The marriage game -Alison Weir

I first read this book last year - I bought it as soon as it came out as I'm a massive fan of Alison Weir, both her fiction and non fiction -  fully intending to review it not long after!
Now a year later I've re-read it and finally got round to writing the review!

Alison Weir is a bestselling UK historian and has sold over 2.3m books worldwide, including 4 historical novels - all of which i have enjoyed deeply and theyve all kept me coming back for more.

The Marriage Game is a novel of Elizabeth I, focusing on the mounting pressure she faces to find a husband and the affair that becomes the scandal of the court -her love for her Master of Horse - Robert Dudley.

Spanning 30 years the main focus of the novel is the indecision and the resistance Elizabeth has when it comes to marriage and how she uses suitors as a diplomatic tool by playing them off against each other so she can maintain her power in Europe.

Weir paints  Elizabeth as a woman not only haunted by the catastrophic marriage of her mother Anne Boleyn but also by the pressure she faces, like her father to produce an heir and carry on the tudor line.

Marriage in the 16th century involved women fully submitting to their husbands, and as a queen this is no different, Elizabeth is shown as unwilling to to hand over the reigns of power - as she would have been expected to allow her husband control in england - and the expeirences of her sister Mary I with her Spanish husband would have weighed heavily on her mind.

Weir spilits the novel between Elizabeth and Dudley, showing that she is a woman as well as a queen and how she is torn between her kingdom and her love for a man she cannot have, and portrays the frustration Dudley feels as their relationship is played out in public, with many feeling he has his eyes on the crown.

At its heart the book is a depiction of a woman who's life is shadowed by scandal and the need to prove herself as the daughter of Anne Boylen and Henry VIII.
Elizabeth is shown as difficult and exasperating to those around her and weir shows that these traits become even more deeply entrenched as she ages.


Does elizabeth deserve the sobriquet "The Virgin Queen" - this book would certainly suggest not.