Before his coronation, he promises everything to everybody, especially the Catholics. James is nothing, if not a consummate politician. Jesuits’ “mere presence in England” is illegal and punishable by execution. They are barred from any jobs worth holding. An officially despised minority, they are forbidden by law to practice their religion. The lot of England’s declared Catholics is sore and sorry. It is a question of paramount importance, literally a matter of life and death. James is married to the beauteous and fecund Anne of Denmark, a closet Catholic. James is the son of Mary, Queen of Scots, a Catholic beheaded by Elizabeth. Elizabeth was daughter of Anne Boleyn and Henry VIII, who single-handedly declared his kingdom Protestant when the pope of the day refused to legitimize Henry’s divorce. Above all, James (to be James I of England) is a Protestant, an overwhelming consideration in an age when politics and religion are inseparable. Parliament has chosen James VI, king of Scotland, as successor-a somewhat distant relative and a relatively popular choice, he being a man and all. She lives in London.Visit Antonia Fraser's website at the scene for those of shorter memory: The doughty, long-lived Elizabeth has died, childless.
MUST YOU GO?, a memoir of her life with Harold Pinter, was published in 2010, and MY HISTORY A MEMOIR OF GROWING UP in 2015.
She was awarded the Medlicott Medal by the Historical Association in 2000 and was made a DBE in 2011 for services to literature.Her previous books include MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS, KING CHARLES II, THE WEAKER VESSEL: WOMAN'S LOT IN SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY ENGLAND which won the Wolfson History Prize, MARIE ANTOINETTE: THE JOURNEY, PERILOUS QUESTION THE DRAMA OF THE GREAT REFORM BILL 1832 and THE KING AND THE CATHOLICS: THE FIGHT FOR RIGHTS 1829.
0 kommentar(er)
