February 22, 2016
The last Tudor monarch is often portrayed as a tempestuous warrior queen in her prime, but Guy (Queen of Scots), a fellow of Clare College, Cambridge, asks readers to reconsider the nuances behind such a description, especially in the second half of her 44-year reign. With the remarkable advantage of access to long-buried and misfiled primary sources, Guy argues that the mature Elizabeth I did not stridently seek war (after participating in a disastrous land war), but instead reacted to and prepared for Spain’s onslaught of armadas while seeking peace. Elizabeth’s dangerous childhood informed the later years portrayed here. Whether dealing with her councilors or with the temperamental Earl of Essex, Guy argues that she remained queen first, woman second. Still, the aging monarch receives a balanced treatment: her fear of getting old feels relatable, while her fearless interference in Scotland serves as a reminder of her intense belief in her divine right to rule. The invaluable, newly discovered documents allow for clarification and occasional rebuttals against misinterpretations or cases of “pure invention” by the queen’s near contemporaries and other historians. Guy, whose previous work biased him against Elizabeth, uses that initial inclination to give readers a fuller view of the confident, experienced, and adaptable queen whose long, eventful reign—one sprinkled with “Kafkaesque elements’’—continues to fascinate. Maps & illus. Agent: Grainne Fox, Fletcher & Company.
Starred review from March 1, 2016
The Whitbread Award-winning author delivers an outstanding biography of Queen Elizabeth (1533-1603). This page-turning book is history, biography, scholarship personified, and a crystal-clear look at Elizabeth in the war years that erases the myths and presents the real woman. Historian Guy (Henry VIII: The Quest for Fame, 2014, etc.), who is exceedingly well-versed in Tudor studies, deconstructs original sources, chooses which of many are more likely to be true, and shows Elizabeth as a vain, paranoid queen who endorsed torture and fought for her rights and privileges. Well-read, intelligent, fluent in French and Italian, Elizabeth believed she was beloved, but all her subjects could see were unproductive harvests and widespread poverty and disease. Among other primary sources, William Camden's Annales, completed in Latin in 1617, is Guy's best target. The author takes apart Camden's statements as deeply biased and the English translation as pure bowdlerization. In 1584, the assassination of Prince William of Orange began the wars with Spain that would last the rest of Elizabeth's life. The defeat of the first Spanish Armada in 1588 was only a short reprieve from the constant depletion of her treasury, as she also supported Henry IV of France against Spain and the Catholic League. Manipulated--and at the same time, likely saved--by Chief Minister Burghley and her spymaster, Francis Walsingham, she struggled to assert herself. It was Burghley's contrivance of Mary, Queen of Scots' death that brought Elizabeth to what the author calls her "Armada of the soul." Her responsibility for the execution of an anointed queen haunted her for the rest of her life. During her 45-year reign, she learned how to get around those who disagreed with her, but she never succeeded in controlling some of her favorites. Near the end, Guy's comparisons to Richard II, the usurped king, the usurper Bolingbroke, and Shakespeare's play take your breath away. One of the best biographies of Elizabeth ever.
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April 1, 2016
Robert Devereux, the second Earl of Essex, once described Elizabeth I (1533-1603) as a "sphinx whose riddles he could not unravel." Historian Guy (Thomas Becket) sheds light on the enigmatic queen in this meticulously researched and highly readable revisionist biography. Relying on over 250,000 pages of primary documents and drawing on 30 unpublished letters, the author aims to move beyond the "hoary myths" that have long surrounded the Virgin Queen. Although general readers may not be interested in the historiographical squabbles outlined in the preface, they will be fascinated by Guy's careful psychological portrait of the aging monarch in the sunset of her reign and the difficult period in the late 1500s that saw England at war with Catholic France and Spain, beset by economic crises, threatened by revolt in Ireland, and preoccupied with worries over the succession. Guy explains how the queen came into her own during these years, while also providing new insights into her private fears, goals, thoughts, and methods. Focusing on the particular problems Elizabeth faced as a woman in a patriarchal society, Guy deals sensitively with the issue of why she never married; her role in the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots; and the difficulties she faced in attempting to assert control over war policy. VERDICT Recommended for lovers of British history and feminist biography. [See Prepub Alert, 11/23/15.]--Marie M. Mullaney, Caldwell Coll., NJ
Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
April 1, 2016
Many readers love a good Tudor story, whether in nonfiction or fiction form, but still the question needs to be asked when a new biography of Elizabeth Tudor emerges: Why? Meaning, of course, what's new? Any treatment of Elizabeth I rests on essential facts: she was the daughter of Henry VIII's second wife, Anne Boleyn, whose obligation to provide a male heir was unfulfilled and resulted in her beheading; she survived a perilous childhood at the mercy of her very Catholic elder half sister, Queen Mary I; she occupied the English throne for 44 years, overcoming numerous obstacles to the safety of her person and her kingdom. Guy's (The Children of Henry VIII, 2013) copious research results in a fresh, absorbing biography that makes an excellent choice for librarians advising readers new to the fascinating Tudor era. The author's particular focus is Elizabeth's later years, when she was an aging spinster . . . cultivating the impression that she was ageless, timeless, perennially young while attempting to vigorously assert her authority as a woman in a man's job.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)