7♦ How does Catherine of Aragon's example affect Mary's behavior? Ultimately, do you believe her mother would be proud of her? What about her surrogate mother, the Countess?
8♦ Symbolism plays a great role at court, through rituals, family members' inclusion or exclusion, even room décor. What would you say was Mary's most symbolic act? What did it signify?
9♦ Most, if not all, of what happens in Mary's life stems from the simple fact of her gender. How might things have been different if Catherine had managed to produce a son in addition to Mary? If Mary had been permitted to marry and have children at a reasonable age?
10♦ Mary's illnesses often come on at critical times. What does Plaidy lead you to believe about these spells, through Mary's own narration? If she were alive today, would her bouts be taken seriously, or would she be sent for psychiatric treatment?
11♦ Throughout the novel, Mary persists in believing her cousin the Emperor to be her staunch supporter, even though he repeatedly refuses to involve himself in any meaningful way in her plight. Is she just naàve, or is something bolstering her belief? Do you see parallels in her relationships with Elizabeth and Philip?
12♦ Ultimately Mary gains the throne. Is this because, as she seems to believe, she has learned to maneuver in the politics of the court, or just happenstance? What do you think of her choices as Queen? Is she making up her own mind or being manipulated? How do her advisors differ from her father's?
13♦ “Though I was a woman and they might think a man would be more suitable to rule them, I had a heart full of sympathy for my subjects and I would be a gentle and loving sovereign.” Mary says this at the beginning of her reign, but later she complains, “How many more had suffered, and as cruelly, in my father's reign?…He had sent them to their deaths because they disagreed with him; I had done so because these victims had disagreed with God's Holy Writ. Why should I be so stigmatized when none had questioned him?” Given the fact that Mary is telling her story in hindsight, what do you make of these two quotes? Was her gender a factor in the way her subjects judged her? Was her legacy deserved?
14♦ Do you see any parallels between the hunts for “heretics” in Henry's reign, and again in Mary's, and religious extremism in the world today? What might we learn from the Tudor era?
ALSO BY JEAN PLAIDY
ALSO BY JEAN PLAIDY
FROM THREE RIVERS PRESS
THE WIVES OF HENRY VIII
The Lady in the Tower
The Rose Without a Thorn
THE TUDOR PRINCESSES
The Thistle and the Rose
Mary, Queen of France
THE TUDOR QUEENS
In the Shadow of the Crown
Queen of This Realm
The Royal Road to Fotheringhay
THE NORMAN TRILOGY
The Bastard King
The Lion of Justice
The Passionate Enemies
THE PLANTAGENET SAGA
Plantagenet Prelude
The Revolt of the Eaglets
The Heart of the Lion
The Prince of Darkness
The Battle of the Queens
The Queen from Provence
Edward Longshanks
The Follies of the King
The Vow on the Heron
Passage to Pontefract
The Star of Lancaster
Epitaph for Three Women
Red Rose of Anjou
The Sun in Splendor
THE TUDOR NOVELS
Uneasy Lies the Head
Katharine, the Virgin Widow
The Shadow of the Pomegranate
The King's Secret Matter
Murder Most Royal
St. Thomas's Eve
The Sixth Wife
The Spanish Bridegroom
Gay Lord Robert
THE STUART SAGA
The Captive Queen of Scots
The Murder in the Tower
The Wandering Prince
The Three Crowns
The Haunted Sisters
The Queen's Favorites
THE GEORGIAN SAGA
The Princess of Celle
Queen in Waiting
Caroline the Queen
The Prince and the Quakeress
The Third George
Perdita's Prince
Sweet Lass of Richmond Hill
Indiscretions of the Queen
The Regent's Daughter
Goddess of the Green Room
Victoria in the Wings
THE QUEEN VICTORIA SERIES
The Captive of Kensington Palace
The Queen and Lord M
The Queen's Husband
The Widow of Windsor
THE FERDINAND AND ISABELLA TRILOGY
Castille for Isabella
Spain for the Sovereigns
Daughter of Spain
THE LUCREZIA BORGIA SERIES
Madonna of the Seven Hills
Light on Lucrezia
THE MEDICI TRILOGY
Madame Serpent
The Italian Woman
Queen Jezebel
THE FRENCH REVOLUTION SERIES
Louis the Well-Beloved
The Road to Compienge
Flaunting, Extravagant Queen
Evergreen Gallant
Myself, My Enemy
Beyond the Blue Mountains
The Goldsmith's Wife
The Scarlet Cloak
Defenders of the Faith
Daughter of Satan