Scourge of Henry VIII

The Life of Marie de Guise

By: Melanie Clegg

Narrated by: Anne Flosnik

Length: 7 hrs and 37 mins

Publisher's summary

Mary, Queen of Scots continues to intrigue both historians and the general public-but the story of her mother, Marie de Guise, is much less well known. A political power in her own right, she was born into the powerful and ambitious Lorraine family, spending her formative years at the dazzling, licentious court of François I. Although briefly courted by Henry VIII, she instead married his nephew, James V of Scotland, in 1538.

James's premature death four years later left their six-day-old daughter, Mary, as queen, and presented Marie with the formidable challenge of winning the support of the Scottish people and protecting her daughter's threatened birthright. Content until now to remain in the background and play the part of the obedient wife, Marie spent the next 18 years effectively governing Scotland - devoting her considerable intellect, courage, and energy to safeguarding her daughter's inheritance by using a deft mixture of cunning, charm, determination, and tolerance. This biography, from the author of Marie Antoinette: An Intimate History, tells the story and offers a fresh assessment of this most fascinating and underappreciated of 16th-century female rulers.

©2016 Melanie Clegg (P)2019 Tantor

Interesting but uneven telling of the story of Marie de Guise

I did learn details about Marie de Guise that I hadn’t heard before, but I would like to know more about the sources of the information. There was quite a bit of speculation as to what Marie and others were thinking and feeling that really didn’t contribute to the story since we don’t know if the speculations are accurate. I didn’t like the narrator’s voice at first, but I got more used to it as I listened. Finally, the title of the book is misleading. Marie is certainly not presented as “the scourge of Henry VIII”!

interesting book!

I never learned so much about Mary de Guise everything that I had seen or heard was so very wrong. Everyone should learn about this awesome woman in history

Interesting info

There was so much I never knew. It was presented well and narrated well. You are shown so much more about Mary’s mother than is normally available. Well done!?

Not a bad book, narrator is not a good speaker.

As far as the narrator goes, I've heard better clearer performances from high school actors.

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The pro: I was introduced to a woman that seems fascinating.

The cons of the book:
No mention of the book's primary sources.
The book has very little to do with Henry VIII. And there was no scourging going on. No sense of some sort of head to head intrigue or battle between the two. The title was utterly misleading.
The book managed to take the life of a very interesting woman and make it boring.
There was a lot of padding to it. Are there so few sources on Marie that we needed to spend so much time on what she might have eaten as a child?
Loads and loads of "she might have felt" and "she must have been" statements. Instead of making Marie come alive as it was probably meant to, all it did was trivialize the information in the book. It became increasingly obnoxious.

This was a silly biography, not worth even the few short hours I spent on it.