Not just for history lovers but anyone hooked on Showtime's The Tudors or, currently, The Borgias...An enjoyable, often witty read, which will make for a nice introduction to the Stuarts and a fun refresher for aficionados.” —Library Journal
“A well-fashioned history of the remarkable Scottish monarchs... A palatable history lesson that might help untangle the royal lineage web for American readers.” —Kirkus
“Smart...A delightfully opinionated but nuanced and action-packed history.” —Publishers Weekly
“It drips with blood, cruelty and tears... Evocative, visceral - haunting.” —Daily Telegraph (UK)
“Lively and jauntily paced history.” —Sunday Times (UK)
“Stirring and eloquent account of the Stuarts.” —Scotland on Sunday
“A highly readable and impressively panoramic history.” —The Scotsman
“[Massie] combines dry wit and fondness for well-constructed sentences with a novelist's sense of the enlivening detail.” —Daily Express (UK)
“A pleasure to read and psychologically compelling.” —The Spectator (UK)
In this smart history, Massie gives its due to the British dynasty that has long played second fiddle to the Tudors. A key Breton ancestor of the Stuart monarchs was appointed, circa 1124, High Steward of Scotland, a prestigious role that gave the Stewarts their family name (changed to Stuart by Mary, queen of Scots), and in which they served ably for eight generations. Robert II became the first, if ineffectual, Stewart king of Scotland in 1371. The five Jameses were men of unusual ability, and James IV’s marriage to Henry VIII’s sister led to the union of Scotland and England 100 years later. The deaths on the scaffold of Mary and her grandson Charles I, says Massie, lent their memory a nobility that their lives frequently lacked. James VI, an intelligent, canny politician, was patron of the King James Bible. The most intelligent, charming, and deceitful of Stuart kings, Charles II, was followed by his brother James, whose Catholicism cost him his throne. The Stuart dynasty ended on an inglorious note with the “politically insignificant” Mary II and her sister Anne, an “ordinary woman” who despite over a dozen pregnancies, failed to produce a living heir. Massie, a novelist (Caesar) and Spectator columnist, offers a delightfully opinionated but nuanced and action-packed history. Illus. (Dec.)
Massie (novelist and columnist for The Scotsman) addresses the romance and myths that surround one of the ruling families of Great Britain, making the case that there is more to the Stuarts than the tragic Mary, Queen of Scots, or the defeated Bonnie Prince Charlie. Beginning with Robert II in 14th-century Scotland and ending with James VIII and III, the author provides an engaging look at the political machinations, marriages and affairs, executions and suspicious deaths, battles, and reforms throughout the Stuart reigns, which of course included the family's ascension to the English throne (they were already monarchs of Scotland) upon the death of Elizabeth I, and the battles between Charles I and Parliament, his beheading, and the restoration of Stuarts to the throne after the end of the Cromwell Protectorate. The family trees provided at the beginning are essential. VERDICT Massie is candid that this collective biography "makes no pretence to be a work of academic history," and, indeed, there are limited notes on sources as well as repetition of some dubious stories. However, it's an enjoyable, often witty read, which will make for a nice introduction to the Stuarts and a fun refresher for aficionados. [See Prepub Alert, 6/13/11.]—Megan Hahn Fraser, Univ. of California-Los Angeles Lib.
A well-fashioned history of the remarkable Scottish monarchs. They were "Stewarts," mythical descendants of Shakespeare's Banquo, before they were "Stuarts," writes prolific Scottish novelist and historian Massie (Death in Bordeaux, 2010, etc.). The spelling was changed by Mary Queen of Scots so that it would be easier to pronounce for the French. The clan actually traces its roots in Brittany, with enterprising members crossing the Channel first in the service of the Norman king Henry I. The first Stewart on the Scottish throne, Robert II, weathered the wars of independence against the English, though the Scottish monarchy was much weaker than the English, lacking a similar administrative apparatus. What Cambridge historian F.W. Maitland termed a "mournful procession of the Jameses" followed, with mixed results. Several were murdered early on, though James IV's marriage to English princess Margaret Tudor in 1503 was significant because it would lead to the Union of the Crowns 100 years later. Queen Mary's story has been told often elsewhere, and provides the saddest interlude, while her son, James VI, proved the great survivor, an intellectual, solid Protestant and patron of the arts, effectively putting Scotland's house in order before Elizabeth I's death invited him to join the thrones of England and Scotland. There is no end to the fascination with the lives of the two truncated Charleses, in turn spurring revolution then restoration, and Massie truly brings these singular characters to life with his felicitous prose. Perhaps the least understood of the clan was Queen Anne, who presided over the Treaty of Union in 1707, possessed principles and stamina yet had no living heir to keep the throne from falling to the Protestant Elector of Hanover, who became George I. A palatable history lesson that might help untangle the royal lineage web for American readers.
