Product Description

Elizabeth I is perhaps England's most famous monarch. Born in 1533, the product of the doomed marriage of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, Elizabeth was heir to her father's title, then disinherited and finally imprisoned by her half-sister Mary. But in 1558, on Mary's death, she ascended the throne and reigned for 45 years. Respected by her subjects and idolized by subsequent generations, Gloriana was fiercely devoted to her country and its people. In this first volume of her Elizabethan quartet, Alison Plowden charts the history of Elizabeth's first 25 years, telling the tale of Elizabeth's difficult childhood and her alternate status as princess and bastard, culminating in her coronation and the beginning of the legend.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #529102 in Books
• Published on: 1999-04-22
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

Customer Reviews

A good, readable account.
I'd heartily recommend this to anyone interested in Elizabeth 1 or her immediate forebears. It's an excellent synthesis of (mostly) first-hand sources and gives an unusually full picture of Elizabeth's early life, up until her coronation. It also gives an excellent potted history of England from Henry V to Elizabeth's accession, including a rather neat summary of the Wars of the Roses. Very readable and highly enjoyable. It's the first of four volumes (originally published in the 1970s) and I'm looking forward to the next three.