Two Royal Journals that you should read

 https://www.royalbooks.se/kategori/3/magazines.html?fbclid=IwAR102GfqboBKt2lMkrbLz6xIaJJNLw25cOPDd-5s7nvo3BOO_kZrkiioN2Y

Royalty Digest and Eurohistory.com are quarterly royal history journals that are published in Sweden and the USA respectively.

Neither journal is available electronically.  The only way to read them is to subscribe.

In full transparency, I write for both journals.

Modern Monarchy by Chris Jackson

Are you looking for a new book to put on your cocktail table, a book that looks nice and will also appeal to your guests when they sit down on the couch?

I have a recommendation for you.  Modern Monarchy The British Royal Family.  The text and photographs are by Chris Jackson.

Yes, the name Chris Jackson is familiar to you.  He is the guy with the very expensive cameras who shows up a lot at royal events in the UK and on tour.   For the last 15 years, Jackson has been Getty Images Royal Photographer.   Great job. 

Terrific book.  Just take your time, turning page after page of superb photos of members of the British royal family at official events as well as official photos and at relaxing.  More than 250 pages of color photos.

A lovely, lovely book.

Modern Monarchy was published by Rizzoli.

Matilda Empress Queen Warrior by Catherine Hanley

Oh, I do I love a good scholarly biography.  By good, I mean a well-researched, well-documented and eminently readable biography by a biographer who has immersed herself into her subject matter.

Catherine Hanley's Matilda Empress Queen Warrier is a superb book.  I could not put it down.  Matilda (1102-1167) was the daughter of King Henry I of England.  As a young child, she married the future Henry V, Holy Roman emperor.  The emperor died in 1125.  The young childless widow returned to Normandy where her father arranged for her to marry Count Geoffrey of Anjou.

Five years before Matilda's only legitimate brother, William was among three hundred passengers, who died in the White Ship disaster.  Henry wanted Matilda to succeed him.   There were no laws that would prevent female succession, but the situation was far more complicated.   There were other candidates.  Henry I's eldest brother, Robert Curthose, had a son William, who was a possible candidate, as was another first cousin, Stephen, the daughter of Henry I's sister, Adela and her husband Stephen of Blois.

On two separate occasions, Stephen swore to uphold Matilda's claim to the throne, but when Henry died in 1135, Stephen broke his promise and with the support of the English church claimed the throne.

During the next few decades, Stephen's reign suffered through challenges from church, the French and family members including Matilda and her husband and her half brother, Robert of Gloucester, who led a rebellion against Stephen.

The skirmishes and rebellions led to a civil war with Stephen and Matilda jockeying for power.

But Stephen was a "natural follower rather than a leader," and this lack of true leadership would lead to his downfall.  Matilda was far more successful in compromise and seen as the "voice of reason."    When Stephen died in 1154, he was succeeded by Matilda's son, Henry, who reigned as Henry II.

She was a formidable woman and took an active role "in the military aspects" if the campaign to win the throne.    Hanley writes that is Matilda "had not doggedly pursued and fought for her rights," the succession of the English throne might have looked very different. Without Matilda's determination, there would not have been a Plantagenet dynasty.  Or Tudors. Or Stuarts. Or. Hanovers. Or Windsors.

Matilda was also a "politically active queen mother," a role that was enthusiastically shared by her daughter-in-law, Eleanor of Aquitaine.   She also provided that precedent proving that female inheritance was legitimate.

As "the master of her fate and the agent of her own destiny,"  Catherine Hanley's final statement notes that Matilda "deserves to be remembered.

I will say the same thing about Hanley's book.   Matilda Empress Queen Warrior deserves to be read.  This is a consummate study of a woman whose right to the throne was usurped by others, yet she remained determined to be a warrior for her family, especially, her son, Henry.   She may not have won her rightful crown, but she lived long enough to see her son succeed to the English throne.

Matilda Empress Queen Warrior was published by Yale University Press.

80th anniversary of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth's visit to North America

In May 1939, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth were the first British sovereigns to visit Canada and the United States. Here is a selection of books about the visit.

The Mistresses of Cliveden By Natalie Livingstone

Some months ago, while waiting in the checkout line I spotted The Mistresses of Cliveden  on the sale table, which is right by the checkout line. I am sure the store has placed this table near the checkout for a reason.    I rarely spot anything of interest in the books on the sale table, but this book caught my eye because I visited Cliveden in May 2018.

