Description

Agnes Strickland (1796-1874) and her sister Elizabeth collaborated on many biographical projects. Although much of the work is Elizabeth's, she preferred to avoid publicity and her sister Agnes appeared as the sole author. This eight-volume series (originally published between 1850 and 1859) was the sequel to their hugely popular Lives of the Queens of England and allowed Agnes to indulge her passionate interest in Mary, Queen of Scots, to whom five volumes are devoted. It also contains biographies of Margaret Tudor, Magdalene of France, Mary of Lorraine, Mary's sister-in-law Lady Margaret Douglas, Countess of Lennox, Elizabeth Stuart, Princess Royal (later Queen of Bohemia) and her daughter Sophia, Electress of Bohemia. The Strickland sisters were pioneering historical biographers and key figures in the development of women's history. Writing from a female perspective, they included coverage of domestic matters that male historians had previously ignored.