Elizabeth I, who reigned over Shakespeare's England and defeated the Spanish Armada, is familiar both from her portraits and as Gloriana, the Virgin Queen. Yet, the reality of her character and her personal attitudes are harder to detect behind the public mask. "Elizabeth I", a major biography by a leading Tudor expert looks in detail behind the public life at the private woman. It treats at length her early years and examines her actions and policies as queen. By any standards, her life was an extraordinary one: her father, Henry VIII, executed her mother, Anne Boleyn, for whose sake he had set up the Church of England; her sister, Queen Mary, came near to having her executed. Coming to the throne in 1558, she remained the only unmarried queen regnant in England's history, holding, for a woman, unprecedented power. She faced major religious and political problems at home and abroad for much of her reign, coping with them by a combination of guile, procrastination and shrewdness. David Loades's biography brings out her remarkable talents and unique achievements.
- ISBN10 1852855207
- ISBN13 9781852855208
- Publish Date 23 June 2006
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 8 March 2016
- Publish Country GB
- Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
- Imprint Hambledon Continuum
- Edition New edition
- Format Paperback
- Pages 432
- Language English