Only five miles from Windsor Castle,  Cliveden is a stately home and estate.  The home is now a five- star hotel and the estate is owned by the National Trust.  It is one of the most popular National Trust properties. 

Cliveden has been the home of several families and members of the royal family.  Natalie Livingtone, a Cambridge-educated journalist, is married to billionaire property developer, Ian Livingstone, whose  company owns Cliveden's hotel lease.

Cliveden's history during the reign of Charles II when the Duke of Buckingham had an affair with Anna Maria, the Countess of Shrewsbury.  Anna Maria was a former prostitute.  As one's cuckolded husband was wont to do,  Lord Shrewsbury challenged the Duke to a duel.  Lord Shrewsbury was killed.

There have been several houses on the estate. The present day house was built in 1851 after the previous mansion had been destroyed by fire.   In 1893, Cliveden was purchased by William Waldorf Astor, an American millionaire, who became a British citizen and created Viscount Astor.  He gave the estate to his son, Waldorf, on the occasion of his marriage to Nancy Langhorne.

Lord and Lady Astor gave the estate to the National Trust in 1942.  They remained in the house until 1968.

Anna Maria was the first mistress of Cliveden.  The other women, Elizabeth, the Countess of Orkney, who was the mistress of William III:  the Princess of Wales (Princess Augusta of Saxe-Coburg), the wife, then widow, of Frederick, the Prince of Wales (parents of George III), Harriet, the Duchess of Sutherland , who mixed society with her interest in politics; and Viscountess Astor, the American-born Nancy Langhorne.

Sex and politics were at the forefront of much of Cliveden's history.  In 1961, Christine Keeler was taking a swim in Cliveden's pool, as she was a guest at a summer party hosted by Lord Astor. Keeler was only 19-years-old and reported to be the mistress of a Russian spy.  It as at this party where she met John Profumo, the Conservative Secretary of State for War.  Profumo was a married man but that did not stop him from embarking on an affair with Keeler, who was also sleeping with a Soviet naval attache. 

https://www.clivedenhouse.co.uk/the-house/the-profumo-affair/

When I visited Cliveden, I saw an small exhibition on the Cliveden women.  I have been fascinating with Nancy Langhorne for many years as she is an American and she was born in Danville, Virginia.

 The Mistresses of Cliveden brings alive the stories of these women, all of whom played important  roles within their society's hierarchy.  And yes, several women used sex to achieve or advance their goals.  They made history as well. Nancy Astor was first woman to take her seat in the British Parliament.

I would describe this book as a well-researched, detailed bodice-ripper-cum-serious-social history.


The Mistresses of Cliveden was published in 2015, but copies (hardcover and paperback) are available.


https://www.clivedenhouse.co.uk/

https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/cliveden

https://royalmusingsblogspotcom.blogspot.com/2018/05/day-7-cliveden.html

Schloss Cumberland Die Welfen am Traunsee & Herzog und Kaisertochter

May 24, 2019, was the 200th birthday of Queen Victoria.  Three days later, May 27, was the 200th birthday of Victoria's first cousin, Prince George of Cumberland, the only child of the Duke of and Duchess of Cumberland.

Victoria succeeded her uncle, William IV, in June 1837.  William was also King of Hanover, where the succession was based on Salic law (males only.)  The next in line was Victoria's uncle, Ernest Augustus, the Duke of Cumberland, who remained the heir presumptive to the British throne until November 1840 when Victoria gave birth to her first child.

So it was Uncle Cumberland who succeeded to the Hanover throne and George became the Crown Prince.  King Ernst August died in 1851.  Georg V was king until 1866 when Prussia took vengeance of Hanover as the King had thrown his support to Austria in its war with Prussia.

Prussia annexed the tiny kingdom as another Prussian province.  King Georg V and his family went into exile in Gmunden, Austria, where the king owned property.

Gmunden-am-Traunsee became the seat of the Hanover royal family.  King George V died in 1878.  Thew de jure king was his only son, Ernst August, who chose to be styled by his British peerage, the Duke of Cumberland.   He was married to Princess Thyra of Denmark, the younger sister of Queen Alexandra, Empress Marie Feodorovna of Russia, King Frederik VIII of Denmark and King George I of the Hellenes.

