希米亞王后的四個女兒
【不曾在歷史課本上讀過的英國史,Her-story.】
"Daughters of the Winter Queen: Four Remarkable Sisters, the Crown of Bohemia, and the Enduring Legacy of Mary, Queen of Scots" by Nancy Goldstone
Elizabeth Stuart(Winter Queen,又稱波希米亞王后)有四位女兒,她們的一生與17世紀的歐陸政治局勢與文化轉型有著千絲萬縷的關係,然而卻不曾被認真討論研究過,更不用說在正史上有超過一段的篇幅了。
作者Goldstone在挖掘充滿戲劇性一生的Elizabeth Stuart的資料中看見這四位女兒的故事。Louise Hollandine璀璨的少女時期與她的畫家身分同等發光,然而中後期的人生境遇卻屢遇波折,奔逃至法國投靠親戚,最後於女修道院渡過一生。長女Elizabeth最愛研究哲學,與當時的笛卡爾有著著名的信件往返辯論探討哲學議題,更在晚年促成英國的信仰平等法條。
這些女兒中,有兩位在女修道院結束一生,一位早夭,一位差點當上英國女王。她們的早年教育,日常生活,情感與自我追尋。她們流浪放逐的年歲在作者筆下閃爍,平凡不平凡卻真實努力的生命力。締結婚約也代表著國與國之間的利益交換,一時默默無聞或以為安全的婚姻,可能在幾十年後翻轉了整塊領地的統治權。
她們的一生覆蓋了以往我們沒注意的轉折曲面中,遠遠預視著近代英國憲政體制的醞釀茁壯,她們的女兒延續至今天的現代英國。從斯圖亞特王朝,英國最後一位天主教國王,漢諾威王朝,以至持續至今的溫莎王朝(現在的英國女王,ElizabethII),都是瑪麗女王的女性後代(她最小的曾孫女Sophia Hanover,也就是頭一位實施首相制度,英王喬治一世的母親。)
The thrilling family saga of five unforgettable women who remade Europe From the great courts, glittering palaces, and war-ravaged battlefields of the seventeenth century comes the story of four spirited sisters and their glamorous mother, Elizabeth Stuart, granddaughter of the martyred Mary, Queen of Scots.
Upon her father's ascension to the illustrious throne of England, Elizabeth Stuart was suddenly thrust from the poverty of unruly Scotland into the fairy-tale existence of a princess of great wealth and splendor. When she was married at sixteen to a German count far below her rank, it was with the understanding that her father would help her husband achieve the kingship of Bohemia. The terrible betrayal of this commitment would ruin "the Winter Queen," as Elizabeth would forever be known, imperil the lives of those she loved, and launch a war that would last for thirty years.
Forced into exile, the Winter Queen and her family found refuge in Holland, where the glorious art and culture of the Dutch Golden Age indelibly shaped her daughters' lives. Her eldest, Princess Elizabeth, became a scholar who earned the respect and friendship of the philosopher René Descartes. Louisa was a gifted painter whose engaging manner and appealing looks provoked heartache and scandal. Beautiful Henrietta Maria would be the only sister to marry into royalty, although at great cost. But it was the youngest, Sophia, a heroine in the tradition of a Jane Austen novel, whose ready wit and good-natured common sense masked immense strength of character, who fulfilled the promise of her great-grandmother Mary and reshaped the British monarchy, a legacy that endures to this day.