The Queen's Fool

Last updated

The Queen's Fool
Queen's Fool.jpg
First US edition
Author Philippa Gregory
Audio read by Bianca Amato
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
SeriesTudor Series
GenreNovel
Publisher Touchstone (US)
HarperCollins (UK)
Publication date
2003
Media typePrint (hardback & paperback)
Pages512
ISBN 0-7432-6982-9 (hardcover edition)
Preceded by The Boleyn Inheritance  
Followed by The Virgin's Lover  

The Queen's Fool by Philippa Gregory is a 2003 historical fiction novel. Set between 1548 and 1558, it is part of Philippa Gregory's Tudor series. The series includes The Boleyn Inheritance . The novel chronicles the changing fortunes of Mary I of England and her half-sister Elizabeth through the eyes of the fictional Hannah Green, a Marrano girl escaping to England from Spain where her mother was burned at the stake for being Jewish. Hannah is discovered by Robert Dudley and John Dee and subsequently begged as a fool to Edward VI. She witnesses and becomes caught up the intrigues of the young king's court, and later those of his sisters. As Mary, Elizabeth, and Robert Dudley use Hannah to gather information on their rivals and further their own aims, the novel can plausibly present each side in the complex story. The Queen's Fool follows Hannah from ages fourteen to nineteen, and her coming-of-age is interspersed among the historical narrative (see Bildungsroman). The book reached # 29 on the New York Times Best Seller list and had sold 165,000 copies within three weeks of its release. [1]

Contents

It is a historically attested fact that a female jester was indeed active at the English royal court in the period covered by the book. Very little is known about her; the scarce sources mention her as "Jane Foole", but it is not sure if this was her real name or a nickname.

Plot summary

Nine-year-old Hannah Green sees Thomas Seymour and Elizabeth flirting when she delivers books for her father. When asked why she seems surprised, she tells him she has seen a scaffold behind him. Seymour is executed within a year.

Hannah and her father run a book shop on Fleet Street. They fled Spain after Hannah's mother was burnt at the stake during the Inquisition Period. Lord Robert Dudley and John Dee, his tutor, visit the shop, where John realises Hannah has the Sight when she tells them the Angel Uriel was walking behind them. Her father denies it, calling Hannah a fool and claiming she is simple, but Robert and John insist on hiring Hannah as a holy fool to King (Edward VI). The king, learning about her gift, asks her what she sees of him. Hannah replies that she sees the gates of heaven opening for him. Amused by her answer, the king accepts her. Though unwilling at first, Hannah accepts her life at court, serving as the King's Fool and the Dudley family's vassal, performing tasks and errands as requested.

Robert sends her to spy on Lady Mary, King Edward's heir. She joins Mary's household and shortly after learns of King Edward's death and final will naming his Protestant cousin, Lady Jane Grey, his heir, declaring Mary and Elizabeth I illegitimate. Jane and her husband, the Duke of Northumberland's son, Guilford Dudley, are crowned, but the English declare for Mary, so she takes the crown nine days later with Hannah by her side. Queen Mary is crowned, making Hannah overjoyed for her mistress and heartbroken that Robert Dudley, for his hand at Northumberland's plot, is in the Tower of London.

The rise to power of the future queen Elizabeth I is a key sub-plot in The Queen's Fool. PrincessElizabethTudor.jpg
The rise to power of the future queen Elizabeth I is a key sub-plot in The Queen's Fool.

The jester Will Sommers (an actual historical character) teaches Hannah how to be entertaining. Meanwhile, her betrothed, Daniel Carpenter, is annoyed that Hannah is in love with Robert while Hannah shares her doubts about getting married. She sets her worries aside when Mary's marriage to Prince Philip of Spain, an enthusiastic supporter of the Inquisition, will bring the Inquisition to England. Hannah's father, Daniel, and his family insist on leaving England for Calais, where they will marry immediately instead of their previous agreement to wait until Hannah's sixteenth birthday. Hannah realizes her desire for Daniel and, after Mary and Philip's marriage, they are about to leave. Still, when she sees Elizabeth heading for the Tower of London, she promises to join them in Calais when released from service. Hannah slips back into court life. She receives a letter from Daniel declaring his love, but she is unsure how she feels about him.

Over a year later, the Inquisition has spread to England, and Hannah is arrested for heresy and is taken for questioning. Luckily, the clerk is John Dee, who pretends not to know her and dismisses the charges against her as servants' gossip. She asks Daniel to come and collect her, no longer feeling safe, and he and her father collect her and sail to Calais. During the night, Hannah and Daniel declare their love for one another. In Calais, Hannah starts dressing and behaving like a lady and is instructed how to run a household by her mother-in-law. She and Daniel marry, and their families share a house. Hannah struggles to get along with Daniel's mother and sisters and, after an argument with her mother-in-law, learns Daniel had a son with another woman while she was gone. Furious, she confronts Daniel, who admits it and offers never to see the woman or his son if she forbids it. Hannah cannot forgive him and leaves Daniel. She and her father move out and start their own bookshop.