The family's primary residence Königvilla was a bit too small for the Duke and Duchess of Cumberland and their growing family which meant that a new home was needed.  Between 1882 and 1886, Schloss Cumberland was designed by an architect and built, thus offering a new primary residence for the head of the House of Hanover.

The Duke of Cumberland's son, Ernst August, married Princess Victoria Luise of Prussia, only daughter of Kaiser Wilhelm II.  Their marriage brought about a reconciliation between the two families.

Ernst August and Viktoria Luise became the Duke and Duchess of Brunswick and spent more time in Germany than in Gmunden. In 1930, the Schloss became a family museum.  During the second world war, the castle was appropriated by the Nazis and served as a military hospital until 1945.    Today the Schloss is owned by the state of Upper Austria and is now a residence/long term care for people with mental health issues.

Schloss Cumberland Die Welfen am Traunsee is a history and celebration of the Hanover (Welfen) Royal Family in Gmunden.  This 152-page book was written by Heinz Schiesser.

The focus is on the Duke and Duchess of Cumberland and the Duke and Duchess of Brunswick and their families in Gmunden.  Many of the photographs have never been published and come from the family's archives.

Herzog and Kaisertochter Ernst August von Hannover und Victoria Luise von Preussen, which was written by Peter Steckhan, complements Schloss Cumberland, as it focuses on the Duke of Cumberland's son, Ernst August, who succeeded as Duke of Brunswick in 1918 and his wife, Princess Victoria Luise. 

The title translates to Duke and the Kaiser's daughter.

Steckhan provides historical and biographical details on the Duke and Duchess of Brunswick from their childhood, the circumstances of their meeting through their marriage, the first world war, the end of the monarchy, the rise of National Socialism, the second world war and up through the 1950s following the death of the Duke of Brunswick in 1953.

Most of the photos in this book were new to me and come from the family's personal collection.

Both books were published by Matrix Media, a publishing house owned by Prince Heinrich of Hannover, a grandson of the Duke and Duchess.

The format for both books is the same: paperback, German text, and many previously unseen photographs. You do not need to understand German to enjoy these two books, which were published in 2017 and 2019, respectively.

My family comes from the Hanover area so I have a special fondness for the Welfen.  I have written articles on the Prussian-Hanover wedding,  Princess Frederica of Hannover (sister of the Duke of Cumberland),  the Cumberland Princesses (the daughters of the Duke and Duchess of Cumberland) and Ernst August vs Ernst August (the issues between the present head of the House and his son.)

I heartily recommend both books.

 

Hitler and the Habsburgs by James Longo

I am of two minds about James Longo's new book, Hitler and the Habsburgs (Diversion Books).    I like the idea of a book about Hitler's personal vendetta against the children of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, whose assassination was a catalyst for the start of the first world war.  But I was driven crazy by the incorrect use of titles and a few factual errors, all of which could have been corrected by an experienced editor.

Franz Ferdinand's three children,  Max, Ernst, and Sophie, were not Habsburgs, but Hohenbergs.  The archduke's marriage to Countess Sophie Chotek was morganatic.  She was created Duchess of Hohenberg and her children had their mother's title and rank.  The children were excluded from court functions, even after their parents' deaths in June 1914.

The Hohenberg children were outsiders but this did not prevent Hitler, who loathed the idea of a multi-cultural empire, turned his wrath toward Franz Ferdinand's sons.  All three of his children were anti-Nazi, and they made their views known.

The children were raised by Sophie's family.   Their beloved family home, Konopiste, was appropriated by the newly Czechoslovakia, which has passed a law that allowed for the confiscation of Habsburg properties.  Konopiste had was inherited by Franz Ferdinand's children, who were not Habsburgs.

Maximilian and Ernst were arrested after the start of the second world war and both were imprisoned in concentration camps, including Dachau.  Their resistance to Hitler and National Socialism was based not only on their political and historical upbringing but also on their deeply held Catholic faith.

Longo has done extensive research, digging deep into archives in Europe and the United States.  He also talked with Max, Ernst, and Sophie's children and grandchildren, thus adding another layer of personal introspect.

But Longo trips - and trips a lot with the improper use of titles and a few glaring errors. He repeats several times the canard that women did not have succession rights to the throne.    Austria's succession law was semi-Salic, which meant that all the eligible archdukes were ahead of the archduchesses, who, traditionally, renounced their rights before their weddings.  These renouncement ceremonies were in the presence of the Emperor.

