Elizabeth and Mary - Cousins, Rivals, Queens

London: Harper Collins, 2003. A Fine unmarked copy with near Fine dustjacket which is not price clipped (Fine apart from a mark of fading to front left by a label being removed). xxxv + 535 pages. 40 colour illustrations. Coloured pictorial endpapers. This is the first biography of the fateful relationship between Elizabeth I and Mary Queen of Scots. It was the defining relationship of their lives and marked the intersection of the great Tudor and Stuart dynasties. At its core were their rival claims to the throne of England. Working almost exclusively from contemporary letters and writings, the biographer lets the two Queens speak to us across more than 400 years, their voices and responses surprisingly familiar to our own, their characters vivid, by turns touching and terrible. Mary was executed for plotting Elizabeth's murder, and after Elizabeth's death in 1603, marking the end of the Tudor dynasty, it was a posthumous triumph for Mary, whose son, James I united the English and Scottish thrones under a Stuart king. **** A HEAVY VOLUME OF 1.175 KILO UNPACKED WEIGHT WHICH MAY REQUIRE ADDITIONAL SHIPPING COST **** L. First Edition. Hard Cover. Fine/Near Fine. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall.