The life and times of Queen Elizabeth Tudor is one of the most popular subjects for scholarship, historical fiction, drama, and countless works of music and literature. Shakespeare wrote plays in her honour, the King James version of the Bible is dedicated to her, and countless plays and films have been made about her.
It is easy for us to feel we know Elizabeth. But do we?
Told through the lens of her lifelong relationship with Robert Dudley (brother-in-law to Elizabeth's cousin and nine-day queen Lady Jane Grey), we meet Elizabeth's artistic and scholarly side, hearing her sing as she plays the lute and the virginal (a type of keyboard instrument). Excerpts from important period documents reveal Elizabeth's terror at her sudden arrest on suspicion of being part of plots against her sister Mary's life and her battles with radical protestants using religion to undermine her authority. There's even excerpts from Queen Mary Stuart's fateful trial in October 1586.
Dedicated scholars of Elizabeth's life and reign are not likely to find anything radically new or revealing in this book. But then again, it is not written for Tudor scholars. Rather, "Queen Elizabeth Tudor" seeks to make Elizabeth's life and times accessible beyond the gilded halls of academia, to who wish to better understand why over 400 years after her death we still speak of Queen Elizabeth Tudor with a sort of awe and reverence enjoyed by few monarchs before or since.
Take the journey in English at Amazon, iBooks, and Barnes/Noble. Also available in German. Translated by Christina Löw.
It is easy for us to feel we know Elizabeth. But do we?
Dedicated scholars of Elizabeth's life and reign are not likely to find anything radically new or revealing in this book. But then again, it is not written for Tudor scholars. Rather, "Queen Elizabeth Tudor" seeks to make Elizabeth's life and times accessible beyond the gilded halls of academia, to who wish to better understand why over 400 years after her death we still speak of Queen Elizabeth Tudor with a sort of awe and reverence enjoyed by few monarchs before or since.
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