#but she rather disingenuously credits mary's later remarks that elizabeth was smeaton's daughter

[fideidefenswhore]

it's also clear that she really wanted to write a sympathetic iteration of mary, here-- and in some respects, she succeeds-- but i wonder if this book has a bibliography beyond her own works, because, like...

what's clear most of all is that she views mary mainly, and maybe even only, as pitiable, and entirely dependent on the counsel of 'greater men'. her reasoning for having capitulated to her father's demands mid-1536 is only that it's advised by chapuys, the emperor and cromwell...not that it's the first time that her supporters have been interrogated, dismissed from the privy council, and threatened with arrest; not that it's clear that even the death of the woman she only refers to as 'the witch' (...things that make you go 'hmm') has not made her father any warmer or more open in the matter of the potential of their future reconciliation...not to mention that her mother has died (although, i don't lend as much credence to that being so determinate a factor as some, or she would've submitted earlier when it would've arguably been most benefical for her-- although tbf, she was arguably receiving some mixed signals, like a gift of money from her father vs. him ordering her to send back a necklace her mother had bequested to her...the former of which weir includes in this novel, the latter of which she does not-- presumably, for a less conflicting narrative, and also because cromwell being the one to send her for it might've made her...decidedly less warm towards him, whereas here she's warm and trusting towards him based on chapuys' messages assuring her he's her friend)

tl;dr there are a lot of theories as to why mary finally became a recreant when she did, i think it's fair to say self-preservation played a part (and also, this being 'the harshest and most explicit threat she faced up to that point'...something chapuys asserts, which rather belies his earlier reports that her stepmother was ordering everything up to and including poison, murder, beatings, arrest, but, whatever); but, ultimately, this is a rather shallow rendering which suggests that self-preservation and the advice of men she trusted were the sole reasons.

reading alison weir's new novel; she's adapted and altered the primary source material she's clearly using in a way that is...um. something?