In Mary and Philip: The Marriage of Tudor England and Hapsburg Spain, Alexander Samson sets out to achieve a dense amount of goals based on the perceived success and failures of the marriage of Mary Tudor and Philip of Spain. This book not only covers the failures of the marriage through discussions of existing historiographical research on the topic, but Samson brings his own ideas of the consequences of this marriage to the playing field. In the introduction, he stated that he hopes to provide a balanced view of the impacts this marriage had on the British Empire and the rest of Europe. Alexander Samson is an intellect with a wide background. He has focused his career on the colonial history of the Americas, Anglo-Spanish intercultural relations, and Early Modern English and Spanish drama. He does not focus specifically on Early Modern England, which may lead to some skepticism on his qualifications to write such a niche topic book. However, his diversity of experience within the field may allow him to bring in ideas and evidence not usually used by historians within this topic. Overall, Samson surveyed the reaching impacts and dynamics of this marriage along many different intersections. Readers should leave this book feeling slightly overwhelmed with information, but having new thoughts about the marriage of Mary and Philip.
The book starts off with an introduction where the author takes readers through a detailed overview of the various opinions through the historiography of Mary and Philip. He sets up this chapter so that at the end he can state his goal for the book. Throughout the introduction, the author seems to have an ambitious purpose in mind. Overall, the goal of the book is to provide a balanced analysis of the impacts and dynamics of the Mary and Philip marriage. Some of the main themes he brings up are economic and commercial links between England and Spain, the ceremonial and material culture of royal marriages, the skepticism surrounding a female ruler, revolts against Mary’s reign, xenophobia, hispanophobia, and the power dynamics between the king and the queen. By analyzing all of these things he paints a new picture of how the couple was perceived in an economic, political, and cultural sense around Europe.
Chapter 1 The Prenuptial takes readers through the political and economic situation of England right before Mary was crowned queen. It is argued that one of the main reasons for setting up the Marriage between Mary and Philip was to keep the Channel open for trade and decrease the threat of the French. This goal was always in the back of the mind of the two countries as Edward VI decreased in health. This chapter also focuses on the symbolism within the coronation of Mary Tudor. She was given material symbols of both King and Queen and was triple crowned with Henry VIII’s Imperial crown. The three-tiered crown was supposed to represent the universal catholic jurisdiction of the pope. Chapter 2 goes through the difficulties of outsider opinion the couples faced as they were contracting their matrimony. Some of these issues included xenophobia, anti-Spanish sentiment, gender expectations of a ruler, betrayal, and Mary’s catholicism. Much of this suspicion came from England’s lack of experience with female rulers, while Spain had had much experience with female and foreign rulers. Chapter 3 goes over Wyatt’s revolt and the Act for the Queens Regal Power. In a way, these two events are connected. Many people within England did not think that as a female Mary had the right to rule, which sparked many revolts when she was coronated. Consequentially, the Act was passed stating that Mary possessed all the same powers as ruler as the kings that had followed her. Although there were many doubters throughout the realm, it cannot be assumed that everybody felt this way about her. Chapters 4 and 5 talk more about the symbols seen by the people throughout Mary and Philip’s marriage that alluded to their power dynamics. For example, on their wedding day, they each wore almost identical outfits and Mary was seated on the right side of Philip, the side usually reserved for the King or the Male. Chapter 6 dives deeper in xenophobia and hispanophobia. The author attempts to argue that the xenophobia of the time did not negatively impact Anglo-Spanish relations. Xenophobia and Hispanophobia were largely confined to the London area, and usually only existed out of economic jealousy. Chapter 7 analyzes how the government functioned under Mary and Philip, as well as explores the misogynistic opinions often aimed at Mary.
This book has some strengths and weaknesses as to how the author went about proving his point. First, the idea of this book is quite unique in the historiography of the topic. The author set out to change how historians, and possibly normal people view the marriage of Mary and Philip. It was very nice how Samson laid out the overall feeling of historians towards Mary and Philip in the beginning of the introduction. He took readers through a summary of what has already been said about the successes and failures of this marriage. Additionally, the end of the introduction where the author very clearly lays out his arguments was helpful for the reader to get an idea of his goals. The author also used a variety of sources to help him write this book, which he pulled into his writing quite often. There was never a statement made by the author that wasn’t lacking an example. Lastly, the author did an amazing job of using intersectionality to examine this marriage. Not only did the book look at gender, but it also looks at the racial, ethnic, economic, and political aspects of this marriage. Even the author’s analysis of the material symbols such as clothes and crowns used in the coronation and wedding helped readers to envision the power dynamics of the couple.
In terms of weaknesses, this book lacked a streamline organizational system which made it hard for readers to connect his evidence to his main purpose. The first example of this was the introduction where he dove immediately into anlyzing the current historiography of Mary and Philip. It took him far too long into the introduction to state his point. Secondly, the chapters did not seem to be organized in a specific way. Although the titles of the chapter led readers to believe it would talk about a certain theme, the end of the chapter would stray away from that idea. Within the chapters, there was a lack of connections to his main points and purpose. He would sometimes get so caught up in providing details, evidence, and examples that he would forget to remind the readers how these points connect to the main goal. The previous point can be seen as a strength or a weakness depending on your reading skill/style. Lastly, this book was definitely meant for more of an academic audience. Better organization, concise writing, and purposeful statements might have made this book more suitable for the average reader.
