Queen Elizabeth I of England: E-books

Elizabeth I (1533-1603) impressed herself more vividly on the memory of the world than any other monarch in the history of England. She successfully established and maintained power while refusing to bow to the wishes of those who believed no woman was fit to occupy the English throne. This biography describes the opulent but cruel childhood that shaped the woman Elizabeth became and details her triumphant reign, as well as the unrelenting forces that opposed her. Exploring the answers to some of history's most persistent and intriguing questions, Jane Resh Thomas has created a compelling account of Elizabeth's life that shatters the myths surrounding her and allows readers an unprecedented view of the queen as a human being. Full-color insert, chronology, bibliography, index.

Describes and assesses England's foreign policy during the second half of the sixteenth century. It includes coverage of relationships with foreign powers, the effect of the Reformation, war with Spain and Elizabeth as a stateswoman.

England’s Virgin Queen, Elizabeth Tudor, had a reputation for proficiency in foreign languages, repeatedly demonstrated in multilingual exchanges with foreign emissaries at court and in the extemporized Latin she spoke on formal visits to Cambridge and Oxford. But the supreme proof of her mastery of other tongues is the sizable body of translations she made over the course of her lifetime. This two-volume set is the first complete collection of Elizabeth’s translations from and into Latin, French, and Italian.

As a girl of eleven, Elizabeth I translated into English a poem by Marguerite of Navarre on incest, spiritual and physical. Four years later her translation, tided "The Glass of the Sinful Soul," was published by the Protestant reformer John Bale. However ingenuous Elizabeth may have been at eleven, she surely realized the implications of the tract when she permitted new editions in 1568, 1582, and 1590. Its bearing on her own family and her precarious hold on the throne was all too obvious when dissenters accused both her father, Henry VIII, and her mother, Ann Boleyn, of adultery; when her father had sought to annul his first marriage on grounds of incest, when her mother was accused by Henry of incest, and when Elizabeth herself was deemed a bastard.

In this compelling account of Elizabeth I's attempts at marriage, Susan Doran argues that the cult of the "Virgin Queen" was invented by her ministers and that Elizabeth was in reality a frustrated, would-be wife forced into celibacy by political necessity.

Anne McLaren explores the consequences for English political culture when, with the accession of Elizabeth I, imperial "kingship" came to be invested in a female ruler. She looks at how Elizabeth managed to be queen, in the face of considerable male opposition, and emphasizes the continuities between Elizabeth's reign and the outbreak of the English civil wars in the seventeenth century. Political Culture in the Reign of Elizabeth I thus offers a wholesale reinterpretation of the political dynamics of the period.

Cole analyzes the progresses the queen insisted on every spring and summer of her 44 years on the throne. She draws on royal household accounts, ministerial correspondence, county archives, corporation records, and family papers to examine the effects of the visits on the queen's household and government, the individual and civil hosts, and her monarchy

Until Maria Perry began her exploration of Elizabeth's papers, this vivid raw material had only been partially studied. From it, a fresh portrait of Elizabeth emerges, one which is often more cohesive and less baffling than some offered by her biographers. The dangers and insecurities of her early life, her sense of divine protection, her formidable education, all stand out as crucial elements in the formation of her character; but behind the acquired circumspection lies a personality of great warmth and spirit. On the teasing questions of love, marriage and virginity, the letters and speeches offer oblique comment; it seems certain that Robert Dudley was her one true love, and that she felt his second marriage to Lettice Knollys as a bitter betrayal.