After Elizabeth
The Rise of James of Scotland and the Struggle for the Throne of England
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- 4,49 €
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- 4,49 €
Beschreibung des Verlags
“[Leanda] De Lisle brilliantly captures the atmosphere of dangerous uncertainty and furtive intrigue that characterized the last years of Elizabeth’s reign.”—The Sunday Telegraph (London)
“Exciting and exacting . . . No fictional characters, of film or novel, can match the reality of the participants in this fascinating historical drama.”—The Wall Street Journal
December 1602. After forty-four years on the throne, Queen Elizabeth is in decline. The kingdom is also waning, weakened by the cost of war with Spain and the simmering discontent of both the rich and the poor. The stage has been set, at long last, for succession. But the Queen who famously never married has no heir.
Elizabeth’s senior relative is James VI of Scotland, Protestant son of Elizabeth’s cousin Mary Queen of Scots. But as a foreigner and a Stuart, he is excluded under English law from the throne. The road to and beyond his coronation will be filled with conspiracy and duplicity, personal betrayals, and political upheavals.
Bringing history vibrantly to life, Leanda de Lisle unfurls a rich tapestry of scenes and players: As the Queen nears the end, we witness the scheming of her courtiers for the candidates of their choice; blood-soaked infighting among the Catholic clergy as they struggle to survive in the face of persecution; the widespread fear that civil war, invasion, or revolution will follow the monarch’s death; and the signs, portents, and ghosts that seem to mark her end. Here, too, are the surprising and, to some, dismaying results of James’s ascension and the lasting historical implications of this crucial period in British history.
Leanda de Lisle’s keenly modern view of this tumultuous time gives us intimate insights into the political power plays and psychological portraits relevant to our own era. After Elizabeth is a unique look at a pivotal year, and a dazzling debut by an exciting new historian.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Queen Elizabeth famously refused to marry, causing a foreign-born king to ascend to the English throne in 1603. In her first book, Lisle nimbly examines Elizabeth's waning months and the introduction of James VI of Scotland as James I of England, demonstrating that the transition was anything but smooth or preordained. The aging Elizabeth remained unwilling to name her successor for fear that courtiers would abandon her to curry favor with the next ruler. Indeed, prominent statesmen and courtiers had, years earlier, had opened channels of communication with the presumptive successor. Lisle presents a memorable cast of characters striving to mold the transition. Scots feared losing their king and their independence, while Englishmen saw a flood of key appointments and titles go to foreign favorites. Various alternative candidates to the throne were favored by Catholics and Puritans, as well as the rulers of France, Spain and Venice according to their perceived stances on religion. James's greatest desire was to mediate religious reconciliation, but in the end, he made neither side happy and Englishmen began to remember fondly their good queen Bess. Lisle uses this brief period as a lens through which to view the key issues of both reigns, while commenting subtly on the nature of historical reputations. 24 pages of color illus.
