Elizabeth

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A brilliant introduction to a fascinating life (0/0 people found this helpful)

This book is both extremely thorough and very readable. Not only does it illuminate an area of Elizabeth's life that so many other works on the ruler skate over,it does so in an accessible and informative manner. Elizabeth actually emerges as a real flesh and blood teenager, rather than the formidable figure, with her glownig white face and imposing dress of later years.

Very useful for those developing an interest in the Tudor monarchs.

A brilliant biography on the life of Elizabeth Tudor prior to her reign. (6/6 people found this helpful)

`Elizabeth' by David Starkey is a fantastic account of the life of Elizabeth Tudor prior to her accession to the English throne in 1558. As such the book examines Elizabeth's upbringing and education, along with her zeal for learning, and the occasions where she encountered danger.

Starkey examines well Elizabeth's intellectual capability and highlights how this precocious nature was not only inherited from her father (and her siblings too shared such aptitude) but also from personal enthusiasm. Not only does it appear that it gave her personal fulfilment and that overall it was enjoyable, but it was also of a means to reunite herself with her father, who had distanced himself after the execution of his second wife and Elizabeth's mother, Anne Boleyn. Starkey also brilliantly observes that we should dismiss the traditional and fanciful idea that it was Katherine Parr who reuniting Elizabeth with her father. In fact as he points out, such a reunion occurred prior to when Katherine's marriage to Henry. Instead the reunion was formed because both father and daughter wanted it, and in the case of Elizabeth she must be credited for employing the effort to seek it.

Starkey also covers well Elizabeth's admiration for her father. We may find it hard to understand why a girl would want to have a relationship with a father who executed her own mother. But Starkey explains Elizabeth's fondness for Henry in an understandable manner. The humiliations that Elizabeth endured in her early childhood were forgotten by the time she ascended into her teens, not because she was fickle but because the harsh actions committed towards her were done when she was very young and so she may have naturally forgotten such actions. She also probably could not remember her mother and may have found it hard to feel passionate for someone who was absent from her life. In contrast Henry was her reminding parent and as Starkey stresses, Elizabeth was impressionable in her early teens so its understanding that she would reach out for her reminding family. This not only included her father but also her new stepmother Katherine Parr who she formed an important relationship with.

Elizabeth's impressionable nature in her adolescence is careful examined throughout the book. This is particularly well observed when Starkey writes about Elizabeth's time in her stepmother's household. After Henry VIII died Katherine Parr married a young ambition nobleman, Thomas Seymour, who unfortunately for Katherine and for Elizabeth took an interest in the young girl that went beyond fatherly affections. The result was a series of behaviour which we may deem as child abuse although Starkey does not endorse the idea that Seymour went so far as to sleep with Elizabeth. Ultimately Starkey also highlights that after Seymour's actions and when the council interrogated Elizabeth as to her relationship with Seymour, she kept her head and even at that age she had a remarkable ability to remain composed and prepared to fight in times of personal trouble.

The biography also covers the other significant occasion where Elizabeth faced near ruin. This is her arrest and interrogation in 1554 during the reign of her sister Mary I. A rebellion, known as Wyatt's rebellion, had occurred in 1554 against the proposed marriage between Mary and the Spanish prince, Philip. After the rebellion had died down the rebels homes were raided and amongst Thomas Wyatt's papers was a copy of a letter written by Elizabeth to her sister Mary telling her that she did not wish to leave her country home to avoid the rebels on account of her poor health. Subsequently the council had what they needed to arrest her. Starkey highlights that throughout her interrogation and imprisonment there was the existence of several courtiers who wished her gone, including the Spanish ambassador Renard who summarised to his master Charles V that she was a threat to Mary. But throughout Starkey reminds us that we must not romanticise Elizabeth's time in the tower as some previous historians and even contemporaries loved to do; instead we have to remember that she was not completely defenceless, being as she was the largest landowner in England, the rightful heir to the throne under Henry VIII's will and importantly she had the affections of most of the people.

Overall `Elizabeth' is a fantastic biography on one of the most remarkable women of the sixteenth century. Throughout Starkey conveys well Elizabeth's formation of character and this fighting spirit that she employed not only in her time before becoming queen but also after. He doesn't romanticise her life or attempt to make it more tragic to gain the reader's overwhelming sympathy. He also does not degrade Elizabeth's enemies but instead refers to their positions as well. The central theme that recurs throughout the book is the concept of survival; Elizabeth's early life was not an easy one yet she strove not only to get the crown she wanted but also she fought to stay alive. Starkey does a fantastic job with this biography and if you are interested in this era as a whole then also try his work on the six wives of Henry VIII as `Elizabeth' can be used as a direct sequel to that book.

Worth a look (6/7 people found this helpful)

While specialist readers may quibble with the overall merit of Starkey's work, there is no doubt that the man knows how to translate his research into readable prose and bring fresh focus to familiar questions. I found the book enjoyable but not especially enlightening. Unfortunately, I felt I knew more about Starkey by the end of it than Elizabeth. It's a highly speculative argument, which is often compelling; however, it never seems to gel convincingly. It's still worth reading. Just don't expect it to make you feel as clever as Starkey seems.

...good book (5/8 people found this helpful)

You always know when you are in the hands, and by that I mean reading a book, of an extremely intelligent person. With 'Elizabeth' the reader can tell they are in the hands of an extremely intelligent person. David Starkey writes well and has an eye for detail and a great knowledge of the period. He is well acquainted with the personalities and the families of the period which suggests a staggering amount of research as often they are mentioned only very briefly in the book but the points made are quite obscure.

However, perhaps he is too intellectual and perhaps too satisfied with his own learning. At the beginning of the book he tells us what aspects of his book are original. As an admirer of Frederich Nietzsche who wrote chapters entitled 'Why I am so clever' I can't help but admire that. Nonetheless, this intellectual faith allows him to make assumptions in areas where he is not qualified to make them. We cannot assume that Elizabeth loved her father - he killed her mother and there is no reason to believe that she did not resent this fact. She may have been devoted to him publicly, she may never have rebuked or complained to him, but as a ruthless King who had intimates of the bedchamber beheaded was this not wise? David Starkey argues against antipathy between father and daughter with little evidence, but with a great deal of conviction. Elizabeth, like most people around him, flattered him, and don't most flatterers secretly despise the person they flatter?
Curiosly too, David Starkey write a life full of incident but does give us the glorious anecdotes and humour that can bring a volume alive, that bring a human being alive. Elizabeth and her Age feel like distant figures and landscapes to the reader in these pages. There could be so much intrigue to write of, but the opportunity is lost in too great an assertion of opinions and historical detail. I like detail but a change of focus is essential. All too often David Starkey gives us a 'medium shot'.
Not a great book, a good book.

David Starkey

Reader Reviews:

Good introduction (0/6 people found this helpful)

A brilliant introduction to a fascinating life (0/0 people found this helpful)

A brilliant biography on the life of Elizabeth Tudor prior to her reign. (6/6 people found this helpful)

Worth a look (6/7 people found this helpful)

...good book (5/8 people found this helpful)

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