The Plot to Kill a Queen
Emilia Bassano, a real-life young lute player in the court of Queen Elizabeth I, loves the theater and music and wishes she could write and act in plays. Over the course of the book, she does manage to write a play, but due to society at the time, she needs to try to have it published under a pseudonym. She has an inspirational motto: “Why not?” This serves her well in taking risks, embarking on adventures, and seeking places in her life to push against norms and expectations.
We see this when she sneaks out of the palace to see a play and meets young Will Shakespeare. Fellow budding playwrights, Will and Emilia inspire each other, much as they might have done in real life. On the way back to the palace, she overhears a plot to kill Queen Elizabeth and install the imprisoned Mary, Queen of Scots. Taking this information back to the palace, Emilia finds herself enlisted as a spy and sent to Sheffield Castle to uncover the people behind the plot. While there, Emilia accomplishes her mission (and barely escapes with her life!) but also befriends the imprisoned Queen Mary. The Plot to Kill a Queen manages to humanize both Elizabeth and Mary as sympathetic figures without taking sides in the conflict.
Written as a story but placed within a larger frame of a play, we have “asides” and lists of the cast, a curtain call, etc. Beautifully supported by an appendix, drawings, historical notes, timeline and suggested readings, The Plot to Kill a Queen provides ample information for the more interested reader. Even more exciting is the inclusion of a one-act play (written by the author) based on a tale from the time of King Alfred.
