Bart Casey

As a scholar of the period, I didn't learn much from this book (which is pretty much a longish summary of a few biographies). For those who want to know more about love and life at the Elizabethan court, this will give you a good idea through one example. Anne Vavasour, a young woman privileged to serve as a Gentlewoman of the Bedchamber, was seduced, impregnated, and abandoned by the married Earl of Oxford; both spent some months in the Tower of London and were banished from court for a time. Vavasour was later taken as mistress by the much older, widowed Sir Henry Lee, the queen's longtime Champion at the annual birthday jousts and Master of the Armory, with whom she had another illegitimate son. She lived with him until his death--almost 30 years. Vavasour suffered yet another scandal when she married seven years later, the problem being that she apparently assumed that her first husband, a sea captain was dead (he wasn't). Nevertheless, she is buried alongside Sir Henry, with an impressive monument; his wife Anne Paget lies in a chapel in a nearby town.

Casey was working on a novel at the time he did this research, and he personalizes this piece by injecting accounts of his travels in England, his research efforts, and his discoveries. While there's not a lot new here for scholars of the period, it makes for an interesting afternoon's reading for Tudor junkies who may not be familiar with Vavasour and Lee.… (más)