Elizabeth
The Forgotten Years
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- $16.99
Publisher Description
'A masterful biography' Amanda Foreman
'A gripping story of Queen Elizabeth's last years, authoritatively researched and engagingly recounted by the leading Tudor historian of our age' James Shapiro, author of 1599 and 1606
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An ageing queen, an heirless state, conspiracy all round: here is the court of Elizabeth I as never known before
History has pictured Elizabeth I as Gloriana, an icon of strength and power. But the reality, especially during her later years, was not so simple.
In 1583 Elizabeth is fifty years old, but her greatest challenges are still to come: the Spanish Armada; the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots; relentless plotting among her courtiers. This gripping and vivid portrait of her life and times - often told in her own words ('You know I am no morning woman') - reveals a woman who is fallible, increasingly insecure, and struggling to lead Britain. This is the real Elizabeth, for the first time.
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'One of the very best historians we have in the country . . . It is brilliant, vigorous history, and a triumph of storytelling and scholarship' Jessie Childs, Telegraph
'The best biography ever written of the Virgin Queen - a revisionist, sensitive, compelling, majestic masterwork that you can't put down' Simon Sebag-Montefiore, Evening Standard
'Guy's careful work with documents known and unknown allows him to paint a novel portrait of a complex - maybe even unknowable - queen' John Gallagher, Guardian
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
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.
