Elizabeth: The Forgotten Years

Description

Elizabeth was crowned queen at twenty-five, but it was only when she reached fifty and all hopes of a royal marriage were behind her that she began to wield power in her own right. For twenty-five years she had struggled to assert her authority over advisers, who pressed her to marry and settle the succession; now, she was determined not only to reign but to rule. In this magisterial biography, John Guy introduces us to a woman who is refreshingly unfamiliar: at once powerful and vulnerable, willful and afraid. We see her confronting challenges at home and abroad: war against France and Spain, revolt in Ireland, an economic crisis that triggers riots in the streets of London, and a conspiracy to place her cousin Mary Queen of Scots on her throne. For a while she is smitten by a much younger man, but can she allow herself to act on that passion and still keep her throne? For the better part of a decade John Guy mined long-overlooked archives, scouring handwritten letters and court documents to sweep away myths and rumors. This prodigious historical detective work has enabled him to reveal, for the first time, the woman behind the polished veneer: determined, prone to fits of jealous rage, wracked by insecurity, often too anxious to sleep alone. At last we hear her in her own voice expressing her own distinctive and surprisingly resonant concerns. Guy writes like a dream, and this combination of groundbreaking research and propulsive narrative puts him in a class of his own. Also by John Guy Title Page Copyright Genealogical Tables Descendants of Edward III: Yorkist Line Descendants of Edward III: Lancastrian and Tudor Lines Maps England, Scotland, and Wales Northern France and the Netherlands Ireland Author’s Note Preface Introduction: A Virgin Queen 1. A City in Fear 2. Crisis and Betrayal 3. Brave New World 4. Armada of the Soul 5. No Warrior Queen 6. A Funeral and a Wedding 7. On the Attack 8. The Visible Queen 9. The Enemy Within 10. Catastrophe in France 11. 'Good Queen Bess' 12. The Quest for Gold 13. Conspiring against the Queen 14. Games of Thrones 15. A Counter-Armada 16. One Last Chance 17. Seeking Détente 18. Opening New Fronts 19. Defying the Queen 20. 'I am Richard II' 21. The Queen’s Speech 22. On a Knife’s Edge 23. The Final Vigil Epilogue Illustrations Abbreviations Notes and References Illustration Credits Index Acknowledgements