Written as a memoir, Count Axel von Fersen’s story is presented to us as an edited version published by Sophie, his sister. Hence, there are passages and chapters interjected by Sophie’s account of what happened as well as those by Axel himself. The historical details are incredibly palpable bringing you a sense of actually being there. Katherine Swynford met John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster and King Edward III’s third son, while she was a damoiselle in his wife Blanche’s household. She soon returned and remained with the king until his death a year later in June 1377. Although Perrers was not responsible for many of the failings of Edward’s government at the end of his reign, the king’s reputation fell from one of respect and authority to someone whose mistress had “such a hold over him that he allowed important and weighty affairs of the realm to be decided on her advice.” 3. Katherine Swynford and John of Gaunt The Queen’s Lover is based on Fersen’s archives, especially his correspondence with Marie Antoinette. The letters were printed nearly 100 years after Fersen’s death though – sadly for historians – intimate sections were redacted by the puritanical publisher. Many other paragraphs are still unread because their invisible ink cannot be developed.

For much of his reign, George I remained unpopular, in no small part thanks to the actions of his mistress, Melusine von der Schulenburg. She had been George’s lover since about 1690, when he was still Elector of Hanover and she was his mother’s maid of honor. George’s marriage was particularly complicated—he had divorced his wife for her infidelity in 1694, five months after the murder of her lover, for which he has remained chief suspect. If, however, the author's intent is to put the French Revolution into a broader international context by using Fersen and his sister Sophie as narrators, she has succeeded, although her style of writing is at times tedious and less successful at making the book an enjoyable read. And YET. Here we're punished with Gregory's weasely Dudley and spineless Elizabeth, two characters so off-putting that I could hardly muster the concern to keep reading, though of course I did because I'm for some reason incapable of abandoning a book. These characters weren't the kind you love to hate; they were just the kind you hate. I can forgive the glazed-over, watered-down history and the writing that aspires to Australian soap opera level, but give me something to fall for, Phil! One thing that I really liked about this book is that it gave context into what was going on in the world. I feel like a lot of times, historical fiction focuses on one area or event and you, as the reader, lose focus on what else was happening in that time period. There was a ton of things going on in Von Fersen's time. He goes and fights in the American Revolution. He talks about what was happening in his own country of Sweden (some place you don't see much of in historical fiction about the 1700s). He talks about one of my faves, Catherine the Great, and how she was expanding the Russian empire. Then, of course, there was the French Revolution. I know that I myself tend to forget that all of these major events were happening around the same time or at least not too far apart from each other. It was so interesting to have that context.Again, my love for this author grows. I have watched the movie Elizabeth a long time ago, and really remembered none of it....but following the history from each book, and building on all the events in these stories, I have gained such a wealth of knowledge, and appreciation for this period of history. Louisa Marks and Jean Adebambo were two great vocalists who weren’t great just vocally but also as song writers and for me to follow in their footsteps has become one of my missions. As a new queen, Elizabeth faces two great dangers: the French invasion of Scotland, which threatens to put Mary Queen of Scots on her throne, and her passion for the convicted traitor Robert Dudley. I go through torture and pain in terms of love. I think that’s my natural gift, so that’s all I want to do in my songs. I just want to put myself across in my songs in the best way I can,” Mercury said, quoted in the book Freddie Mercury: A Life in His Own Words. One of his most haunting break-up songs was “Love of My Life,” from the album Night at the Opera . It is believed to be about his former lover Mary Austin. “It’s fair to say she was the love of Freddie’s life,” said May. One hopes that somewhere in Heaven, Marie Antoinette is enjoying the beatific vision and thereby distracted from the knowledge of the truly wretched historical fiction industry her life has generated. She must surely rank next to Richard III as the monarch who has suffered the most at the hands of either those who elevate them to sainthood or damn them to perdition using the same life story.

This intimate relationship is quite possibly true but is not the main thrust of Gray's novel. Fersen doesn't even come across as a very likeable or admirable person, never succeeding in any of his attempts to rescue Marie Antoinette from her fate and not even managing to be faithful to her, despite all his protestations that she is the Love of His Life. So, no, this is not really a love story but is rather more an account of international unrest, intrigues and alliances of the time. Sweden, Russia, Britain, Austria, France, Turkey, etc. Who's allied with whom, what's going on internationally during France's revolutionary mess, this is what makes the book somewhat interesting.Francine du Plessix Gray then grew up in New York City, and was naturalized a U.S. citizen in 1952. She was a scholarship student at Spence School. She attended Bryn Mawr College for two years, and in 1952 received her B.A. in philosophy from Barnard College, NY. But with Elizabeth front and center, Gregory cannot contain her venom, and changes her OWN portrayal of Elizabeth so roundly that one would think it was written by a different person altogether! No doubt the Virgin Queen had her flaws: history shows us she was vain, ruthless at times, and had a serious temper. However, history, every POSSIBLE historical source, shows us she was also intelligent, wise, strong-willed, and took a full hand in ruling her country. Indeed, a great point is made in how many times she shot her councillors down to do what she had determined was right: and it turned out best for her country. But Gregory attempts to paint her as a weak-willed ninny, who was foolish and lazy caring only for love, and who could barely rule herself, let alone a country. This is, quite simply, not true, and for a historical fiction writer to ignore historical fact, when she had so closely followed it before, suggests a deep seated anger and resentment, the source of which I cannot fathom.

