Customer Reviews
Strange - By: Mr. F. J. Evans, 15 Jul 2008 
This is not the kind of history that I was expecting - highly populist, focussed more heavily on Elizabeth as a person than on the politics & her decisions as a Queen. Beware.
Good introduction - By: N. Footrakoon, 16 Oct 2007 
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A brilliant introduction to a fascinating life - By: Estrella, 21 Sep 2007 
This book is both extremely thorough & 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 & informative manner. Elizabeth actuallly emerges as a real flesh & blood teenager, rather than the formidable figure, with her glownig white face & 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. - By: little_miss_sunnydale, 30 Aug 2007 `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 & education, along with her zeal for learning, & the occasions where she encountered danger.
Starkey examines well Elizabeth's intellectual capability & 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 & that overalll 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 & Elizabeth's mother, Anne Boleyn. Starkey also brilliantly observes that we should dismiss the traditional & 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 & daughter wanted it, & 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 & so she may have naturallly forgotten such actions. She also probably could not remember her mother & may have found it hard to feel passionate for someone who was absent from her life. In contrast Henry was her reminding parent & 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 & 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 & when the council interrogated Elizabeth as to her relationship with Seymour, she kept her head & even at that age she had a remarkable ability to remain composed & 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 & 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 & the Spanish prince, Philip. After the rebellion had died down the rebels homes were raided & 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 & 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 & 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 & importantly she had the affections of most of the people.
Overalll `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 & 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 & 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 - By: sainte-carmen, 16 Feb 2007 While specialist readers may quibble with the overalll merit of Starkey's work, there is no doubt that the man knows how to translate his research into readable prose & bring fresh focus to familiar questions. I found the book enjoyable but not especiallly 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.
