THE QUEEN'S PLEASURE – Brandy Purdy
Kensington
ISBN: 978-0-7582-6598-2
Historical Fiction
July 2012

London, England; 1549 – 1560

As Amy Robsart Dudley reconciles herself to her likely death, probably by the very painful cancer of the breast, she cannot help but remember the days gone by when she met and fell in love with her husband, Robert Dudley, Queen Elizabeth's close confidant and rumored lover.  Amy cannot believe her naïve gullibility in believing everything that Robert said, and now suffers for it with his constant berating, chastising, and derision.  Their long separations become longer and Robert's honeyed tongue spins lies that will appease his wife, while allow him to live a second life at court.  He focuses on his goal of possibly becoming more than a lover to Elizabeth—maybe even the very throne of England!

It's hard to believe that Amy had only met and fallen in love with Robert Dudley in 1549.  Why, that was only a quick eleven years ago; but that decade has lasted a lifetime and resulted in Amy's abandonment by her husband as he pursues his lofty dream of supporting Elizabeth I on England's throne.  It's even rumored that he wants to become more than a paramour to the queen and has aspirations to become Elizabeth's—and England's—own king.  What ever became of those idyllic days when Amy was Robert's own “buttercup bride,” happy to run barefoot through the grass, happy and loved by her young husband?  Robert's trips to London become lengthier with each year until it is several months before she sees him again, always having to content herself with his promises that one day he'd bring Amy to court for presentation to the queen.  That never happened; Robert “protected” his wife from the lewdness of court life by never allowing her there.

Now, in 1560, Amy's bubbly spirit and country charm have withered and festered right along with her beauty, the very thing that caused Robert's bewitchment.  A lump in her breast has become more than just the infection that every physician and woman's servant has assured it was.  Assuredly, it is cancer and has stolen everything that Amy ever held dear.  To make matters worse, Amy must not only fight for her very life, but battle England's great queen for every scrap of affection from Robert.  And those morsels are becoming few and far between.  As Amy's illness progresses, so do flights of fancy and the paranoia that Robert may go to the great lengths of killing his wife to speed up a much hoped for second marriage.

Would Robert go so far as killing his own wife to further his own gains?

The death of Amy Robsart Dudley has long been one of British history's greatest mysteries.  It is well-documented that she did indeed have breast cancer, but a fall down a flight of stairs brought about her death, not the cancer.  One of the many conspiracy theories that cycled in those days was that Elizabeth and Robert had plotted together to kill Amy.  It's sheer irony that Robert's newfound bachelorhood never brought him what he most desired—the throne.  Nor did he ever regain favor with his beloved monarch.  Since Elizabeth I is one of my favorite royals, if not my most, I cannot reconcile myself to thinking she'd plot a woman's death—but it's a bias, admittedly (for all we know, it is possible, just look at her history with Mary, Queen of Scots).

Brand Purdy does an admirable job of telling Amy Dudley's side of the story with a lot of historical research and fact, but putting a more humanistic spin on a mystery that historians still cannot solve.  You would not believe the arguments over this very topic among fans of the Tudor era!  A word of caution, and it's a very small one: this is not a heraldic tale of ribaldry, chivalry and great heroism.  THE QUEEN'S PLEASURE is dark in tone, and at times somewhat disturbing.  It's a very realistic telling of what Amy possibly went through, both in torturous “cures” for her cancer and the shadows in her mind as she contemplated her future.  One of Robert's greatest slights to his “country bumpkin” wife was that her illness was making her crazy.  And, really, who could blame the poor woman?

One of the many things I enjoyed about THE QUEEN'S PLEASURE was allowing the reader to not only hear Amy's side of the story, but being treated with glimpses of Elizabeth by switching points of view to hers throughout the book.

It's a lengthy read, but a worthy one; THE QUEEN'S PLEASURE is must-read stuff for my fellow Tudorphiles out there!

Amy Cunningham