Elizabeth: Apprenticeship - Softcover

David Starkey

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0099286572 ISBN 13: 9780099286578

Publisher: Vintage Books, 2005

Synopsis

An abused child, yet confident of her destiny to reign, a woman in a man's world, passionately sexual--though, as she maintained, a virgin--Elizabeth I is famed as England's most successful ruler. David Starkey's brilliant new biography concentrates on Elizabeth's formative years--from her birth in 1533 to her accession in 1558--and shows how the experiences of danger and adventure formed her remarkable character and shaped her opinions and beliefs.

From princess and heir-apparent to bastardized and disinherited royal, accused traitor to head of the princely household, Elizabeth experienced every vicissitude of fortune and extreme of condition--and rose above it all to reign during a watershed moment in history. A uniquely absorbing tale of one young woman's turbulent, courageous, and seemingly impossible journey toward the throne, "Elizabeth" is the exhilarating story of the making of a queen.

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Review

The Virgin Queen, Gloriana, Good Queen Bess; Elizabeth I holds a unique place in the English imagination as one of the nation's most powerful, charismatic, and successful monarchs. Elizabeth usually is imagined as the icy, untouchable figure, re-created memorably on screen by Bette Davis and Dame Judi Dench, but that vision of Elizabeth ignores the turbulent years of her early life, from her birth as the daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn in 1533 until her accession to the throne in 1558 after the death of her sister Mary. It is these early years that are the subject of David Starkey's fascinating Elizabeth, which was written to accompany the television series about her life.

Starkey argues that Elizabeth, in her first 25 years, "had experienced every vicissitude of fortune and every extreme of condition. She had been Princess and inheritrix of England, and bastard and disinherited; the nominated successor to the throne and an accused traitor on the verge of execution; showered with lands and houses, and a prisoner in the Tower". He draws on his skills as a respected Tudor historian to produce a deft account of the religious, political, and dynastic maelstrom of mid-16th-century England that reads "like a historical thriller." The book carefully picks its way through the finer points of contemporary religious conflict and the peculiarities of Tudor court ceremony, while exploring also the formation of Elizabeth's character in relation to a murdered mother, a charismatic father, a tortured sister, and a predatory guardian. Highly readable, and written with verve and pace, this is a fascinating account of the young Elizabeth. --Jerry Brotton, Amazon.co.uk

About the Author

Dr David Starkey is a historian and broadcaster, and Fellow of Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge. In 2000 he presented the acclaimed Channel Four series Elizabeth, and in 1998 he presented David Starkey's Henry VIII, also on Channel Four. He writes regularly for both popular newspapers and learned journal, and is a controversial panellist on Radio 4's The Moral Maze. An expert on constitutional history, he is the author of several other books on the Tudor period. For further information, and details of forthcoming projects, see www.davidstarkey.com.

About this edition

• Publisher: Vintage Books
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 0099286572
• ISBN 13: 9780099286578
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 400