Torn between two lovers, Princess Mary Tudor faces an impossible decision. As the younger sister to King Henry VIII of England, she is obligated to wed King Louis XII of France. But she's lost her heart to Charles Brandon -- a dashing viscount who poses a threat to the King.
Fans of the Showtime series The Tudors will certainly recognize this plot. When Knighthood Was in Flower covers the same steamy romance between Mary and Charles Brandon found in the Tudors Season 2 and Season 3. But it's done in a much more Victorian manner -- minus the hot sex scenes in a rolling ship on the high seas.
Sometimes the Victorians got it right. See, for example, the gorgeous 1902 photographs of the actress Julia Marlowe (above) who played Mary Tudor in Paul Kester's Broadway production of the book.
Originally published by Bobbs-Merrill Company in 1898, When Knighthood Was In Flower made its American author, Charles Major, an overnight celebrity, and by the year 1900 Knighthood was still topping the charts at No. 9, a tribute to its enormous success.
D.W. Griffith paid tribute to the writing prowess of Major by mounting the book as a major motion picture: When Knight's Were Bold (1908). Griffith himself was cast as Brandon, opposite Linda Arvidson as Mary Tudor.
William Randolph Hearst gave the film a much more glamorous silent treament: When Knighthood Was in Flower (1922). Marion Davies (Hearst's mistress) played Mary, but the boss had the wisdom not to cast himself as Brandon. He pitched the role to Forrest Stanley.
The Walt Disney company shot When Knighthood Was in Flower in 1953 and renamed it The Sword and The Rose, starring Glynis Johns and Richard Todd. The movie did not do justice to the book, and introduced many historical inaccuracies that would have horrified Charles Major, a careful scholar who spent many years researching the story of Mary Tudor in great detail.
Read The Book Online:
Read and Download the Marion Davies Edition for Free at Google Books.
Download the Book for Free at Project Gutenberg.
Read and Download Other Titles by Charles Major at OnRead
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