Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Myself My Enemy / Loyal in Love | 1983 | Eleanor Burford / Hibbert | Buy |
| 2 | Queen of This Realm | 1985 | Eleanor Burford / Hibbert | Buy |
| 3 | Victoria Victorious | 1985 | Eleanor Burford / Hibbert | Buy |
| 4 | The Lady in the Tower | 1986 | Eleanor Burford / Hibbert | Buy |
| 5 | The Courts of Love | 1987 | Eleanor Burford / Hibbert | Buy |
| 6 | In the Shadow of the Crown | 1989 | Eleanor Burford / Hibbert | Buy |
| 7 | The Queen’s Secret | 1989 | Eleanor Burford / Hibbert | Buy |
| 8 | The Reluctant Queen | 1990 | Eleanor Burford / Hibbert | Buy |
| 9 | William’s Wife / The Queen’s Devotion | 1990 | Eleanor Burford / Hibbert | Buy |
| 10 | The Pleasures of Love / The Merry Monarch’s Wife | 1991 | Eleanor Burford / Hibbert | Buy |
| 11 | The Rose Without a Thorn | 1993 | Eleanor Burford / Hibbert | Buy |
The Queens of England series by Eleanor Burford Hibbert, writing as Jean Plaidy, takes a different approach from her other historical series. Each novel is written as a fictional autobiography, with a famous queen telling her own story in the first person. Myself My Enemy is narrated by Henrietta Maria, wife of Charles I, while Queen of This Realm gives voice to Elizabeth I. Victoria Victorious retells the Victorian era from the queen’s own perspective.
The series does not follow a strict chronological order. The Courts of Love goes back to Eleanor of Aquitaine in the twelfth century, while The Rose Without a Thorn covers Catherine Howard in the sixteenth century. Other queens featured include Anne Boleyn in The Lady in the Tower, Mary Tudor in In the Shadow of the Crown, and Catherine of Valois in The Queen’s Secret. This first-person approach lets Plaidy explore the private thoughts and emotional lives of women who are usually seen only through the lens of political history.
Because the series covers many of the same periods as Plaidy’s other sagas, readers can pair individual Queens of England novels with the corresponding series for a fuller picture. The Lady in the Tower pairs well with the Tudor Saga, while Victoria Victorious covers the same ground as the Queen Victoria series from a different narrative angle.