Daughters of the Winter Queen: Four Remarkable Sisters, the Crown of Bohemia, and the Enduring Legacy of Mary, Queen of Scots

by Nancy Goldstone

Overview

The thrilling family saga of five unforgettable women who remade Europe.

From the great courts, glittering palaces, and war-ravaged battlefields of the seventeenth century comes the story of four spirited sisters and their glamorous mother, Elizabeth Stuart, granddaughter of the martyred Mary, Queen of Scots.

Upon her father's ascension to the illustrious throne of England, Elizabeth Stuart was suddenly thrust from the poverty of unruly Scotland into the fairytale existence of a princess of great wealth and splendor. When she was married at sixteen to a German count far below her rank, it was with the understanding that her father would help her husband achieve the kingship of Bohemia. The terrible betrayal of this commitment would ruin "the Winter Queen," as Elizabeth would forever be known, imperil the lives of those she loved and launch a war that would last for thirty years.

Forced into exile, the Winter Queen and her family found refuge in Holland, where the glorious art and culture of the Dutch Golden Age indelibly shaped her daughters' lives. Her eldest, Princess Elizabeth, became a scholar who earned the respect and friendship of the philosopher René Descartes. Louisa was a gifted painter whose engaging manner and appealing looks provoked heartache and scandal. Beautiful Henrietta Maria would be the only sister to marry into royalty, although at great cost. But it was the youngest, Sophia, a heroine in the tradition of a Jane Austen novel, whose ready wit and good-natured common sense masked immense strength of character, who fulfilled the promise of her great-grandmother Mary and reshaped the British monarchy, a legacy that endures to this day.

Brilliantly researched and captivatingly written, filled with danger, treachery, and adventure but also love, courage, and humor, Daughters of the Winter Queen follows the lives of five remarkable women who, by refusing to surrender to adversity, changed the course of history.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780316387910
Publisher:	Little, Brown and Company
Publication date:	04/10/2018
Pages:	496
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.70(d)

About the Author

Nancy Goldstone is the author of five previous books including The Rival Queens: Catherine de' Medici, Her Daughter Marguerite de Valois, and the Betrayal that Ignited a Kingdom; The Maid and the Queen: The Secret History of Joan of Arc; Four Queens: The Provençal Sisters Who Ruled Europe; and The Lady Queen: The Notorious Reign of Joanna I, Queen of Naples, Jerusalem, and Sicily. She has also coauthored six books with her husband, Lawrence Goldstone. She lives in Sagaponack, New York.

Table of Contents

Map xii-xiii

Selected Genealogy of the Stuart Family xiv-xv

Introduction 3

Part I The Winter Queen, Granddaughter of Mary, Queen of Scots Elizabeth Stuart

1 A King's Daughter 11

2 (An Almost) Royal Wedding 30

3 Goodwife Palsgrave 52

4 Queen of Bohemia 70

5 The Winter Queen 88

6 Queen of Hearts 108

Part II The Daughters of the Winter Queen: Princess Elizabeth Louise Hollandine Henrietta Maria Sophia

7 A Royal Refugee 137

8 Child of Light and Dark 149

9 Lilies and Roses 163

10 A Royal Education 177

11 The Visiting Philosopher 195

12 A Scandal in Bohemia 219

13 Honor and Duty 235

14 Royal Sense and Sensibility 259

15 A Lesson on the Passions 271

16 A Desperate Plan 287

17 The Electress, Two Dukes, and the Lady-in-Waiting 311

Part III The Legacy of Mary, Queen of Scots

18 Abbess of Herford 341

19 Abbess of Maubuisson 363

20 A Scandal in Hanover 389

21 The Triumph of the Winter Queen 419

Epilogue 431

Acknowledgments 433

Notes 437

Selected Bibliography 461

Illustration Credits 469

Index 471

Editorial Reviews

Goldstone's forthright and often witty asides keep this complicated story bowling along at a terrific pace…Lively and well-researched, Daughters of the Winter Queen offers a timely introduction to a turbulent period in Britain's past relations with Europe.

The New York Times Book Review - Miranda Seymour

03/05/2018
“It is simply not possible to fully understand the seventeenth century in all of its exuberant, glorious complexity without this family,” proclaims Goldstone (The Rival Queens) of Elizabeth Stuart (1596–1662), daughter of James I of England, and her children. This lively, well-researched group biography focuses as much on the mother as on her more famous daughters. Elizabeth’s marriage to Frederick, Elector Palatine—a powerful count, but still far below her in rank—was very happy but plagued by political disasters; for nearly 30 years, Elizabeth toiled to reclaim his territory for her children. Among those children were the daughters whose stories Goldstone tells: Princess Elizabeth, an intellectual equal to and intimate correspondent of Descartes, who eventually became abbess of a Protestant convent; Louisa, a talented painter, who converted to Catholicism before also becoming an abbess; Henrietta Maria, who died shortly after marriage; and Sophia, a spirited matriarch, who finally restored the family fortunes when her eldest son became King George I of England. Goldstone occasionally overreaches, making somewhat unlikely sweeping claims (for example, that the fearlessness and persistence of Elizabeth and her daughters was necessarily due to their descent from Mary, Queen of Scots), but clearly presents a captivating story with empathy and humor in a relaxed, entertaining, modern voice. B&w plates. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly

