Penelope Devereux was a real person, sister of the infamous
Earl of Essex and a lady-in-waiting to Queen Elizabeth.
Author Elizabeth Fremantle meticulously researched
Penelope's life for WATCH THE LADY, her third novel set in
the Tudor court. The novel takes us from her earliest days
at court to the aftermath of her brother's fall from grace.
Penelope is an eyewitness to history, and we see the
machinations of a dangerous court through her eyes.
I knew about Penelope's husband, Robert Rich's father;
Richard Rich was a key figure in Henry VIII's reign. While I
was reading this novel, I watched the 1970s BBC series
"Elizabeth R" and was interested to see Lady Rich appear in
a couple of scenes. WATCH THE LADY certainly gave me a new
perspective on some of the events I was watching unfold.
Of course, this is a novel, and Fremantle has fabricated
some of the personalities and idiosyncrasies of the key
characters. She explains some of those -- and adds some
additional facts about Penelope's life -- in her afterward.
I have read one other of Fremantle's Tudor court books; they
are not a trilogy in the sense that you must read them all
and in order. The two I read stand quite well on their own.
The only difficulty I have with her work is that they're
written in present tense, which for me is a bit off-putting.
They are well worth getting through that, however.
If you have a particular interest in the Tudor court, the
reign of Queen Elizabeth, or strong women in history, WATCH
THE LADY will be an excellent addition to your reading list.
From “a brilliant new player in the court of royal fiction”
(People), comes the mesmerizing story of Lady
Penelope Devereux—the daring young beauty in the Tudor
court, who inspired Sir Philip Sidney’s famous sonnets even
while she plotted against Queen Elizabeth.
Penelope Devereux arrives at Queen Elizabeth’s court where
she and her brother, the Earl of Essex, are drawn into the
aging Queen’s favor. Young and naïve, Penelope, though
promised elsewhere, falls in love with Philip Sidney who
pours his heartbreak into the now classic sonnet series
Astrophil and Stella. But Penelope is soon married off to a
man who loathes her. Never fainthearted, she chooses her
moment and strikes a deal with her husband: after she gives
birth to two sons, she will be free to live as she chooses,
with whom she chooses. But she is to discover that the
course of true love is never smooth.
Meanwhile Robert Cecil, ever loyal to Elizabeth, has his eye
on Penelope and her brother. Although it seems the Earl of
Essex can do no wrong in the eyes of the Queen, as his
influence grows, so his enemies gather. Penelope must draw
on all her political savvy to save her brother from his own
ballooning ambition and Cecil’s trap, while daring to plan
for an event it is treason even to think about.
Unfolding over the course of two decades and told from the
perspectives of Penelope and her greatest enemy, the devious
politician Cecil, Watch the Lady chronicles the last
gasps of Elizabeth’s reign, and the deadly scramble for
power in a dying dynasty.
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