Is This An Overview?
This is the story of Mary Tudor Queen of England, Elizabeth Tudor Queen of England, Mary Stuart Queen of Scotland, and Catherine de’ Medici Queen of France. Showing how they interacted with each other, learned from each other, and resolved their conflicts. The queens gave each other gifts. Some were physical, as devices to influence decisions and garner cooperation. Some were intellectual, as they learned from the others experiences to change how they ruled. They made different relationship choices, and faced the consequences. The queens were often divided by religion. As their regions were engaged in the conflict between Protestants and Catholics. The queens sometimes tried to reduce political friction, to engage in religious toleration, but their choices were limited due to competing powers.

They were women who ruled during a time when many in their regions, and even relatives, wanted a male sovereign. The role of women was to produce a male heir for succession. Being female was not the only challenge to their sovereignty, as regions were also challenging the divine authority of monarchy. An era of growing demand to turn monarchies into republics. Political competition was another challenge, for the expansion of a kingdom or religion could had threatened the other kingdoms or religions. The queens, and other leaders, used various maneuvers to try to obtain or prevent a kingdom from gaining more power.

Caveats?
The focus of this book is on a few events, which emphasize decisions being made on account of the sovereigns being queens rather than kings. References are made to international influences, but were given little information. This book provides an introduction to the queens era’s political schemes, which the reader can use to search for more information about the related sovereign entities and political decisions.

This book showcases sexist claims against women from the people during the era, that effected the era’s decisions. Some of these claims are being reflected on and remarked with sexism against the author’s male contemporaries. The remarks do not take up much space, but create contradictions in how the author approaches sexism. ( )

The author focusses on the sixteenth century "regiment of women", a group of queens who broke the pattern of male sovereignity. They -- Mary Tudor, Elizabeth I, Mary Queen of Scots, and Catherine de Medici -- were fascinating people, and in some cases highly effective rulers. They also had relationships with each other, and shared the vulnerability of womanhood in a very masculine age. The book, however, focusses more than I would have liked on their physical effects, their textiles and jewels. Some of this would be interesting, but too much gets boring. Also, the book in general in unduly repetitive, and rests too heavily on "might have been" and "could have felt". I learned a good deal from this book, but it was not easy going. ( )

Excerpt from a longer article:

Timely Take-aways for life-long Learners: Modern European History: A Fresh Look
Several new works of nonfiction provide fresh insights into early modern and modern European history. Beyond the violence and wars, these books examine the period through archaeology, political actions, and the roles of women.

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When Women Ruled the World: Making the Renaissance in Europe
Maureen Quilligan, Dec 2022, Liveright, an imprint of W. W. Norton
Themes: History, Europe, Tudor & Elizabethan Era (1485-1603)
Quilligan’s engaging work of nonfiction demonstrates how powerful women challenged tradition by creating strategic alliances and assuming political authority. Through gift giving and political ingenuity, four Queens figured out a way to flourish in a male dominated world.
Take-aways: Use this book as an outstanding example of revisionist history that seeks to demonstrate how creative, intelligent women impacted the European monarchy.

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Whether helping educators keep up-to-date in their subject-areas, promoting student reading in the content-areas, or simply encouraging nonfiction leisure reading, teacher librarians need to be aware of the best new titles across the curriculum and how to activate life-long learning. - Annette Lamb ( )