He describes Franz Ferdinand's half-sisters as his stepsisters.  (They shared a common parent, their father, which made them half-siblings).  Longo has serious problems with how to write titles.  He calls the mother of Max's wife, Countess Elisabeth Waldburg-Wolfegg as Princess Marie Lobkowicz Waldburg-Wolfegg.   He describes Napoleon's second wife as Empress Marie Louise Habsburg.   She was born an Archduchess of Austria, but she was Empress of France.

Waldburg-Wolfegg is also incorrect. The correct way to state the name is von Waldburg zu Wolfegg und Waldsee.  Elisabeth's father was not Maximilian IV. but the 4th Prince of von Waldburg zu Wolfegg und Waldsee.

George V and Mary were the King and Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, not  England.  Longo made this mistake several times.

My favorite mistake is Count Gutsverwaltung Nostitz-Rieneck, a grandson of Princess Sophie of Hohenberg,  Archduke Franz Ferdinand's daughter, who spoke to Longo about his memories of his grandmother.   One would have thought that Longo would have known that the Count's first name was Friedrich, not Gutsverwaltung, which is a German word for the administration office.

Now that I have vented about the sloppy parts, let me add that Hitler and the Habsburgs is worth reading,  Concentrate on the history and the subject matter and not the titles.

Adolf Hitler held onto his hate for Franz Ferdinand's family until he had the power to release his vendetta on the family.  They survived.  He didn't.

Tudors to Windsors British Royal Portraits

I spent Thanksgiving with my friend Susan and her husband and their cats in Austin, Texas.  I had a lovely time seeing the sites in Austin.  The main reason for the trip was to see the Tudors to Windsors British Royal Portraits exhibit at the Museum of the Fine Arts in Houston.

Most of the portraits, paintings, photographs, and artwork are from Britain's National Portrait Gallery.

I have visited the NPG on numerous occasions and most of the portraits were familiar to me .. several modern ones were new to me, so it was a delight to see them.

A late addition to the exhibition was an ink-jet photograph of the newly married Duke and Duchess of Sussex.

The eponymous catalog was written by historian David Cannadine.  

It was a fabulous exhibit.  I am glad I got to see many of these portraits again as I know I won't have a chance when I am in London in June.  I will visit the NPG but the portraits won't be there as the exhibit is now in Australia at the Bendigo Art Gallery at Bendigo, Victoria.

The exhibit runs through July 14, 2019, after which everything is carefully packed up and returned to the National Portrait Gallery.

Not everyone gets to travel to London and see these portraits.  The catalog includes every portrait from the exhibit with historical commentary.  Full color. 240 pages.   This book should be kept on the cocktail table in the living room.  You never know when you want to peruse a portrait of Queen Anne.

Historic Homes in the USA

Embed from Getty Images

I love visiting the United Kingdom to visit stately homes and palaces.  Here in the US, we also have historic stately homes and several palaces as well.

Agecroft Hall in Richmond, Virginia, is a special favorite, as it is Tudor home that was torn down in England, and the house was rebuilt on the banks of the James River.

https://www.agecrofthall.org

http://royalmusingsblogspotcom.blogspot.com/2016/04/and-right-next-door-to-agecroft-hall-is.html

http://royalmusingsblogspotcom.blogspot.com/2016/04/agecroft-hall-tudor-gem-in-richmond.html


Agecroft Hall is a true gem.

Winterthur, a DuPont Mansion in Delaware, and the Gilded Age Mansions in Newport, Rhode Island,  were on my bucket list, but now crossed off.

I visited Winterhur and Longwood Gardens last July and I spent a long weekend in Newport in March.  I recommend visiting both.   I understand summer in Newport is super-crowded.  However, all of the homes are open.

When I went in mid-March, only three of the houses were open.  Thankfully, the three houses are the Elms, Marble House and, the granddaddy of all, the Breakers.  Yowsa.

So much to see and do.  I tried to get past the guard to see the exterior of Rough Point, once the home of Nancy Leeds (and later Doris Duke.)

The guide books, Winterhur and the Newport Mansions, are excellent, thanks to the photography and the historical text.

https://www.newportmansions.org/

https://www.winterthur.org/

One of the current exhibits at Winterthur is "Costuming the Crown," costumes from the Netflix series, The Crown.

