The Queen's Fool by Philippa Gregory

The Queen's Fool by Philippa Gregory was written in 2004. A novel that is a part of Gregory's Tudor Series.  I had read The Other Boleyn Girl a couple of years ago. You can read my review of that book HERE.  What I discovered while reading this book is that the order Gregory wrote the Tudor Series is not the chronological order of the books.  So - since I've already started reading them, this is a disappointment to me! Hmmm - maybe I should have done some research BEFORE I started the series!! (which I thought I had, but apparently not!)

To read chronologically:

• The Constant Princess (Katherine of Aragon)
• The Other Boleyn Girl (Mary and Anne Boleyn)
• The Wise Woman (A young girl forced out of her nunnery and into the real world during the reformation during Anne Boleyn's time of being queen)
• The Boleyn Inheritance (Jane Boleyn, Anne of Cleves and Katherine Howard)
• The Queen's Fool (A young Jewish girl's story of her service in the court of Edward VI, Mary I and Elizabeth I)
• The Virgin’s Lover (Elizabeth I, Robert Dudley and Amy Robsart)
• The Other Queen (Mary, Queen of Scots, George Talbot and Bess of Hardwick)

SYNOPSIS:

 At a time when  innocent people were being burned for heresy or strangled for witchcraft, Hannah, a young Jewish girl enters the Tudor court. Sworn into the service of a man getting ready to be charged with treason.  As a young girl with "the sight" Robert Dudley sends her as a Holy Fool to spy on Princess Mary Tudor, the forgotten heir to King Edward’s throne. To spy on the queen for the love of a traitor was the most dangerous choice of all.

Instead of the tyrant of popular legend - known as "Bloody Mary",  Gregory presents Queen Mary as wanting only the best for the kingdom – (those not possessing the Catholic Faith were hung or burned at the stake.)  A very misguided Queen trying to do what she believes is best - even though it was so very wrong.

 Gregory tells the story in fiction form of Princess Elizabeth waiting - often impatiently to take over the reign of her sister so she can end the killing and the torture. - Well, maybe that sounds too positive. She wasn't wanting to be Queen to end the killing. She just wanted to be Queen.

Hannah, caught in the lifelong enmity between the rival daughters of Henry VIII, torn between her infatuation with Dudley and duty to her family, thrilled by her own rare gifts, but scared of the unknown, she must find a safe way through dangerous times. Times in which she is both key witness and key player, when the wrong religion is a death sentence, science and magic are one, and true love can mean death.

As I mentioned in my review of The Other Boleyn Girl, many of Gregory's reviews are critical of the historical accuracy of her books. I don't really know enough about the times of Tudor - other than "popular" teachings for me to read her books critically. I read them because I think they are good fiction. I enjoy the stories that this author weaves through her research.

I enjoyed the book. I highly recommend it for anyone who likes a good novel and for anyone who enjoys good historical fiction.  She doesn't go into too much detail on the burnings and torturing so it's not a gory book. I had a hard time putting it down!

Fortunately for me - my wonderful husband gets just as involved in his reading - so he doesn't lose patience with me! - Nor I him!  :)

I highly recommend this book.

*****