The Queen's Favourites - Jean Plaidy

[watervole]

 This book is an interesting read. Plaidy did a lot of research for her books (some details may be wrong as newer information has come to light since she wrote them, but overall they are pretty good on the accuracy front.)

 

It's an easy way of learning some history!

 

It's essentially about Sarah Churchill, the wife of the man who would become the Duke of Marlborough - a very successful general who won many battles.

 

And her poor relative Abigail Hill (eventually Abigail Masham).

 

Sarah discovers that some of her cousins have fallen into poverty and (probably to protect her own reputation) tries to find them positions/schooling.  She sees Abigail as being quiet and malleable and gets her a job as a chambermaid for Queen Anne (after several years of using Abigail pretty much as an unpaid servant for her own children).

 

Sarah and Anne spend much time together as children and Anne has always looked upto Sarah and admired her vivacity and outspokenness.  Anne has given Sarah important roles at court, but Sarah is very ambitious, and also has a very short temper.

 

Over time, Sarah's influence on Anne wanes, and Abigail's grows.

 

What I like about this book is that we see a lot of the politics of the period - and written at a level that summarises them nicely, but without drowning you in detail.  We get to know the leading politicians who all want influence with the Queen.

 

We also see the problem of selecting who will take the crown after Anne dies childless - her half brother James is Catholic, but the alternative option is George who is German. 

 

We see the effect of media - in the from of ballads and pamphlets - spreading misinformation, gossip and slander!  Nothing new there....

 

The downside of the book is that it's very evenly paced (admittedly the writer has to follow history as it happened, but I feel there is still more scope for drama) and the characters seeming very one-sided.

 

Sarah pretty much rants for the entire book (from her surviving letters, this may be true to character), but I'm sure she must have had SOME quieter moments.

 

However, some small elements really do bring out what it was like to live in this period, in ways that a more 'dramatic' novel might miss.  The number of children that women had, and how many of them died young....  Even the rich were not immune to smallpox and other infectious diseases.

 

I may read some more Plaidy novels, but mostly as a way of getting a historical over-view rather than for the characters.

Comments

[selenak]

This is the story dramatized in the movie The Favourite, and also, in an even more fictionalized way, in the French theatre play A Glass of Water, so if you want a faster paced rendition, The Favourite definitely is it. Absolutely fantastic cast, too, with Olivia Colman earning her Oscar as Anne, Rachel Weisz as Sarah, and Emma Stone as Abigail. Rachel Weisz as Sarah Churchill does not rant through the entire movie, though she does have a short temper; the movie ultimately comes down to Sarah being ambitious and short tempered but actually fond of Anne and thus seriously distraught not just over the loss of power when Anne chooses Abigail. (Who is just as ambitious in this version but hides it way better behind the mild mannered exterior.) (Mind you, the film completely eliminates Anne‘s husband, Prince George of Denmark, as a character though he would still have been alive when Abigail first shows up, and also Sarah being high handed enough to remove a George portrait from Anne‘s room because she thought Anne was grieving too long was the proverbial drop that caused the spillover in real life (but not in the film).

Another thing about Sarah Churchill, ancestor of Winston - as she survived Anne by many years, she was still around when the Hannovers came to town, and Caroline (still Princess of Wales at this point, later Queen to George II) who immediately clocked how the Marlboroughs thought of themselves nicknamed the Churchills „The Imperial Family“. (She did cultivate her as part of her win-over-the-Brits campaign, though, and because cranky or not, Sarah - in small doses - must have been a fascinating conversationalist.)

Re: Sarah‘s husband the Duke of Marlborough - I always got a kick out of the fact he started his career as the boy toy of Barbara Villiers, Lady Castlemaine, the notorious mistress of Charles II who when catching young Jack Churchill more or less in flagrante just drily remarked „young man, I forgive you, I know you earn your living this way“.

To be fair to Marlborough, he also was that rarity, a famous military commander able to get into a partnership with another famous military commander instead of having a battle of the egos; his and Prince Eugene‘s double act was the stuff of legend and crucial in the War of the Spanish Succession. Between his bromance with Eugene and his rare-for-the-times tight marriage with Sarah, he clearly was good at being one half of a power couple instead of destroying the relationship by trying to be on top all the time.

[vera_j]

Very interesting and enlighting, thank you.

[watervole]

I've just found a programme on the BBC I-player which introduces Queen Caroline. (Doesn't mention the Marlboroughs, but is a very good introduction to the first Georgian kings)

Called 'The Georgians' and narrated by an excellent historian.

[vera_j]

As always, I really liked your review!

[watervole]

Thanks! SelenaK tells me there is a movie called 'The Favourite' which is now on Disney Plus, which tells this story. so I'm going to watch it next week :)