Reflection

On reading the book’s title, even before turning to the first page, there were many names that coming up in my mind. Females who have been incredibly influential and admirable including Joan of Arc in France, queen Mary in Scotland, and Queen Elizabeth of England are all familiar figures to us. Reading the book Historic Girls is unlike the experience of reading other biographies. Because it tended to use just one simple, vividly-described example illustrating the characteristics and personalities of the heroin.

Elizabeth Tutor is a monarch I have been very fascinated about. The very first time I read about her was in a biography for another queen, Mary Stuart, queen of Scotland. The biography explains in detail how the princess was crowned young, how glorious and fascinating her early life was and, in contrast, how dramatic her downfall has been. The monarch who stood in the same era as Queen Mary of Scotland did was Elizabeth the first, Queen of England. Through the biography, which has two queens compared on purpose, I learned that Elizabeth Tutor was far less lucky in childhood and in teenage years as Mary has been. As the book Historic Girls wrote ’Then, when scarcely three years old, disgraced by the wicked murder of her mother, cast off and repudiated by her brutal father, and only received again to favor at the christening of her baby brother, passing her childish days in grim old castles and a wicked court, she found herself, at thirteen, fatherless as well as motherless, and at fifteen cast on her own resources, the sport of men’s ambitions and of conspirators’ schemes. Today the girl of fifteen tenderly reared, shielded from trouble by a mother’s watchful love and a father’s loving care, can know but little of the dangers that compassed this princess of England, the lady Elizabeth. ’ The difference of the two queens’ early years, and the dramatic disparity between the outcome of their life are thought-provoking. Mary Stuart was the queen of Scotland six days after she was born, and she has an incredibly smooth way of becoming the queen of France and nearly reached the throne of England. She was then so beautiful and poetic a figure that a massive amount of literature and poetry were about her. She had the crown on her head, but at the same time lacked the ability to maintain it. Glorious soon vanished and by the time when she was around thirty, she had been kept in prison by Elizabeth. Elizabeth’s way to the throne, in comparison, was quite a difficult one. Early years of tragic made her cautious and full of awareness. She was never a queen as beautiful and attractive as Mary Stuart was, instead, her focus was clear and determined from the start, and through preparation, endurance of hardship, and taking chance whenever possible, she successfully made her way to gain power and dominance in the political field, being a successful and influential monarch in the English history. As Stefan Zweig put it ’Mary Stuart lived on in literature and poetry, while Elizabeth the first stay in the pages of English history.’ It reminded us of how a person’s experiences can shape his/her life directions in a crucial, decisive manner. Elizabeth’s parents are Henry Tutor and Anne Boleyn. Their story was adapted into a film name Another Boleyn Girl, which elaborated on the romance story and gave the audience a chaotic impression of the historic event.

2017-12-14

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