Grieving his lost love in his native Sweden, Fersen begins to sense the effects of the French Revolution in his homeland. Royalists are now targets, and the sensuous aristocratic world of his youth is fast vanishing. Fersen is incapable of realizing that centuries of tradition have disappeared, and he pays dearly for his naïveté, losing his life at the hands of a savage mob that views him as a pivotal member of the ruling class. The novel was weak at best. Oh, the writing is not bad, although the number of typos and grammatical errors really threw me for a loop--how can a work of this calibre fail so miserably in basic grammar and punctuation? Moreover, there seemed to be a few places where either the writer or the editor was a in a big hurry, and ideas were either incompletely added or removed, leaving some sentences hanging and ideas not completed. Odd. Just seemed careless or lazy to me.This is definitely Count von Fersen's story and perhaps a third of it (?) encompasses his relationship with Marie Antoinette. The rest details his travels to America to help in the Revolution, a jaunt with Gustavus of Sweden, and his life after Marie Antoinette had been killed. Francine du Plessix Gray’s beautifully realized historical novel reveals the untold love story between Swedish aristocrat Count Axel von Fersen and Marie Antoinette. The romance begins at a masquerade ball in Paris in 1774, when the dashing nobleman first meets the mesmerizing nineteen-year-old dauphine, wife of the reclusive prince who will soon become Louis XVI. This electric encounter launches a love affair that will span the course of the French Revolution. There’s a huge hole in the industry where they used to be, a space that can never be replaced. They were both excellent performers. Her wisest councillor, William Cecil, knows it must be for policy, not for passion; meanwhile, Elizabeth’s uncle hates Dudley and swears he will murder him rather than have him as part of the royal family. Behind the triangle of loves, the factions take up their places: the Protestants, the priests, the assassins, the diplomats and the moneymakers. I may be speaking out of turn here, having never published a book,* but I imagine a "best practice" fiction writers may want to follow is to develop characters that readers can't get enough of. Some writers have figured this out on their own, and as such, Atticus Finch isn't a Southern stereotype with nothing to say, Anna Karenina isn't as sparklessly dull as a Siberian winter, and (to throw our reviewed author a bone here) Henry VIII in The Other Boleyn Girl** isn't a kind-hearted, just and caring king with zero spunk.

I've always heard good things about Gregory's books. This was my 1st one and I have to say I was a little underwhelmed. It was not a bad story, per se, but not the great story that I was expecting. James’s inclination for male company was well known when George Villiers engineered his way into the king’s presence in August 1614. James was immediately attracted to the man a bishop described as, “the handsomest-bodied in England; his limbs so well compacted and his conversation so pleasing and of so sweet a disposition.” But Villiers had to wait two years before the king’s current favorite, the Earl of Somerset, fell from grace. She was later persuaded to restart her music career, however on 15 January 2009, it was confirmed that Adebambo had committed suicide, aged 46. Then someone acts in secret, and for Elizabeth, Dudley and the emerging kingdom, nothing will be as planned.This is not a book for some one who isn't interested in history or who likes a book with only words that are familiar. In this day, when most books are written at what I consider a middle-school level, several times, I had to stop and look up the meaning of words used by the author. It was also not an "easy" read because of the use of foreign names, titles and other words. Some of this may be attributed to the fact that in many places she used original quotes from letters, diaries, etc. as part of her text. Those personal issues aside, I found it very well written and quite engaging and by the end, I had a great affection for the characters. The story telling from both the view point of Count Axel von Fersen and his sister Sophie, allowed for quite a different (and intimate) view of the French Monarchy before and during the French Revolution. The story felt well researched while the writing felt done with true affection for the historical individuals described. Alice Perrers was the widow of the king’s jeweler, Janyn Perrers, and one of the queen’s damsels when she met Edward III. The most likely date for the beginning of their relationship is 1364, when she would have been no older than 18 and the king 55. The birth of the first of their three children sometime occurred between 1364 and 1366. In honor of Valentine’s Day, we’ve highlighted ten Queen love songs, including their global hits “Somebody to Love” and “Crazy Little Thing Called Love.” These songs reveal the true spirit of the band and their wonderful frontman, a singer who was never afraid to show emotion and vulnerability through his work. Funny How Love Is (1974) Sadly, dorgi Fergus died aged just a few months and was later replaced with a new corgi puppy, from Andrew and Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie for her official 95th birthday, who the Queen named Sandy.