Page 92 - All About History - Issue 59-17

REVIEWS

The books, TV shows and films causing
a stir in the history world this month

ElizabEth’s Rival:

thE tumultuous talE of lEtticE

Knollys, countEss of lEicEstER

A much-needed reassessment of this remarkable, marginalised figure

Author Nicola Tallis Publisher Michael O’Mara Books Price £20 Released Out now
A a rival for Dudley’s affections. As Tallis
woman who outlived three
points out, Lettice has been portrayed in
husbands, six children and seven
monarchs, Lettice Knollys was,
popular culture as “outspoken, haughty,
as author Nicola Tallis puts it,
arrogant and unrepentant,” as influenced
“the last of the great Elizabethan
survivors.” She has never been the centre by the bad light cast upon her by
historians during and after her lifetime.
of attention but, for the first time, the Here, Lettice’s character is reassessed
countess of Leicester gets the full-length and we finally discover the woman
biography that she so rightly deserves. who truly loved Dudley, was devoted
Off the bat, Tallis makes a bold to her children and lived through an
claim that Lettice may have been the unspeakable amount of loss, including
illegitimate granddaughter of Henry the executions of her third husband,
VIII through her maternal grandmother, Sir Christopher Blount, and her first-born
Mary Boleyn. Although we will never be son, the earl of Essex.
certain, Lettice’s position as grandniece It strikes a chord that the deterioration
of Anne Boleyn — and therefore first of Lettice and Elizabeth’s relationship
cousin once removed to Elizabeth I — was not just about jealously, pettiness
would have ensured that she was a or rivalry — it was about heartbreak.
prominent figure at the royal court. Elizabeth was left devastated by Dudley’s
Tallis covers Lettice’s entire life, from marriage to Lettice but a union between
her childhood right up to the day she him and the Virgin Queen was never
died aged 91, during Charles I’s reign. in their future. The fracturing of Lettice
It is interesting to explore her first and Elizabeth’s once close relationship
marriage to Walter Devereux, 1st Earl of is a tale that Tallis tells in a beautiful
Essex, and their separation as he was and thought-provoking way, against
stationed in Ireland for two years. It was the backdrop of political and religious
during this time that Lettice developed turmoil at the royal court.
a relationship with Robert Dudley, the Elizabeth’s Rival stands as a testament
earl of Leicester and Elizabeth’s favourite. as to why the figures that are cast
Lettice’s affair with Dudley culminates aside in history should be explored. As
in their clandestine marriage after the previous author of Lady Jane Grey
Devereux’s death. Throughout the entire biography Crown of Blood, it is great
book, Tallis’ thorough research is clear to see Tallis blazing a trail into the far
to see and her passion for the subject is corners of Tudor history with such “Tallis’ thorough research is clear
evident in the narrative. aplomb. It is no surprise that Elizabeth I to see and her passion for the
It is great to see Lettice finally step dominates a large part of this period’s
out of Dudley and Elizabeth’s shadows. historical scholarship but for those subject is evident in the narrative”
For too long she has been demoted to wanting to discover the other side of the
the position of ‘the other woman’ and story, this is the perfect book for you.

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