The Breakers was the home of Cornelius Vanderbilt.  Marble House was owned by William K. Vanderbilt and his wife, Alva.  Their daughter, Consuelo, was the best known of all the dollar princesses.  She married the Duke of Marlborough.

So what is now at the top of my bucket list?   Biltmore, the largest home in the USA, which is located in Asheville, North Carolina.  Biltmore is still owned by descendants of George Vanderbilt.

A Romanovs Roundup

Greg King and Penny Wilson have churned another good book on the Romanovs.  This latest success is titled Romanovs Adrift 1913-1919.  The time period refers to the final years of the Romanov Dynasty -- from the tercentenary of the Romanov reign in 1913 through the first world war, the revolution, the murders of Nicholas II and his family and numerous to the survivors in exile.

The authors focus on 80 members of the Imperial family, Nicholas II and his family, the six Grand Ducal branches, the Oldenburgs, Leuchtenberg, Mecklenburgs and five Grand Duchesses who married into foreign royal families.

The book has 10 chapters, which allows the authors to focus individually on each family group, offering honest and historical portrayals of the Romanov family, but do not expect new information.  The authors have made use of a lot of sources.

The afterward, A Russian Exile: the Romanovs in the Urals and Siberia, was written by Katrina Warne, based on her visits to the area.  

Romanovs Adrift offers readers insight into the lives of the different branches of the Romanov family.  It is an easy read, written in the popular historian style, less scholarly, but chock full of information.    

The bibliography is a great source to delve further into the lives of many of the varied personalities of the Romanov dynasty.

Romanovs Adrift was published by Eurohistory.com.  Illustrated -- make that well-illustrated with photographs from the Eurohistory collection.

Another Romanov book that should whet your appetite is Imperial Crimea: Estates, Enchantments & The Last of the Romanovs.   In the 1980s and 1990s, Greg King published Atlantis Magazine, a royal history magazine that focused largely on the Romanovs, the Hesse and By Rhine family and other royal houses.  

The magazine's Crimean issue was Atlantis' most popular.  Greg received numerous request for copies of the Crimean issue.  This is not a surprise as the four-volume series is regarded as the most comprehensive source for information on the Imperial Family and their lives in the Crimea.   Nearly all of the branches of the family had holiday homes in the Crimea, due to the temperate climate.

It was in the Crimea that the surviving members of the Imperial family gathered after escaping from St. Petersburg.  It was where the Dowager Empress and other members of the family were rescued in early 1919.

Imperial Crimea includes essays by noted Romanov scholars Coryne Hall, Greg King, Penny Wilson, and Sue Woolmans.

The book runs nearly 800 pages and is available in a trade paperback edition through Amazon.  

Helen Rappaport's The Race to Save the Romanovs was published in June 2018.  Although I have a few quibbles about silly mistakes,  I must say that Helen honed in on her research.  She delved into archives in the UK, the US, Spain, and Russia, honing in on untapped resources.  The request for British help did not end with the Government turning down the Provisional Government's recommendation for the British to send a ship to bring the Imperial Family to the UK.  

The end of the story does not change, but Helen brought new insight and research into the diverse reports of plans for a rescue that never came to fruition.

Please use these and other links to order books and other things from Amazon or Amazon.co.uk.   I make a few pennies that go toward my vacations.  Clicking on ad links also help.  Thanks

Daughters of the Winter Queen by Nancy Gladstone

I expect most people will not know who was the Winter Queen.  Princess Elizabeth was the daughter of James I, who married Friedrich Heinrich, Count Palatine of the Rhine.   A marriage with the King of England's daughter was seen as a strong alliance that would have brought James' support for the count's position as heir to Bohemia.

James' duplicitous actions was a  betrayal for the new king and queen. Their reign lasted for one winter, hence, the name, as they fled into exile in the Netherlands and Europe was plunged into the Thirty Years War.  Elizabeth and Friedrich had 13 children,  nine of whom survived childhood.

Nancy Goldstone is the author of Daughters of the Winter Queen. 

The focus of this amazing biography is Elizabeth and her four surviving daughters, Elizabeth, Louise Hollandine,  Henrietta and Sophia, who was the 12th of the 13 children.

Elizabeth was widowed at an early age.  Money was a major problem although there was some support from the Dutch and German relatives.  The primary desire was to regain the Palatinate for her eldest son, but Elizabeth was also determined to find good husbands for her daughters.  This proved to be a difficult task, especially after Elizabeth's brother, Charles I, lost his throne (and then his head) and the royal family fled to France and the Netherlands. 

