen of Scots – both of whom faced innumerable obstacles on their paths to power, both of whom fought foreign wars and faced the threat of invasion and assassination at home, and both acquitted themselves admirably in these trials. Muhlstein contends that the crucial difference between the two women was how each approached the subject of marriage.

Mary did so, often foolishly, three times: first to the Dauphin of France, then to Robert Darnley, and finally to Robert Bothwell – a lunatic, a weakling, and what a quainter age called an adventurer, respectively. Elizabeth flirted her whole life with the idea of marriage but famously never indulged. Mary gained a male heir out of her disastrous marriage to Robert Darnley, but she ended up imprisoned and executed. Elizabeth lived in triumphant glory, but she was obliged by dynastic imperative to put Mary’s heir on the English throne.

Muhlstein is wonderful and insightful on all this, and her greatest strength is her sure grasp of the characters who populate her story, as in this little sketch of Elizabeth’s so-called spy master, Francis Walsingham:

Walsingham’s relations with Elizabeth were never cordial. He was too pessimistic and inflexible; in other words too puritanical to endear himself to her. He did not stoop to flattering her or lauding her beauty and intelligence in the high-flown language customary at court. On the contrary, he was blunt and outspoken with her, never hesitating to draw her attention to the limits of her power. [for her part, Elizabeth] knew that her survival was more dependent on the protection of this stern, modest, discreet man in black than on all the handsome officials who adorned her court.

The book is glowingly worthy of any Tudor-scholar’s attention. And it need hardly be added that John Brownjohn’s translation is flawless.

                                                                                                                         –Steve Donoghue