The Queen's Fool
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| The Queen's Fool | |
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| Author | Philippa Gregory |
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| Country |  England |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Novel |
| Publisher | Touchstone |
| Publication date | 2004 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| ISBN | ISBN 0743246071 (hardcover edition) |
The Queen's Fool by Philippa Gregory is a 2004 historical fiction novel. Set between 1553 and 1558, it is a sequel to The Other Boleyn Girl. The series also includes The Boleyn Inheritance. The novel chronicles the changing fortunes of Mary I of England and her half-sister Elizabeth through the perspective of the fictional Hannah Green, a Marrano girl escaping to England from Spain where her mother was burned at the stake for secretly practicing the Jewish religion. Hannah is discovered by Robert Dudley and John Dee and subsequently begged as a fool to Edward VI. She witnesses and becomes caught up the intrigues of the young king's court, and later those of his sisters. Since Mary, Elizabeth, and Robert Dudley all use Hannah to gather information on their rivals and otherwise further their own aims, the novel can plausibly present each side in the complex story. The Queen's Fool follows Hannah from ages fourteen to nineteen, and her coming-of-age is interspersed among the historical narrative.
[edit] Plot summary
The story starts when Hannah Green accidentally sees Thomas Seymour and Elizabeth together while she is delivering books (her father being a bookkeeper). When asked why she seemed surprised, she claimed to have seen a scaffold behind him. As it turns out, Seymour is killed on a scaffold within a year. Hannah is later discovered by John Dee to have the Sight when she sees Uriel behind Dee and Robert Dudley, but her father denies it, saying that Hannah says silly things often. Then one day, while delivering books, Hannah meets the young king, accompanied by Dudley, who, after hearing of her power, asks her what she sees of him. Hannah, noticing how weak and pale he is, replied that she saw the heaven gates opening. Amused by her answer and glad that someone was not lying to him, the king decided Hannah should be his fool. Though unwilling, Hannah had no choice but to accept, and thus began her life in court.
While in court, Hannah is the Duke of Northumberland's (also lord protector to King Edward) vassal and is to report on the doings of King Edward. While in the Duke's service she swears to love and honor anything that Robert Dudley, the Duke of Northumberland's son that she is smitten with, tells her to do. With this promise, Lord Robert sends her to spy on Lady Mary, soon to be Queen Mary.
She goes to Mary's home and sees a worn out woman with a sad life. While she is in Mary's home, the household finds out that King Edward died, but Mary is not to be put on the throne; instead, Edward changed his will before his death and made it so that Lady Jane Grey, daughter of King Henry VIII's niece, would be queen. Lady Jane, who recently married Guilford Dudley against her will, would be queen over England in name only, since the ambitious Duke of Northumberland would tell her what to do and rule through her.
Lady Mary decides to flee the country since she is declared a threat to the throne and is to be captured, so she takes Hannah and some other ladies-in-waiting. As she flees, the Duke of Northumberland's plans unravel. England declares itself for Mary, and so she rode into London and became queen, with Hannah as fool by her side.
Queen Mary finally achieves her lifelong journey of being queen, and Hannah is overjoyed that the mistress that she loves is on the throne. But Hannah is also heartbroken that Robert Dudley, with whom she is in love, is in the Tower of London.
Meanwhile, her betrothed, Daniel Carpenter, is annoyed with Hannah since she is so obviously in love with Robert Dudley and not with him. Hannah doesn't have anything against Daniel personally; she just doesn't want to marry.
As she has to deal with her personal feelings, she also has to deal with the worry of the looming marriage of Queen Mary to Prince Philip of Spain, an enthusiast for the Inquisition that burned her Mother at the stake for heresy. Hannah's father and Daniel and his family also worry about the prospect of burnings in England, and Hannah promises to Daniel that she will marry him when she is sixteen, and if they must flee from England then she will marry him the moment that she can. When Hannah promises this to Daniel, they seal it with a kiss. Hannah realizes that she is in love with Daniel, and not Lord Robert, who released Hannah from her promise to love him. Hannah still admires Lord Robert, though.
Daniel is a member of "The d'Israeli family, who in England go under the name of Carpenter" - hinting that Hannah and Daniel might eventually be among the distant ancestors of the 19th Century British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli, who was of Jewish origin.
