I appreciated Samson’s efforts to shed light on overlooked aspects of Mary I and Phillip II’s marriage as I did not have much knowledge beyond the “Bloody Mary” trope that is taught in grade school. The economic factors and cultural implications of such union are crucial in understanding the huge grey area that was their marriage. An Anglo-Spanish marriage that was female dominant was completely unorthodox in the eyes of English elites. Gender roles, societal norms, ethnic conflict and fear of arbitrary rule characterized Mary’s reign and plagued her reputation. Samson definitely touches on these aspects but his argument is weakened by organization issues and repetition of arguments and materials discussed in previous chapters of his book.

I also found myself lost at times in identifying Samson’s key points. I wonder if his approach reflects the fact that he is primarily associated with and thus acclimated to teaching and writing for Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American Studies rather than history. Still, I found it compelling that his professional position equipped him to survey the broad source basis that he pulled together. As he pointed out, the sources were geographically spread out and likely in various languages, which makes it more difficult for one scholar to evaluate (224). His familiarity with the historic Spanish culture and language ensured that he was able to mine meaning from these underrepresented narratives in a way previously unknown (14).

On a separate note, in your summary of the book, it struck me to what extent Samson discussed whether the English were xenophobic, which reminded me of the same query put forth in Immigrant England. As seen on page 140 of Mary and Philip and page 257 of Immigrant England, it appears the authors in both books reached a similar consensus in that many episodes of resentment towards “foreigners” surrounded specific issues, likely economic. As a result, this scholarly agreement further supports Samson’s implication that the English people’s reservations about Mary and Philip’s marriage was more complicated than people today sometimes believe.