Focusing on the figures of Queen Elizabeth I, Mary Stuart, and Mary's niece Arbella, Mazzola (English, City U. of New York) explores what women's writing reveals about women's wealth, conceived of both in terms of material possessions and in terms of social networks. She presents chapters examining Elizabeth's translation of Marguerite de Navarre's devotional poetry undertaken as a gift for her stepmother, Katherine Parr, and its implications concerning kin ties, familial obligations, maternal influences, and dynastic politics; Elizabeth's use of Mary's robes for her own 1559 coronation and questions concerning the appropriation of maternal authority; the needlework and poetry produced by Mary during her imprisonment as venues for ambition, espionage, and intrigue; and the letters of Arbella and changing ideas of female authority, kinship, and subordination. Annotation ©2009 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)