Elizabeth I was Queen of England for 44 years and has been labelled everything from a weak woman led by her council to a bitter, jealous heretic and tyrant whose vanity led her to demand constant attention from her courtiers despite refusing suitor after suitor for her hand. She could be paranoid and often seemed incapable of reaching decisions in a timely manner or at times even reversing them all together. What Lisa Hilton's book shows us though is that not all was as it seemed. Indeed though Elizabeth was prone to faults that often times skewed her reactions, her decisions were not only those of a monarch struggling to make a tiny kingdom one of the world powers but of a Renaissance Prince who was more than capable of the Machiavellian machinations that were needed for her country to flourish and survive in that world.
With new research out of France, Italy, Russia, and Turkey, Hilton has created a biography that transcends Elizabeth as a Queen and reveals her thoughts about the body politic of a Prince. Although she was not afraid to use being a woman to her advantage, Elizabeth was also aware of the necessary sacrifices a Prince must make in order to effectively govern. Combined with the lessons she learned from an early age regarding the precariousness of being on the front lines of a ruling family helped to create a monarch who was able to craft, along with her network of spies, allies and council, a court that has been grossly underestimated by historians.
England under Elizabeth forged new paths in religion, trade, and world politics and watched as new empires rose and old ones fell. This book is a worthy mirror to hold up to some of the most important years of the Renaissance. And to one of the most looked at but underestimated leaders of the time. A definite recommendation to anyone who is interested in the historical maelstrom of the Elizabethan court and it's amazingly sophisticated tapestry of intrigue.
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