This is the story of Mary Tudor Queen of England, Elizabeth Tudor Queen of England, Mary Stuart Queen of Scotland, and Catherine de’ Medici Queen of France.  Showing how they interacted with each other, learned from each other, and resolved their conflicts.  The queens gave each other gifts.  Some were physical, as devices to influence decisions and garner cooperation.  Some were intellectual, as they learned from the others experiences to change how they ruled.  They made different relationship choices, and faced the consequences.  The queens were often divided by religion.  As their regions were engaged in the conflict between Protestants and Catholics.  The queens sometimes tried to reduce political friction, to engage in religious toleration, but their choices were limited due to competing powers. 

They were women who ruled during a time when many in their regions, and even relatives, wanted a male sovereign.  The role of women was to produce a male heir for succession.  Being female was not the only challenge to their sovereignty, as regions were also challenging the divine authority of monarchy.  An era of growing demand to turn monarchies into republics.  Political competition was another challenge, for the expansion of a kingdom or religion could had threatened the other kingdoms or religions.  The queens, and other leaders, used various maneuvers to try to obtain or prevent a kingdom from gaining more power. 

 

The focus of this book is on a few events, which emphasize decisions being made on account of the sovereigns being queens rather than kings.  References are made to international influences, but were given little information.  This book provides an introduction to the queens era’s political schemes, which the reader can use to search for more information about the related sovereign entities and political decisions. 

This book showcases sexist claims against women from the people during the era, that effected the era’s decisions.  Some of these claims are being reflected on and remarked with sexism against the author’s male contemporaries.  The remarks do not take up much space, but create contradictions in how the author approaches sexism.