The Passionate Tudor – by Alison Weir – independent book review – Historical Fiction (England)

NOTE: I was given early access to THE PASSIONATE TUDOR and am writing this review voluntarily. Thank you netgalley and Random House – Ballantine. Scheduled Publication: May 7, 2024. This book is also published under the title, Mary I: Queen of Sorrows.

Attention, all you Tudor fans! Since none of us ever get enough, here’s a new historical novel about Queen Mary I – only daughter of King Henry VIII (1491- 1547) and his first wife, Catherine of Aragon (1485 – 1536), and Queen of England from 1553-58. Awarded three stars on Goodreads though 3.5 is more accurate. 

THE PASSIONATE TUDOR traces the life of Mary from happy childhood as the adored child of her parents until her death at the age of 42. If you know anything about her history, you know that between these two events there is plenty of drama:

• Her father’s betrayal by questioning both the legitimacy of his marriage to Catherine and Mary’s birth, events which led to the English Reformation and its split from Rome.

• Anne Boleyn (1501? – 1536) taking Katherine’s place as Queen of England and her subsequent mistreatment of Mary.

• Lady Jane Grey‘s (1537 – 1554) nine-day long attempt to usurp Mary’s throne.

• Mary’s engagements to a variety of royal heads of state, eventually leading to her not-too-happy marriage to King Phillip II (1527 – 1598) of Spain.

• Mary’s steadfast devotion to the Catholic Church and the numerous Protestants who suffered as a result, resulting in her nickname as “Bloody Mary.”

• And of course, the ups and downs of Mary’s relationship with her younger sister and heir, Elizabeth I (1533 – 1603) an early Protestant.

The novel is long at 528 pages. Too long in my opinion. Most fans of Tudor historical fiction will no doubt already know the name Alison Weir. Either from her dozens of non-fiction books (most related to the Tudors) or from her many more recently published novels. Or both. As a well-respected historian, she definitely knows her history. But I have found with many historians who go on to write historical fiction, they often include too much of their scholarship in their novels. Excessive detail and background information tends to slow down the pace of a novel for me. And so it was with this book. So much so that Mary’s day-to-day life as Queen became downright tedious. Also, at times, the voice of the narration didn’t ring true, especially when Weir was writing about Mary as a child.

Of course as a diehard Tudor fan, nothing could keep me from finishing the book. And perhaps part of the problem is that I already know much about the Tudors so that a lot of Weir’s detail was not new to me.

I am glad I read THE PASSIONATE TUDOR. I just didn’t enjoy every single page. And I didn’t enjoy this novel as much as Weir’s SIX QUEENS series about the wives of Henry VIII.

More about Alison Weir.

You may be interested in my reviews of other books by Alison Weir:

THE KING’S PLEASURE

KATHERINE OF ARAGON: THE TRUE QUEEN

ANNE BOLEYN: A KING’S OBSESSION

JANE SEYMOUR: THE HAUNTED QUEEN

ANNA OF KLEVE: THE PRINCESS IN THE PORTRAIT

KATHERYN HOWARD, THE SCANDALOUS QUEEN

KATHARINE PARR, THE SIXTH WIFE

THE LAST ROSE: A NOVEL OF ELIZABETH OF YORK