In the Shadow of the Crown - Softcover

Plaidy, Jean

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0709034350 ISBN 13: 9780709034353

Publisher: Robert Hale Ltd, 1988

Synopsis

As Henry VIII's only child, the future seemed golden for Princess Mary. She was the daughter of Henry's first queen, Katharine of Aragon, and was heir presumptive to the throne of England. Red-haired like her father, she was also intelligent and deeply religious like her staunchly Catholic mother. But her father's ill-fated love for Anne Boleyn would shatter Mary's life forever. The father who had once adored her was now intent on having a male heir at all costs. He divorced her mother and, at the age of twelve, Mary was banished from her father' s presence, stripped of her royal title, and replaced by his other children--first Elizabeth, then Edward. Worst of all, she never saw her beloved mother again; Katharine was exiled too, and died soon after. Lonely and miserable, Mary turned for comfort to the religion that had sustained her mother. In a stroke of fate, however, Henry's much-longed-for son died in his teens, leaving Mary the legitimate heir to the throne. It was, she felt, a sign from God--proof that England should return to the Catholic Church. Swayed by fanatical advisors and her own religious fervor, Mary made horrific examples of those who failed to embrace the Church, earning her the immortal nickname " Bloody Mary." She was married only once, to her Spanish cousin Philip II--a loveless and childless marriage that brought her to the edge of madness. With In the Shadow of the Crown, Jean Plaidy brings to life the dark story of a queen whose road to the throne was paved with sorrow.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

YOUNG AND INEXPERIENCED, HER LIFE WAS SHAPED IN THE SHADOW OF THE CROWN.

Mary Tudor found her once assured future devastated by the perilous and dramatic events of her father Henry VIII: the break with Rome, the suppression of the monasteries, the execution of two Queens.

Longing for marriage and children, Mary became convinced that she was preserved for a divine purpose: to restore the Church of England to Rome. And one man had the power to satisfy all Mary's ambitions – Philip of Spain...

About the Author:

JEAN PLAIDY, one of the preeminent authors of historical fiction for most of the twentieth century, is the pen name of the prolific English author Eleanor Hibbert, also known as Victoria Holt. Jean Plaidy’s novels had sold more than 14 million copies worldwide by the time of her death in 1993.
From the Trade Paperback edition.

About this edition

• Publisher: Robert Hale Ltd
• Publication date: 1988
• ISBN 10: 0709034350
• ISBN 13: 9780709034353
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 384