A few months later, Hannah's father dies and, as her husband, Daniel, inherits everything, he signs everything over to Hannah. She runs the printing shop, taking her father's nurse as a lodger, but flees when Calais falls to the French. Whilst escaping, she runs into Robert Dudley and the mother of her husband's son. She begs Hannah to take her baby just before being killed by a French soldier. Hannah and her stepson flee to England under the protection of Robert, his wife Amy, and friends of theirs. Visitors suspect Robert as the baby's father, treating Hannah accordingly until she tells them that the baby, named Daniel, is her husband's son. Robert is disappointed when Hannah refuses to be his mistress, realizing Daniel is the love of her life. She returns to court and is welcomed by Queen Mary and Princess Elizabeth. Mary asks her to use her gift to see if Elizabeth will keep England in the true faith. Hannah tells her that Elizabeth won't, but she will be a better queen than a woman.

When the French ransoms the English prisoners, she returns to Calais to find her husband. He is released and promises to accept Hannah's son as his own until she tells him that baby Daniel is his illegitimate son. They reunite and live together as a Jewish family – Hannah realizes the importance of her religion.

Criticism

Portrayal of Mary Tudor: Gregory attempts to present Mary I in a sympathetic light, where in most other cases, she is demonised. In the novel, much of the blame for the Inquisition being brought to England is placed on her husband, Philip II of Spain, and her ministers, where Mary herself seems hardly at fault. Despite the fact that her own mother was burned at the stake for her religious beliefs, Hannah Green remains loyal and sympathetic to Mary, even though Mary has been burning Protestants. In addition, Mary is portrayed as much kinder to her younger half-sister Elizabeth than was the actuality. (They got along well enough before the death of Henry VIII, but Mary became increasingly hostile towards her younger half-sister upon ascending the throne, viewing her as a threat and the hope of the Protestants.) [2] Readers may either find this portrayal to be refreshing or untrue to history. Mary is given many negative overviews in later Protestant works, especially that of John Foxe. Some modern historians attempt to provide a more balanced and even sympathetic view on Mary's life by examining and pointing out her difficult experiences in her later teenage years, the impacts of the behavior of her father and those around her, such as Alison Weir, while others, such as Joanna Denny, consider such aspects of her life irrelevant to her disregard for the lives of Protestants. However, such attitudes weren't uncommon for the time.

Portrayal of Hannah Green: Hannah is a young Jewish girl who fled the Inquisition in Spain with her father. She dressed as a boy on the voyage to avoid harassment and continued to do so once they arrive in England. This would technically be historically and religiously incorrect, because she is a Jew. The Torah, the Jewish holy book, forbids women to dress as men and vice versa. However, for a woman to dress as a man was banned also in the Christian Bible, and was still practiced by contemporary Christian women, so this would not separate her from other European woman of the time, as this sort of cross dressing was always an illegal and religiously banned act regardless of religion. Her mother was burned alive for practicing a religion other than that of the Catholics. Becoming a royal fool and acting as a spy for both sides, she is caught up in the intrigues of the Tudor court. In a later part, she is shown as breaking with her husband, living alone and maintaining her own business as a printer - acts which would be extremely daring for a 16th Century woman of whatever religion.

Portrayal of Elizabeth Tudor: Elizabeth I is portrayed in a harsher way than other depictions. During her sister's reign, though there was always the danger of being executed as a heretic, she seems to have been more worried that enough fabricated evidence would be produced to condemn her as being involved in the plot to set herself up on the throne.

During Mary's reign, there were numerous plots to replace Mary with Elizabeth, though there is no evidence that she participated in any of them. [3] Elizabeth was arrested, sent to the Tower but released after a few months and sent to Woodstock under house arrest as depicted. This was because there was never enough evidence to be absolutely sure that Elizabeth was involved in the rebellions attempting to put her on the throne.

In great contrast to the traditional portrait, "the Virgin Queen" is Gregory's picture of the young Elizabeth, whom Hannah dubbed as "little more than a whore." In the beginning, Elizabeth is shown to be flirting with and kissing Thomas Seymour, a man who was already married, and, in essence, betraying her stepmother.

