Linda Porter lindaporter.net
Mary Tudor: the First Queen by Linda Porter is published in hardback by Portrait, £20
LINDA Porter was brave to write a sympathetic biography of England's Queen Mary 1 - otherwise known as "Bloody Mary" - who to this day remains one of the most reviled of Britain's monarchs.
She was the elder daughter of the legendary King Henry VIII and ruled from 1553 until her death in 1558.
Her neurotic and obsessive behaviour, hard-line Roman Catholicism, and near-farcical marriage to the much younger Philip II of Spain, who spent most of his time abroad, have contributed substantially to this negative image.
It was however her temporary return of England to the Roman faith which led to about 300 religious dissenters being burned at the stake as "heretics", which has tarnished her name forever.
Whether or not one regards her as a victim of circumstance or a monster, this well-written appraisal of an occassionally sinister but ultimately pathetic and long-suffering woman is well worth reading.
Porter brings clarity to complex issues and paints a vivid picture of Tudor court life.
Mary comes across as an educated and essentially dignified woman who, despite her faults, also possessed virtues and positive skills as a ruler.
The religious, political and family problems which arose from Henry VIII's divorce from Mary's mother, Catherine of Aragon, swirled around Mary from childhood and imposed almost intolerable strains on her. On more than one ocassion, her life was in danger.
Mary's loyalty to her mother's religious beliefs, and bitterness over Henry VIII's treatment of her and Mary, coloured her behaviour when she eventually became queen.
Porter possibly takes too dismissive a view of the barbaric treatment of the religious dissenters.
Even in those brutal times, the burnings at the stake shocked Roman Catholic observers from abroad and it is hard to believe that Mary could not have stopped them if she had wanted to.
She was desperate to have an heir and twice suffered from "phantom" pregnancies. Childless, sad and emotionally broken, she died aged 42.
She was succeeded by her flamboyant and imperious half-sister who, as Queen Elizabeth I, became one of the greatest monarchs ever to rule England. She did so for an amazing 45 years.
ANTHONY LOOCH