Elizabeth I and her world by Susan Watkins is a lovely book with sumptuous photographs by Mark Fiennes. I borrowed this one from the library just last week, I must admit that it was the photos that really attracted me and I had intended just drooling over all the Tudor portraits, grand buildings, jewels, gardens and paintings of various scenes, but when I began to read it I quickly realised that I wanted to read it all. Despite knowing quite a lot about the Tudor courts and Elizabeth there was still a lot to learn from this book. Elizabeth may have made some mistakes as a youngster but she certainly learnt from them and seemed to know intuitively how to stay on the right side of her people.
This was a great read. It was first published in 1998 and then again in 2007 in paperback.
I own another book by Watkins, Jane Austen’s Town & Country Style, so I am not surprised that this was both visually appealing and full of interesting information. I went to a Tudor exhibit in New York last winter which also included some beautiful items.
Last week I went to see The Lost King which was shown at the library where I work part-time and I was feeling very anti Tudor. But I do admire Elizabeth! It’s mostly Henry VII I dislike.
Constance,
I’ll have to have a look for her Jane Austen book.
When you compare Elizabeth with Mary, Queen of Scots it’s easy to be impressed with Elizabeth. I have a theory that Mary’s lack of a father was a big disadvantage to her. She didn’t learn what sort of man to avoid, or to choose safely. All the royal houses were fairly brutal in their determination to stay top dogs. I’m told that there are some aristocratic families nowadays who are very aggrieved at not being the royal family and they probably do have a better claim! There’s a lot to dislike about Henry VII.
I don’t recall if that came up when we discussed the Margaret Irwin trilogy but it is true that despite the uncertainty of Elizabeth’s upbringing, she met a lot of men and certainly had some good tutors who cared about her and tried to equip her to survive. My mother is reading a new book about the Dudley family that I got her from the library partly as a joke because I thought she’d be infuriated by the cover or inside cover copy that said, “The Tudor family you’ve never heard of!” but she is quite enjoying it and said there is a lot of information in it she never knew, including that Marie de Guise did not tell everyone right away that her child was a girl. Having lost two sons she was probably desperate for another and fearful no one would rally around a princess.
Constance,
Well it’s absolutely true that often the birth date of a daughter wasn’t even noted so it’s a bit of a guess in their family trees – if they survived long enough! Mary of Guise wasn’t much of a mother anyway, but I suppose they all used daughters as a means to an end. I read recently (can’t remember where) that Mary, Q of S wasn’t at all well educated! I bet whoever wrote that didn’t speak and write in six languages.