... The book concentrates on the early years of Elizabeth I's life, so by the end she is still in her twenties and has only just been coronated.
The book is accessible without being patronising. I don't claim to have a great historical knowledge and I stopped having history lessons at the ... Read review
The Virgin Queen, Gloriana, Good Queen Bess; Elizabeth I holds a unique place in the ... more
English imagination as one of the nation's most powerful, charismatic and successful monarchs. Elizabeth is usually imagined as the icy, untouchable figure memorably r...
Postage & Packaging: £2.75 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
The Virgin Queen, Gloriana, Good Queen Bess; Elizabeth I holds a unique place in the ... more
English imagination as one of the nation's most powerful, charismatic and successful monarchs. Elizabeth is usually imagined as the icy, untouchable figure memorably r...
Postage & Packaging: £2.75 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
The Virgin Queen, Gloriana, Good Queen Bess; Elizabeth I holds a unique place in the ... more
English imagination as one of the nation's most powerful, charismatic and successful monarchs. Elizabeth is usually imagined as the icy, untouchable figure memorably r...
Postage & Packaging: £2.75 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
The Virgin Queen, Gloriana, Good Queen Bess; Elizabeth I holds a unique place in the ... more
English imagination as one of the nation's most powerful, charismatic and successful monarchs. Elizabeth is usually imagined as the icy, untouchable figure memorably r...
Postage & Packaging: £2.75 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
The Virgin Queen, Gloriana, Good Queen Bess; Elizabeth I holds a unique place in the ... more
English imagination as one of the nation's most powerful, charismatic and successful monarchs. Elizabeth is usually imagined as the icy, untouchable figure memorably r...
Postage & Packaging: £2.75 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
Advantages: a fascinating life told in thriller-style Disadvantages: not her whole life - just the first 30 years
...on the early years of Elizabeth I's life, so by the end she is still in her twenties and has only just been coronated.
The book is accessible without being patronising. I don't claim to have a great historical knowledge and I stopped having history lessons at the earliest possible opportunity at school. But David Starkey has a great passion for his subject that enlivens the book no end, and the range of materials he has used for research ... ...looks at the impact on Elizabeth of having such a domineering father as Henry VIII. All the beheadings/divorces/deaths of his rein are catalogued in a fascinating way that is much more interesting than my primary school history lessons. We are then shown how Elizabeth coped when her brother Edward VI was King, and later still when her sister Mary became Queen. During Mary's rein Elizabeth was the focus of many rebellions aimed against Mary, the Catholic ... more
I've just finished reading this book which accompanies the excellent Channel 4 series with David Starkey. The book concentrates on the early years of Elizabeth I's life, so by the end she is still in her twenties and has only just been coronated.
The book is accessible without being patronising. I don't claim to have a great historical knowledge and I stopped having history lessons at the earliest possible opportunity at school. But David Starkey has a great passion for his subject that enlivens the book no end, and the range of materials he has used for research purposes is vast. The chapters are concise and the book is deliberately written in thriller-style, with cliffhangers and no information given away as to what ultimately happens.
The book also looks at the impact on Elizabeth of having such a domineering father as Henry VIII. All the beheadings/divorces/deaths of his rein are catalogued in a fascinating way that is much more interesting than my primary school history lessons. We are then shown how Elizabeth coped when her brother Edward VI was King, and later still when her sister Mary became Queen. During Mary's rein Elizabeth was the focus of many rebellions aimed against Mary, the Catholic monarch, and it becomes clear just how close Elizabeth herself came to the executioner's block.
Elizabeth's education is examined through a variety of sources and shows just how intelligent and shrewd a leader she was. The book also contains paintings and sketches of the major players in the 16th century, and Starkey provides some insightful comments from his examinations of the paintings.
Overall the book is a entertaining and informative read that looks at the great pageantry of the 16th century, the double dealing and atrocities. What makes it even better is that this is only the first three decades of Elizabeth's life, so in the second volume we have all the battles with Mary Queen of Scots and the Battle of Armada to look forward to. A recommended read.
Advantages: Imformative, authorative, masterpeice Disadvantages: Doesn't cover all of her life
...picture of the events that Elizabeth went through which shaped the person that she was. From an abused child, called a heretic, traitor and disinherited, Starkey clearly shows using original documents how the political, religious and consitutional trials of England shaped Elizabeth into the formiddable monarch she ultimately proved to be. Starkey examines Elizabeth in contrast to her sister Mary, and thus we gain an insight into 2 of the daughters ...
JsByrne 07.09.2003
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Elizabeth - David Starkey
Advantages: Excellent information, easily read Disadvantages: Only out in hardback, which can prove pricey
...of the childhood of Queen Elizabeth I.
This book was bought for me as a present and it is captivating. Starkey mixes in pure fact with amusing anecdote, which is always simple and clear to understand.
He deals well with Elizabeths turbulent relationship with her father King Henry VIII, the man who beheaded her mother when she was 3, but who she so greatly admired.
I think this book would suit anyone with an interest in history or British royalty. ...
Galiea 08.06.2000
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: somewhat helpful Review of Elizabeth - David Starkey
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Advantages: Exciting, Fresh look at the Epic legend Disadvantages: Everyone knows the story, very long book (but worth it!)
because she has a rather large nose and was not as pretty as her portrait? Before reading this book, I was convinced that the subject had been exhausted, that no writer could bring anything new to the legend, but Starkey obviously has magician?s blood running trough his veins.
There are nice easy to follow family trees at the front of the book which you will be grateful for, I always flicking back trying to see how X and X were related. (All the inter-relations get somewhat confusing). Also featured in the book are 30 full colour pictures. Now, if you are anything like me as soon as you get hold of this type of book you dive straight in to look at the illustrations, but I also found them handy to reference during the reading of the actual book as well.
DavidStarkey first got his claws into me when I read his biography of Elizabeth I ...
Advantages: great selection of high quality essays Disadvantages: boring if you hate the Tudors!!
for the hardback version(!) but between £12 and £15 for the paperback, ISBN 0-340-65218-7
Contents:
I
”Image-making: The means and limitations” – Sidney Anglo
“Representation through intimacy” – DavidStarkey
“Tudor Monarchy and its critiques” – John Guy
“The Monarchical Republic of Elizabeth I” – Patrick Collinson
“The countervailing of benefits” – David Harris Sacks
II
“The courtiers of Henry VII” – Steven Gunn
“Court and Government” – DavidStarkey
“Thomas Cromwell and the Intellectual Origins of the Henrician revolution” – John Guy
“Reassessing William Cecil in the 1560s” – Stephen Alford
“Favourites and Factions at the Elizabethan Court” – Simon Adams ...
