The Life of Elizabeth I

This volume is a biography of the queen of England from 1558 until 1603, Elizabeth I. She was the fifth and last monarch of the Tudor dynasty. After a lonely and often perilous childhood during which Elizabeth was once imprisoned and was nearly executed by her half-sister, Mary. A 25-year-old Elizabeth ascended to the throne when Mary died. Elizabeth's reign is known as the Elizabethan era, famous above all for the flourishing of English drama, led by playwrights such as Shakespeare and Marlowe, and for the seafaring prowess of English adventurers such as Francis Drake. The author emphasizes Elizabeth's precarious position as a ruling woman in a man's world, suggesting that the single life was personally appealing as well as politically expedient for someone who had seen many ambitious ladies, including her own mother, ruined and even executed for just the appearance of sexual indiscretions. Elizabeth is portrayed as autocratic, devious, even deceptive, but these traits were required to perform a 45-year tightrope walk between the two great powers of Europe at the time, France and Spain. Both countries were eager to bring small, weak England under their sway and to safely marry off its inconveniently independent queen.