ELIZABETH’S ENEMY

Press, 14 April 1979, Page 17

ELIZABETH’S ENEMY

My Enemy the Queen. By Victoria Holt. Collins. 375 pp. Bibliography. $13.95. (Reviewed by Meriel Farnsworth) So widespread has been exposure of the Tudors on television that to write a biographical novel of the Elizabethans must have seemed a daunting task. But Victoria Holt, who is no doubt assured of a faithful following, has produced a book which is historically accurate in essentials and pleasantly readable. All the familiar characters are there, but this time viewed through new eyes. Lettice Knollys was the granddaughter of Anne Boleyn's sister from whom she inherited her looks and attraction for men. In due course she was presented and became a lady of the court, where her pert tongue and her relationship to the Queen earned her special favour. At 21 she married Viscount Hereford, later Earl of Essex. For a short time she was content with domesticity and motherhood, but soon she hankered for the life of the court, drawn particularly by the attraction of Robert Dudley, the most dashingly gallant of all Elizabeth’s suitors. The fact that so much speculation surrounded the death of Dudley’s wife only enhanced his glamour in her eyes. She became his mistress and then, on the more-than-convenient death of her husband, his wife. When the Queen learned of the secret marriage of her favourite her

fury knew no bounds. Lettice was banished from court, never to be received publicly again. So began the bitter rivalry between the two women. Lettice believed herself to be the more desirable — after all, had Leicester not risked all for her? But Elizabeth wore a crown and that, to someone with the unquenchable ambition of a Dudley, was an irrestistible draw. When the Queen summoned, Leicester went; when (as so often throughout his tempestuous career) he was out of favour, he returned to his wife. As the years passed Lettice, neglected and lonely, became bored with her ageing husband and. never able to resist danger and excitement, became the mistress of her husband’s Master of Horse. Sir Christopher Blount, who was 20 years her junior. A year after the death of Leicester she married him.

Then began the second phase of her battle with the Queen. She loved all her children, but the most beloved was her son Essex, handsome, impetuous, over-confident, tactless, the idol of her young husband and the favourite of the Queen. She warned, she cajoled but, unwilling to admit the caution of middle age in such youthful company, she condoned activities which she knew could lead to nothing but disaster. The power Of the Queen was too great. Blount and Essex were executed for treason. Lettice outlived most of her generation, devoting her later years to good works and memories. No convent for her.