Product Description

In April 1586, Queen Elizabeth I acquired a new and exotic title. A tribe of North American Indians had made her their weroanza - ‘big chief’.
The news was received with great joy, both by the Queen and her favourite, Sir Walter Ralegh. His first American expedition had brought back a captive, Manteo, whose tattooed face had enthralled Elizabethan London. Now Manteo was returned to his homeland as Lord and Governor. Ralegh’s gamble would result in the first English settlement in the New World, but it would also lead to a riddle whose solution lay hidden in the forests of Virginia.
A tale of heroism and mystery, BIG CIEF ELIZABETH is illuminated by first-hand accounts to reveal a remarkable and long-forgotten story.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #142260 in Books
• Published on: 2001-05-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 432 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
The follow up to his bestselling Nathaniel's Nutmeg, Giles Milton's Big Chief Elizabeth is a sprawling, ambitious tale of how the aristocrats and privateers of Elizabethan England reached and colonised the "wild and barbarous shores" of the New World. Milton's story ranges from John Cabot's voyage to America in 1497, to the painful but ultimately successful foundation of the English colony at Jamestown by 1611. However, the main focus of the book is Sir Walter Ralegh's elaborate and tortuous attempts to establish an English settlement in Roanoke, in present-day Carolina, following the first English voyage there in 1584. Scouring contemporary travel accounts of the period, Milton creates a colourful and entertaining account of the greed, confusion and misunderstanding that characterised English relations with the native Americans, and the often violent and tragic conflict that often ensued. Milton has a good eye for a surreal or comical story, such as the colony's first encounter with Big Chief--or Weroanza Wingina, whose exotic title "quickly captured the imagination of the English colonists, and they began referring to their own queen as Weroanza Elizabeth". The Elizabethan cast is also dazzling--the flamboyant and ambitious Walter Ralegh, who provided the money behind the Roanoke ventures, the "sober" ascetic scholar Thomas Hariot, who provided the brains, and hardened adventurers such as Arthur Barlowe and Ralph Lane, who provided the muscle. The myths and stories also come thick and fast, from John Smith and Pocahontas, to the importation of the fashion of "drinking tobacco", but the problem with Big Chief Elizabeth is that it lacks a central driving story. In the end it reads like an entertaining, but rather laboured jog through early Anglo-American history, something that has been done with greater skill and originality by writers such as Charles Nicholl in his fascinating book The Creature in the Map. Those who read Nathaniel's Nutmeg will probably enjoy Big Chief Elizabeth, but with some reservations. --Jerry Brotton

The Times
'Milton ... draws a vivid picture of the terrible hardships the settlers endured'

Review
'Like Giles Milton's previous book, ... Big Chief Elizabeth is a cracking read, a successful attempt at popular history' (Evening Standard )

‘Milton is a great storyteller ... he sets about filling in the historical gaps with relish, using his considerable imagination to conjure mood from dry parchment’ (Sunday Express )

'Grippingly told true adventure story' (Daily Mail )

'Milton ... draws a vivid picture of the terrible hardships the settlers endured' (The Times )

'Milton knits together the most vivid anecdotes and descriptions from a very colourful literature of exploration and colonization, and anyone wanting easy access to them has it here'. ( The Times Literary Supplement )

'Milton has a terrific eye for the kind of detail that can bring the past vividly to life off the page' (The Spectator )

'Splendid stuff ... fascinatingly told ... An excellent book' (Time Out )

‘A wonderfully colourful story told with pace and verve’ (Sunday Telegraph )

Customer Reviews

Giles Milton does it again ........
Having read, and thoroughly enjoyed Nathaniel's Nutmeg I looked forward to reading Big Chief Elizabeth. I was not disappointed. The book is written in a swashbuckling manner that takes you to the bridge of many an English Galleon as Britain tried to push forward the boundaries of her Elizabethan Empire. Detailing the rise and fall of an English hero, Sir Walter Ralegh, the book takes you to Roanoke and the first contact with Native American Indians. It tells, in full bloody detail, the way in which the trust of these natives was first gained and subsequently lost. It is a story of greed and betrayal, of hardship and suffering and details the true frontier spirit that drove the explorers of the Elizabethan Court.

If you enjoy reading about the characters that played a major role in shaping our history, you will certainly be captivated by this enthralling story.

A splendid romp through history!!
Giles Milton brings history to life in an entertaining and fascinating manner.

Using letters and surviving documents of the period, the writer brings to life all the players in the story of England's attempts to colonise the New World. With the storytelling skill of a great novelist, this book will amuse, suprise and occasionally shock, as the courage, stupidity and brutality of the period unravel.

From Walter Raleigh to Pocahontas, this book has it all!

Interesting story, told well
At first I was a bit disappointed with the book, but, as you immerse yourself, it then reveals the full fascinating story of the England's settlement of America. It starts from initial trips and works through to the point of permananent settlement. The only slight disappointment is that it doesn't really touch on what other nations were doing at the time regarding settlement. A fascinating and well written book.