After the death of Henry VIII, his daughter Elizabeth found a home with her last stepmother, Catherine Parr and her fourth husband, Thomas Seymour. Except Thomas seems to have taken more than a step-fatherly interest in the young Princess. This book examines the events surrounding their 'relationship', the rumours and myths that sprang up around it and the impact on Thomas, Elizabeth and those that surrounded them.

From the title, I had expected this to be quite a narrowly focused book, with everything contained therein being centred upon this relationship. While that is the case in a broad sense, it reads more to me like a more wide angled narrative of Thomas Seymour's life, from his clandestine marriage to Catherine Parr through to his death. It's therefore not as detailed or as concentrated as I'd hoped. Indeed, once again the only detailed illustrations of Seymour's inappropriate behaviour that are provided are his slipping into Elizabeth's bedchamber before she is dressed, and the infamous cutting up of her dress. While I know these are the most famous and best evidenced examples, I was expecting more of a deep dive into other events, the effect on their relationships with Catherine Parr etc. 

The author does take the time to dissect the rumour that Elizabeth became pregnant by Thomas Seymour and the possibility of there being truth behind it. Again, I find this idea fascinating, especially given the possibility that she could have had a boy who could have continued the Tudor line (if we ignore the illegitimacy issue). However, in her examination the author goes off on something of a tangent, explaining that the same story attributed to Elizabeth is repeated almost verbatim in several other cases down the centuries. My understanding of the author's point is that it is unlikely that the original story can actually be about Elizabeth in any event, but I found this section very difficult to follow and it just seemed to dismiss it with very little discourse about the characters she herself is writing about! Again, the focus seemed to waiver here.

The author does do a very good job at keeping modern sensitivities and judgements from colouring the narrative. Today, Seymour's actions and that of Catherine Parr, Kate Ashley and others in positions of power and with a duty of care for Elizabeth would be considered abusive and abhorrent, and quite rightly so! But by making the events themselves, rather than the intent behind them, central to the narrative, it does feel like we get a more balanced piece of work and a straight retelling of 'facts' rather than an emotional history. 

That being said, can we infer Elizabeth's emotions through her actions? The fact that she would try to be up and dressed before Seymour showed up in the morning, or would try to hide herself if she wasn't ready; her shock at his turning up 'bare-legged' and so on... doesn't exactly scream of someone who's a willing participant, does it? It's these insights that I like best about the writing. Other examples include Kate Ashley seemingly being half in love with Thomas herself, and pushing Elizabeth towards him so she could perhaps live vicariously through her charge, Catherine Parr being 'delirious' on her deathbed (or was she?) and tearing her husband a new one for his ill treatment of her and so on. It's very cleverly written so that you as the reader can make your own deductions about the thoughts and feelings of those involved without the author ascribing anything explicit.

After Catherine Parr's death, the focus does shift more fully onto Thomas and his disagreements with his brother, his plotting to marry Elizabeth and his eventual arrest and imprisonment. While this is of course important to the overall story, it again means that the focus is far from where you expect it to be, and I'd say that very little of this section of the book actually directly relates to their relationship. I didn't really pick this up to learn about Seymour's attempts at piracy or his counterfeit coin operation, so I did very quickly lose interest. His arrest, Elizabeth's interrogation and his execution are all wrapped up quite succinctly, and by that point you're grateful as it does just read like a general history. 

One other small bugbear; while I get that quoting your sources and using them to make your case is important, in this book it feels like there are so many quotes from primary sources it actually makes the narrative quite difficult to digest, given how much is in the flowery language of Tudor communications.

While the author makes a very good closing point that Seymour is the person who came closest to marrying the Virgin Queen, which does leave the reader with a lingering thought, overall I feel like this book missed the brief that the title alludes to.