The nature of their upbringing had also ensured that they had never experienced court life with any consistency. Elizabeth, and Mary before her, ascended to the throne with no preparation. She’s also what you get when a monarch is so focussed on his male heir that he fails to prepare the much healthier and robust women for the role his son is unlikely to ever fill. Ruled by her desires (Henry) and prone to hysteria (Anne), manipulative (Anne) and hot tempered (Henry), disloyal (Henry and Anne) and arrogant to the point of blindness (Henry). In The Virgin’s Lover, Elizabeth comes across as the very worst of both of her parents. I didn’t approve of the way Henry disposed of them, but the manipulations of these two women had me questioning their royal worth. Out of his six wives, there were two I really didn’t like, Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard. I’m not a fan of Henry VIII, he might have been a tremendous King but he was a fairly despicable man. I have always had high admiration for Elizabeth I, yet after reading this, I have to question my previous opinion. Now, I’m going to approach this review as more of a character study and while the novel is about Elizabeth I and her paramour, Robert Dudley, for me, The Virgin’s Lover became the story of Lady Dudley, the wife Robert Dudley cast aside most brutally upon Elizabeth’s ascension to the throne. Such as these novels are though, they hold up perfectly well as stand-alone reads and I haven’t encountered any instances that have given me a reason to regret this approach. Clearly, I am not reading these novels in order, instead approaching the series in hodge-podge manner based on whatever character I’m interested in at the time. As powerful families vie for stakes in the emerging kingdom, Elizabeth must secure her own future.Īnd so my pilgrimage with Philippa Gregory’s Plantagenet and Tudor novels continues, this time with The Virgin’s Lover, the story of Queen Elizabeth I in her early years of ascending to the throne. But Dudley has many enemies, amongst them William Cecil, the queen’s most trusted advisor. Dudley is a man of powerful lineage his father had been a kingmaker at the court of Henry VIII. For Robert Dudley, Elizabeth’s ascension is a glorious new dawn, and he quickly positions himself as the young queen’s favourite.

Many believe that Elizabeth must marry if she is to survive.

But the country is divided, the restoration of the Protestant faith ignites opposition from the church and beyond, and court remains a treacherous place. After years of waiting, Princess Elizabeth accedes to the throne of England. Now I can be the queen that my mother intended me to be. A sumptuous historical novel set in the court of Elizabeth I, from Sunday Times No.1 bestseller Philippa Gregory, the author of The Other Boleyn Girl.

The Virgin's Lover by Philippa Gregory