Jane Dunn??s Elizabeth and Mary: Cousins, Rivals, Queens
offers a blend of history and biography that traces the "dynamic
interaction" between two of the most powerful women in Western
history. Dunn remains ever aware of the uniqueness of her two
central figures: both women ruled as divinely ordained monarchs in
a male dominated power structure; and both women were from the same
family (Elizabeth I was the granddaughter of Henry VII, and Mary
Queen of Scots the great-granddaughter of King Henry).
By focusing not on pure biography but instead on relationships,
Dunn is able to narrow her book (still mammoth in scope) to the
most salient and interesting events in the two queens?? lives. The
book begins in 1558, the year in which Mary first wed and Elizabeth
assumed the throne of England. Almost immediately the cousins were
embroiled in a conflict that would endure for the remainder of
Mary??s life. A restless, sexually-active Catholic, and leader of
the Scottish people in alliance with France, Mary was ever a
conduit for rumors of rebellion. The "Virgin Queen" Elizabeth used
Mary as a dark reflection to underline her own celibate constancy
as a ruler of law and order.
The pair never met face to face, but as Dunn reveals, their
lives were closely intertwined. After holding Mary in Fotheringhay
prison for nearly two decades, Elizabeth ordered her cousin
executed in 1587. Mary had chosen martyrdom in favor of a
confession to complicity in the Babington assassination plot. In
court, she declared: "I would never make Shipwreck of my Soul by
conspiring the Destruction of my dearest Sister." Though the
ostensible victor, Elizabeth (who had struggled to find a way to
release her cousin while still upholding her own power as queen)
confessed, "I am not free, but a captive." In Elizabeth and
Mary, Dunn has built a rich world that underlines the tragic
struggle between private emotions and the public faces history puts
on them. --Patrick O??Kelley