Arbella Stuart

The woman expected to succeed the Virgin Queen

Lost in history . . . losing her self. Uncover Tudor heroine Arbella Stuart's incredible story, reimagined by Elizabeth Fremantle in this tense, historical thriller. Hardwick Hall, sixteenth-century England. Formerly a beacon of wealth and power. Now a gilded prison. Hidden away, forgotten, one young woman seeks escape. But to do so she must trust those on the outside. Those who have their own motives... Discovery means death. But what choice has any woman trapped in a man's world? Imprisoned by circumstance, Arbella Stuart is an unwilling contender for the throne. In a world where women are silenced, what chance does she have to take control of her destiny? Praise for The Girl in the Glass Tower: 'A top-notch literary thriller' Daily Telegraph 'Thrilling, clever and beautifully written' The Times, 'Books of the Year' 'Filled with dense, dark political and social intrigue' Daily Mail 'Shots are fired, troths are plighted, sea voyages taken, escapes dared and mysteries solved' Daily Telegraph 'Beautifully written, completely engrossing and a book that stays with you after the pages are closed' Historia

Based on letters written by England's "Lost Queen," this portrait describes the niece to Mary Queen of Scots and cousin to Elizabeth I who became a pawn in the power struggles of her age and tried unsuccessfully to flee her fate, dying a tragic death in the tower of London.

Lady Arbella Stuart, claimant to the English throne, traditionally has been portrayed as either a hero or fool for marrying against King James's edict and attempting to flee from France. This is Stuart's story as she tells it in more than one hundred letters written to relatives, her husband, the royal family, public officials, and friends. Based largely on original manuscripts, this volume reveals a powerful personal and public drama, as Stuart's royal birth and demand for independence place her in conflict with Queen Elizabeth and King James. Verbally gifted, Stuart creates a fictional lover, maneuvers within the patronage network, and, after her marriage, applies her considerable rhetorical skills to solicit favor and freedom. Her own revisions, which are included, offer the reader unusual access to the thinking of a talented Renaissance writer as she shapes her prose. Steen has transcribed, ordered, dated, annotated, and critically analyzed the letters and drafts.

More widely studied and more frequently performed than ever before, John Webster's The Duchess of Malfi is here presented in an accessible and thoroughly up-to-date edition. Based on the Revels Plays text, the notes have been augmented to cast further light both on Webster's amazing dialogue and on the stage action. An entirely new introduction sets the tragedy in the context of pre-Civil War England and gives a revealing view of its imagery and dramatic action. From its well-documented early performances to the two productions seen in the West End of London in the 1995-96 season, a stage history gives an account of the play in performance. Students, actors, directors and theatre-goers will all find here a reappraisal of Webster's artistry in the greatest age of English theatre, which highlights why it has lived on stage with renewed force in the last decades of the twentieth century.

Early Modern English Noblewomen and Self-Starvation: The Skull Beneath the Skin is a unique exploration of why early modern noblewomen starved themselves, how they understood their behaviour, and how it was interpreted and received by their contemporaries. The first study of its kind, the book adopts an interdisciplinary and highly detailed approach to examining women's self-starvation between 1500 and 1640. It is also the first book to focus on this behaviour among noblewomen. Beginning with a contextual outline of gender, food and embodiment in early modern culture, the book then looks explicitly at the food behaviour of several well-known figures, including Elizabeth I, Catherine of Aragon, Mary I, Arbella Stuart, and Katherine Grey. Each case study engages with a variety of primary sources, such as letters and legal documents, as well as with literary texts, providing an in-depth exploration of the relationship between self-starvation and concepts of autonomy, sexuality, and literal and symbolic imprisonment, highlighting the body and specifically the act of eating as fundamental to identity in the early modern period and today. Employing both literary and historical methodologies, Early Modern English Noblewomen and Self-Starvation is an important contribution to the study of the history of the body and is essential reading for students and academics of early modern women's history, gender history, food history, and the history of the body.