Elizabeth: Apprenticeship

by Dr David Starkey (Author), Dr David Starkey (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  2001

  $3.27

  A woman in a man's world, confident of her destiny to reign, intensely intelligent, passionately sexual yet (she said) a virgin, Elizabeth was to become England's most successful ruler. Finding her way through the labyrinthine plots that surrounded the court, she had to live by her wits, surrounded by betrayal and suspicion, not knowing who to trust with her desire to be queen, or her desire to be a lover...

• Used

  Hardcover
  2000

  $3.27

  An abused child, yet confident of her destiny, passionately sexual yet, she said, a virgin, famed as England's most successful ruler yet actually doing little, Elizabeth I is full of contradictions. This biography, published to accompany a Channel 4 series presented by the author, aims to turn the paradox into a person. Starting with Elizabeth's own speeches and writings, the author lays emphasis on two things: her faith made her see religion as a purely personal relationship between the individual conscience and God, yet her sophisticated education led her to a smoke-and-mirrors view of politics, in which clever image-making and speech-writing could solve or postpone real problems. The result was a surprisingly contemporary approach to some very modern questions, like civil strife in Scotland and Ireland and the risk of England's absorption into a European super-state. This approach to the enigma of the Queen's character is presented in a retelling of her reign; her love for Robert Dudley, the tragi-comedy of her favourites and suitors, her struggles with Mary Queen of Scots and Philip II of Spain and the final, humiliating debacle of her relationship with Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex.

• New

  Paperback
  2001

  $15.62

  A woman in a man's world, confident of her destiny to reign, intensely intelligent, passionately sexual yet (she said) a virgin, Elizabeth was to become England's most successful ruler. Finding her way through the labyrinthine plots that surrounded the court, she had to live by her wits, surrounded by betrayal and suspicion, not knowing who to trust with her desire to be queen, or her desire to be a lover...