Review: The Queen's Fool

The Queen's Fool, Philippa Gregory

[The Queen's Fool by Philippa Gregory (Published by Harper, 2004) is a Tudor historical fiction novel. Set between 1548 and 1558, it concerns Mary I and her half sister Elizabeth]

As you read the first chapter of this book you will probably get the impression that this is a Tudor “bodice ripper” story, but it is not. There are a small number of incidents that some of us thought a bit too graphic, but they serve to emphasise a point. Which is....?

Here is a little background that I found thanks to Dr Google. A Court Fool was a jester. His job was to add a bit of fun to the serious court life. Court jesters were permitted familiarities without regard for deference. The jester was also a man of integrity, discretion, and wit, who could draw the King's attention to matters by means of a joke. The fool had the right to sit at table with his master, and say whatever came into his head and no offence would be taken from what he said. Everyone else at court would only say what they thought would please the ruler.

There were natural fools and licensed fools The natural fool was seen as innately nit-witted, moronic, or mad, the licensed fool was given leeway by permission of the court. In other words, both were excused, to some extent, for their behaviour, the first because he "couldn't help it", and the second by decree. Most Fools were male but there were a few female. Fools could be found in courts the world over.

Will Somers was a licensed Fool, Jester to Henry VIII, and after Henry's death he remained at court, through the reign of Mary, (who is the queen in this story) eventually retiring in the reign of Elizabeth I. Under Mary I, Will's role was mainly ceremonial, and as a sidekick to Mary's personal fool, Jane Foole. She was a natural Fool. Jane was the jester of Mary Tudor before Mary became regent and continued as her court jester during her reign until Mary's death. She had an apparently favoured position with Mary and was given a valuable wardrobe, and an unusually large number of shoes. Her head was shaved just like the heads of male jesters. But she is not the Fool in this story.

As well as Jane and Will, Mary also employed Lucretia the Tumbler as jester. She and Jane sometimes received identical clothes, and it has been suggested that Lucretia was at some time Jane's caretaker or friend. It is known that Lucretia and Jane performed together. However, unlike Jane, Lucretia was a trained entertainer with skills. She is also not the fool in this story.

The fool of Ms Gregory’s tale is educated, so more like Lucretia than Jane but she has the gift of “sight” and is Jewish.

This is not a history book. The story is fiction but the setting is real enough and it is brought to life here.

We know there was a Will Somer, the Court Jester, there was a female jester to Queen Mary, but the rest is just a good story of intrigue, murder, deception, spying, double spying, turn-coatery. Pretty much what goes on today.

Before I read this book, the history that I knew about this period of English life was, that Henry8 had 6 wives (or was it, Henry6 had 8 wives?) founded Protestantism so he could get rid of the wives he did not want (played by Charles Laughton). Then there was Mary, Catholic, Bloody Mary “ a bad thing”. Then Elizabeth, Protestant (played by Glenda Jackson...and Miranda Richardson in Blackadder) who was “a good thing”. And that we had to give France back to the French about that time, “a bad thing”. (I am sure you all read “1066 and All That” didn’t you?).

But now I hear of Robert Dudley, First Earl of Leicester. Of John Dee, and Edmund Bonner, Bishop of London. People that were major players in Tudor politics and society, that I had never heard of.

John Dee was a mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, occult philosopher, and adviser to Queen Elizabeth I. He devoted much of his life to the study of alchemy, divination and Hermetic philosophy. He is also known for his work on navigation and his connection to Drake in the time of Elisabeth. He also had a considerable library.

His skills, that could have been considered dark arts or witchcraft, got him into trouble in 1555, when he was arrested for having cast horoscopes of Queen Mary and Princess Elizabeth, thereby coming on the verge of the crime of predicting the death of the monarch....Treason! The charges in relation to Mary did become treason. He appeared in the Star Chamber and was subjected to a religious examination by Bishop Bonner, known to history as Bloody Bonner due to his eager assistance to Mary in the so called Marian Persecutions of suspected heretics. Dee however managed to clear his name and became Bonner's chaplin. Was this evidence of his sorcery?

This story also adds anti-Semitism, anti-Catholicism and anti-Protestantism, anti-Everything at various times. The excesses of the English Inquisition, or Marian Courts. Nobody expected that! It was best to keep your head down, say as little as possible and turn your coat as the circumstances changed. This is all in this story, activated by means of the fictional Queens Fool, Hanna. Fleeing from Spain ahead of the Inquisition, because she was Jewish and with an added handicap that her father was a scholar and printer of books and pamphlets. Mostly scientific and religious. A bad combination in the eye of The Church but of great interest to John Dee. Hanna helped her father in the trade and dressed as a boy to better carry out her tasks. (It was “well known” in those days that girls were incapable of anything that a man could do, poor things.) So Hanna was an educated feminist and a transvestite, which was and is, against both Jewish and Christian teachings.

She has a heightened sense of loyalty, and love and also that ability to see the future. Ah... up to now I feel that if you have played along with me so far, maybe I have lost you here? But bear with me, or Ms Gregory at least. This ability helps to bind the story together and when the shop is visited by John Dee and Robert Dudley, Hanna was smitten by Dudley which leads her to become his spy in the world of the conspirators, turncoats etc. of high rank, the real people. Characters that one must admire for their ability to survive the rules of opposites.

With all this, and more real history Ms Gregory has put together a plausible and entertaining story woven around the real events and people giving an insight into the life of, not only the ruling class and their struggle after power, but the effects on the common people. To do this she gives plausible explanations of Mary’s apparent zeal for burning people. And gives us the politics of Inheritance and Royal Succession and the role of advisers, the Privy Counsellors. Perhaps her explanation is inaccurate, maybe the “facts” show a less pleasant side of Mary, but as they say, History is written by the Victors. And the truth is slow coming and if repeated often enough the lie becomes the truth.

Hanna has been betrothed to Daniel for many years and we see Daniels difficulty loving the girl for what she is but having to live with the knowledge that she will not let him be her master, as society would expect, unless she wanted to be mastered and even that would be on her terms. A “modern” woman.

I have gone on at length about the real history, and has expanded my desire to know more of these people. Not a history text book but an excellent tale.

Have I given away too much of the story? I hope not, because I want you to read this book. You will enjoy it. You will. You will.