Review: Rival to the Queen

Rival to the Queen by Carolly Erickson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

As far as historical fiction goes, Rival to the Queen by the renowned historian Carolly Erickson is a great escape for those in love with Tudor England. Granted, the facts have been changed (some drastically!), but Rival to the Queen is a quick and easy read that can fill the void of an idle afternoon with a lazy cat and a cup of tea.

Rival to the Queen opens with Lettice Knollys at the age of 16 with her family witnessing a traumatic execution of a family friend and tutor, Jocelyn Palmer, who incurred the wrath of Catholic queen, Mary Tudor. As the story progresses, Erickson compares the struggle of Lettice's Protestant family - even among fellow Protestants who persecute other Christians who do not subscribe to their specific and narrow beliefs, an excellent demonstration of the religious wrongs that played out during the Tudor dynasty. Fortunately for the Knollys family, when they run into trouble with their Lutheran friends and neighbors in Frankfurt, Germany, they are forced to return to England where Mary Tudor had conveniently died, clearing the way for the Protestant queen Elizabeth I to take the throne.

The story then leaves off the religious tension of the Tudor period and picks up with the rivalry between Elizabeth I and her cousin, Lettice. Elizabeth is described as a cunning, self-absorbed tyrant prone to having jealous fits. The examples of Elizabeth's character are at length and questionable. Although there are no doubts that Queen Elizabeth was such a tyrant, I somehow doubt that her reign was so focused on immature vengeance simply because a lady was prettier and receiving more attention. Lettice, in contrast, seems more mature at times and more royal than the queen, especially during the period when the queen and her cousin had fallen out over the love of the rogue Robert Dudley.

Since Rival to the Queen is fiction, Erickson takes liberties with the facts, much of which are minor details easily overlooked within this semi-romantic tale. If you love historical fiction and do not upset easily over inaccuracies, then this book is for you. If inaccuracies bother you as a reader, then step away from Rival to the Queen!



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