Historically, Elizabeth went to live with her stepmother Catherine Parr after the death of Henry VIII. Parr had recently married Seymour, despite being only widowed for a few months, causing much disapproval from the English people. Seymour had originally sought to marry Elizabeth, but was refused permission by the king, so he settled for the second best: the late king's widow. However, this did not keep him from flirting heavily with the young princess in very inappropriate ways, such as entering her bedroom in his night shirt while she was still asleep, tickling her, and slapping her on the buttocks. Elizabeth was confused by this behaviour, sometimes acting as if it were a game, and at other times becoming offended. [4] She was fourteen at the time of these events, and Seymour was forty. Historian David Starkey refers to these events as "the most sordid episode of Elizabeth's life" and labels it as sexual abuse. [5] Catherine Parr did once join her husband in tickling Elizabeth, seemingly oblivious to mostly everything and likely interpreting it as mere family fun. However, she did eventually catch on, and sent her stepdaughter to a different residence to preserve what was left of her reputation, which was in shreds.

Reception

The Queen's Fool reached # 29 on the New York Times Best Seller list and had sold 165,000 copies within three weeks of its release. [1]

AudioFile magazine called main characters Mary, Elizabeth and Hannah "fully three-dimensional and unforgettable", and praised the audiobook recording's narrator Bianca Amato. [6]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elizabeth I</span> Queen of England and Ireland from 1558 to 1603

Elizabeth I was Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. She was the last monarch of the House of Tudor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edward VI</span> King of England and Ireland from 1547 to 1553

Edward VI was King of England and Ireland from 28 January 1547 until his death in 1553. He was crowned on 20 February 1547 at the age of nine. The only surviving son of Henry VIII by his third wife, Jane Seymour, Edward was the first English monarch to be raised as a Protestant. During his reign, the realm was governed by a regency council because Edward never reached maturity. The council was first led by his uncle Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset (1547–1549), and then by John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland (1550–1553).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mary I of England</span> Queen of England and Ireland from 1553 to 1558

Mary I, also known as Mary Tudor, and as "Bloody Mary" by her Protestant opponents, was Queen of England and Ireland from July 1553 and Queen of Spain and the Habsburg dominions as the wife of King Philip II from January 1556 until her death in 1558. She is best known for her vigorous attempt to reverse the English Reformation, which had begun during the reign of her father, King Henry VIII. Her attempt to restore to the Church the property confiscated in the previous two reigns was largely thwarted by Parliament, but during her five-year reign, Mary had over 280 religious dissenters burned at the stake in the Marian persecutions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">House of Tudor</span> English royal house of Welsh origin

The House of Tudor was an English and Welsh dynasty that held the throne of England from 1485 to 1603. They descended from the Tudors of Penmynydd, a Welsh noble family, and Catherine of Valois. The Tudor monarchs ruled the Kingdom of England and the Lordship of Ireland for 118 years with five monarchs: Henry VII, Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary I and Elizabeth I. The Tudors succeeded the House of Plantagenet as rulers of the Kingdom of England, and were succeeded by the Scottish House of Stuart. The first Tudor monarch, Henry VII, descended through his mother from the House of Beaufort, a legitimised branch of the English royal House of Lancaster, a cadet house of the Plantagenets. The Tudor family rose to power and started the Tudor period in the wake of the Wars of the Roses (1455–1487), which left the main House of Lancaster extinct in the male line.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Catherine Parr</span> Queen of England and Ireland from 1543 to 1547

Catherine Parr was Queen of England and Ireland as the last of the six wives of King Henry VIII from their marriage on 12 July 1543 until Henry's death on 28 January 1547. Catherine was the final queen consort of the House of Tudor, and outlived Henry by a year and eight months. With four husbands, she is the most-married English queen. She was the first woman to publish in print an original work under her own name, in English, in England.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset</span> Lord Protector of England from 1547 to 1549

Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset, 1st Earl of Hertford, 1st Viscount Beauchamp, also known as Edward Semel, was an English nobleman and politician who served as Lord Protector of England from 1547 to 1549 during the minority of his nephew King Edward VI. He was the eldest surviving brother of Queen Jane Seymour, the third wife of King Henry VIII.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lady Arbella Stuart</span> English noblewoman

Lady Arbella Stuart was an English noblewoman who was considered a possible successor to Queen Elizabeth I of England. During the reign of King James VI and I, she married William Seymour, 2nd Duke of Somerset, another claimant to the English throne, in secret. King James imprisoned William Seymour and placed her under house arrest. When she and her husband tried to escape England, she was captured and imprisoned in the Tower of London, where she died at age 39.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lady Katherine Grey</span> English noblewoman

Katherine Seymour, Countess of Hertford was a younger sister of Lady Jane Grey.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Philippa Gregory</span> English historical novelist, born 1954

Philippa Gregory is an English historical novelist who has been publishing since 1987. The best known of her works is The Other Boleyn Girl (2001), which in 2002 won the Romantic Novel of the Year Award from the Romantic Novelists' Association and has been adapted into two films.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk</span> English politician and nobleman (1538–1572)

Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk,, was an English nobleman and politician. He was a second cousin of Queen Elizabeth I and held many high offices during the earlier part of her reign.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ambrose Dudley, 3rd Earl of Warwick</span> English nobleman and general

Ambrose Dudley, 3rd Earl of Warwick, KG was an English nobleman and general, and an elder brother of Queen Elizabeth I's favourite, Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester. Their father was John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, who led the English government from 1550–1553 under King Edward VI and unsuccessfully tried to establish Lady Jane Grey on the English throne after the King's death in July 1553. For his participation in this venture, Ambrose Dudley was imprisoned in the Tower of London and condemned to death. Reprieved, his rehabilitation came after he fought for King Philip in the Battle of St. Quentin.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lady Mary Grey</span> English noblewoman (1545–1578)

Lady Mary Keyes was the youngest daughter of Henry Grey, 1st Duke of Suffolk, and Frances Brandon, and through her mother had a claim on the crown of England.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tudor period</span> Historical era in England coinciding with the rule of the Tudor dynasty

In England and Wales, the Tudor period occurred between 1485 and 1603, including the Elizabethan era during the reign of Elizabeth I (1558–1603). The Tudor period coincides with the dynasty of the House of Tudor in England, which began with the reign of Henry VII. Under the Tudor dynasty, art, architecture trade, exploration and commerce flourished. Historian John Guy (1988) argued that "England was economically healthier, more expansive, and more optimistic under the Tudors" than at any time since the Roman occupation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frances Grey, Duchess of Suffolk</span> English noblewoman

Frances Grey, Duchess of Suffolk, was an English noblewoman. She was the second child and eldest daughter of King Henry VIII's younger sister, Princess Mary, and Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk. She was the mother of Lady Jane Grey, de facto Queen of England and Ireland for nine days, as well as Lady Katherine Grey and Lady Mary Grey.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lady Jane Grey</span> Claimant to the English throne in 1553

Lady Jane Grey, also known as Lady Jane Dudley after her marriage and as the "Nine Days' Queen", was an English noblewoman who claimed the throne of England and Ireland from 10 to 19 July 1553.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edward Seymour, Lord Beauchamp</span> 16th/17-century English noble

Edward Seymour, Lord Beauchamp of Hache was an English nobleman who had a theoretically strong claim to the throne of England through his mother, Lady Katherine Grey, but his legitimacy was questioned. He was an ancestor of the dukes of Somerset.

Young Royals is a series of novels for children by Carolyn Meyer based on the early lives of multiple royalties such as English and French royalty. Books in the series are mostly about the English Tudors, such as: Mary, Bloody Mary (1999); Beware, Princess Elizabeth (2001); Doomed Queen Anne (2002); and Patience, Princess Catherine (2004). The French books in the series are Duchessina (2007), about the life of Catherine de' Medici, and The Bad Queen: Rules and Instructions for Marie-Antoinette (2010). The most recent titles in the series are: The Wild Queen: The Days and Nights of Mary, Queen of Scots (2012); Victoria Rebels (2013), about Queen Victoria of the British Empire; and Anastasia and Her Sisters (2013), about the daughters of Tsar Nicholas of Russia, specifically Anastasia.

<i>Innocent Traitor</i> Book by Alison Weir about Lady Jane Grey

Innocent Traitor: A Novel of Lady Jane Grey is a historical novel by Alison Weir, published in 2006. It is the story of Lady Jane Grey, who was Queen of England for nine days in 1553. Previously known for her non-fiction publications, Innocent Traitor was Weir's first work of fiction; she later spoke of its impact on her, saying she "learned so much from the editorial process about the writing and craft of fiction."

<i>The Virgins Lover</i> Historical novel written by Philippa Gregory

The Virgin's Lover is a historical novel written by British author Philippa Gregory. It belongs to her series of Tudor novels, including The Constant Princess, The Other Boleyn Girl, The Boleyn Inheritance, and The Queen's Fool.

Jane Dudley, Duchess of Northumberland was an English courtier. She was the wife of John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland, and mother of Guildford Dudley and Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester. Having grown up with her future husband, who was her father's ward, she married at about age 16. They had 13 children.

References

  1. 1 2 Natalie, Danford (1 March 2004). "Paperback Tradeoff". Publishers Weekly . pp. 20–21.
  2. Behind the Mask: The Life of Elizabeth I by Jane Resh Thomas
  3. Behind the Mask: The Life of Queen Elizabeth I by Jane Resh Thomas
  4. Struggle for the Throne by David Starkey
  5. Starkey, David, Elizabeth: The Struggle for the Throne, 2001. Pg 67.
  6. "Audiobook Review: The Queen's Fool (2004)". AudioFile . Retrieved 8 December 2014.