2018-02-06
The story of how one remarkable woman's drive to survive secured the succession of the British crown to this day.Elizabeth Stuart (1596-1662), daughter of King James I, was 6 years old when her father, son of Mary, Queen of Scots, succeeded Queen Elizabeth I as the king of England. Elizabeth was married to Frederick, Elector Palatine of the Rhine, a marriage many considered to be beneath her royal status. The reasoning behind the marriage was that James I would support Frederick's claim to become king of Bohemia. In his usual manner, it was a claim that James promised but never delivered. The Bohemian revolt of 1618 brought an offer to Frederick to assume the throne, which he quickly did. Unfortunately, the Hapsburgs and Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand took umbrage and quickly recovered the kingdom. Frederick and Elizabeth ruled for only one season, thus the title of Winter King and Queen. Living at the court of the Prince of Orange, they struggled to regain their titles. Fortunately, the Prince of Orange left Elizabeth a significant piece of the West India Company, which contributed to a new army to regain Frederick's realm. However, it was not to be, and then came the Thirty Years' War, which precipitated Frederick's death in 1632. Though the narrative could have devolved into a complicated morass of intertwined royal families, Goldstone (The Rival Queens: Catherine de' Medici, Her Daughter Marguerite de Valois, and the Betrayal that Ignited a Kingdom, 2016, etc.), a seasoned historian, effectively keeps the lines clear as she relates Elizabeth's repeated, frustrated attempts to secure strong marriages for her children under trying circumstances. Her children's stories are fascinating, as well—e.g., one daughter had a long correspondence with Descartes, another with Leibniz. Ultimately, it was her youngest daughter, Sophia, who secured the family's future as the Electress of Hanover.A great book for history fans seeking illumination on the connections of European royalty.

Kirkus Reviews

"Goldstone's forthright and often witty asides keep this complicated story bowling along at a terrific pace...Lively and well-researched, Daughters of the Winter Queen offers a timely introduction to a turbulent period in Britain's past relations with Europe."—Miranda Seymour, New York Times Book Review

"Goldstone is a master juggler. She tells a good story, always with a delightfully light touch. In the process, extraordinary women are given the attention they deserve."—Gerard DeGroot, The Times of London

"Goldstone is a thrilling narrator of this complicated history. Yet the achievement of a work like this is not merely its command of a vast and dense web of the past, but also its incredible literary merit. Daughters of the Winter Queen is nothing short of page-turning, an exceptional work of scholarship that reads like a favorite novel filled with political intrigue, romantic scandal, and more than one dark-of-night escape."—East Hampton Star

"A fascinating feminist story."—The Coil

"This rich and complex story of a seventeenth century queen who lost her throne, and her four defiant daughters, is compulsively readable. Combining rigorous research with a vivid writing style, Nancy Goldstone illuminates the women who have often been left in the shadows of history, and reminds us that fascination with royalty is nothing new."—Charlotte Gray, author of Reluctant Genius: Alexander GrahamBell and the Passion for Invention and Gold Diggers: Striking It Rich inthe Klondike

"Goldstone (The Rival Queens) once again places a much-deserved spotlight on remarkable women from European history...A compulsively readable account of an otherwise unfamiliar royal family. Goldstone writes with knowledge, humor, and ease—a masterly storyteller who steers clear of overly academic language. Ideal for amateur Tudor historians who wish to be introduced to a lesser-known yet equally fascinating royal family."—Library Journal (starred review)

"Goldstone relates the eminently readable tale of Elizabeth Stuart, dubbed the Winter Queen, and her four lovely, talented daughters...The story of these five women, each remarkable for individual reasons and in her own right, both illuminates and is offset by Goldstone's vividly rendered European backdrop."—Booklist

"Though the narrative could have devolved into a complicated mass of intertwined royal families, Goldstone, a seasoned historian, effectively keeps the lines clear as she relates Elizabeth's repeated, frustrated attempts to secure strong marriages for her children under trying circumstances. Her children's stories are fascinating, as well...A great book for history fans seeking illumination on the connections of European royalty."—Kirkus

"A lively, well-researched group biography...Goldstone presents a captivating story with empathy and humor in a relaxed, entertaining, modern voice."—Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher

★ 03/01/2018
Goldstone (The Rival Queens) once again places a much-deserved spotlight on remarkable women from European history. In this case, the enduring ancestral legacy of Mary, Queen of Scots (1542–87). Mary's granddaughter Elizabeth Stuart, known as "the Winter Queen," is less familiar than that of her grandmother, who was beheaded by Queen Elizabeth I in 1587 (nine years before Stuart was born). But the story of the Winter Queen and her colorful brood of children—one of whom fathered King George I—rivals that of the Tudors. Goldstone's journey begins with Mary's brutal beheading and takes us through the eventual ascension of her son to the throne, triggering a series of dramatic generational events that include jealous gun-wielding queens, shifting loyalties, scandalous affairs, unprecedented marital arrangements, endless war, and religious fanaticism. Most importantly, we learn of the impressive power and influence of Stuart and her four daughters, which endures to this day. VERDICT A compulsively readable account of an otherwise unfamiliar royal family. Goldstone writes with knowledge, humor, and ease—a masterly storyteller who steers clear of overly academic language. Ideal for amateur Tudor historians who wish to be introduced to a lesser-known yet equally fascinating royal family.—Erin Entrada Kelly, Philadelphia

Library Journal