Charles I's daughter, Mary, was married to William II, Prince of Orange.

Elizabeth's four daughters were all well-educated, prepared for marriage, devout Protestants, standard-bearers to fight Catholicism.  Finding husbands proved far more difficult.  The financial situation, living in exile,  as well as politics, all of which affected Elizabeth's hopes for her daughters.

The ties to her Stuart family remained strong as several sons, including Prince Rupert joined their first cousin, Charles II's battle to regain his throne. The Stuart Restoration was finally achieved in 1660.

The eldest daughter Princess Elizabeth formed friendships with Rene Descartes and William Penn.  As the years went by and no prince came forward,  Elizabeth, a devout, open-minded Calvinist who became an Abbess of a Lutheran abbey. Louise Hollandine was a gifted artist, a woman of great faith, who, much to her mother's dismay, converted to Catholicism.  She quickly moved up the ranks at  Maubuisson, to become the abbess.  This accelerated promotion was due to her brother, Edward's marriage to Anne de Gonzaga, a member of a prominent Catholic family.  The Winter Queen turned against Edward when he converted as well.

Henrietta Maria, who was named for Charles I's wife, did find a husband, Sigismund Rákóczi, brother of the Prince of Transylvania.  Only five months after marriage,  Henrietta Marie, at the age of 25.

It was Sophia who did marry well.  Her husband was Ernst August, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, the first elector of Hanover.

After the Restoration, the Winter Queen returned to England to live.  She died in 1665.  Charles II did not have any legitimate issue so when he died the throne passed to his brother, James II, who had two daughters by his first wife.  His elder daughter, Mary, was married to her first cousin, William III, Prince of Orange.  Her younger sister,  Anne, was married to George of Denmark.  James II converted to Catholicism, thus setting up a battle between the king and Parliament.  He and his second wife, and their infant son fled to France.  Parliament offered the throne to Mary and her husband, William.  As their marriage was childless,  Mary's younger sister, Anne, was the heir.

The Winter Queen's children were never far from the throne.  Her son, Rupert, created Duke of Cumberland, by Charles II, was seen as a possible dynast, but he died in 1682.   Charles' daughter, Charlotte, converted to Catholicism when she married as his second wife, Philippe, Duke of Orléans. (His first wife was Charles II's sister, Henriette).   Edward's line was not eligible as they were Catholics.

So this brings us to the 12th child and youngest daughter,  Sophia, Electress of Hanover.  William III died in 1702 and was succeeded by his sister-in-law, Anne.  She had given birth to 16 children, none of whom survived, leaving a succession crisis.   The Catholic descendants of Charles II's youngest sister, Henriette Anne, were ineligible for the succession.  This meant going back one generation to the Protestant descendants of Elizabeth, the Winter Queen.

In 1701, Parliament passed the Act of Settlement, which established Sophia and her Protestant descendants as the heir to the thrones of England and Scotland.  Six years later, an Act of Union created the Kingdom of Great Britain.

Although acutely aware of her family's destiny, Sophia maintained relations with British government officials although Queen Anne was not keen on the Hanoverian succession.

Sophia died in June 1714, several months before Queen Anne.  The succession passed to Sophia's son, Georg Ludwig (King George I), the grandson of the Winter Queen.

This is one of the best royal biographies that I have read in a long time. It is a serious, well-researched and eminently readable book.  I have read several biographies on the Winter Queen and the Electress Sophia but none of them are as good as Daughters of the Winter Queen.  

The Princesses Elizabeth, Louise Hollandine, Henrietta Maria and Sophia were all erudite, all blue-stockings, all of whom would have excelled as consorts.  Three of the four princesses remained faithful to their Protestant faith.  When Sophia visited Louise at her abbey in France,  she was not receptive to Louise Hollandine's overt discussion that was aimed at having Sophia convert to the Roman Catholic faith.

There was nothing Louise Hollandine could do to persuade her sister to abjure her faith and join the Catholic church.

Sophia had her eyes on a bigger prize.

Gladstone skillfully allows a portrayal of five women, a mother, and her daughters, the granddaughter and great-granddaughters of Mary, Queen of Scots, offering a study of marriage, politics, the arts, and religion.  I could not put this book down.