Very slim volume for female readers. The book is dedicated to Charles Kean.
Preface [vii-viii]
In the selection of the characters for “Heroines of History,” I believe I have chosen some of the most eminent of our sex. It has been my wish to combine the heroines of numerous histories in one volume, and to show my readers, as in the cases of Margaret of Anjou and Isabella of Castile, that both these illustrious women – although so gifted with courage, energy, and military skill – possessed those qualities which adorn their sex. In Marie Antoinette, it has been my aim to show that the majestic demeanour of high rank, education, and principle, however unaccustomed to the adversities of fate, never shine so brightly as when they are treated with indignity, and insulted with impunity, by their inferiors. Mary Stuart I have introduced to show that jealousy causes much misery in the world. Margaret of Anjou appears in the beautiful combination of a queen, a general, a wife, a woman, and a mother. The case of Isabella of Valois proves that a really virtuous person can withstand spendid offers, and it likewise shows that life is but a passing shadow; while that of Isabella of Castile points out that no earthly individual is perfect, for with all her splendid talents, she possessed one fault – jealousy, which was a bar, were the truth [viii] known, to the domestic happiness of King Ferdinand of Arragon and Queen Isabella of Castile. Catherine de Medici shows a disposition composed of treachery, intrigue, ambition, and dissimulation; form which we may learn that vice may triumph, but that virtuous people are carried down to posterity, while all that the vicious obtain is hatred, contempt, and detestation of the world. I will not intrude longer on your time by any further remarks on the remaining “Heroines of History.” It is my wish to attend to accuracy, which may perhaps procure me the patronage I sincerely hope to obtain, and that it may not be deemed presumptuous in me to cherish the fond hope that I may be enabled to introduce a new epoch in History, by combining the Heroines of all ages and nations. And now, my readers, I will take my farewell of you for the present.
Mary Eugenia Johnson