ELIZABETH'S WOMEN by Tracy Borman, 2009.

An easily digested treatment of Elizabeth I's life through her relationships with the women around her. As Elizabeth's life and reign are often looked at through the prominent male figures in her orbit, this work provides a different focus on Elizabeth's dazzingly successful reign as England's queen. A large number of women influenced, antagonized, opposed or befriended Elizabeth, from the time of her birth through the end of her days. Borman divides her book into chapters with themes of relationships: "Stepmothers," "Governess," "Cousins," etc. Not only does Borman include most of the well-known females, e.g., her mother, Anne Boleyn; her half-sister Mary; her last stepmother Katherine Parr; and her governess, Kat Ashley (here called Astely), but she also gives space to other shining stars of the Elizabethan Court and even lesser known figures--the faithful Elizabeth FitzGerald, Lady Clinton; downtrodden and pathetic Lady Mary Grey; the well organized and protective Lady Blanche Parry; lovely Helena Snakenborg, a Swedish girl who arrived on a visit with Princess Cecilia and decided to stay; Lady Douglas Sheffield, a rival for Robert Dudley; Mary Sidney, who unselfishly nursed Elizabeth through smallpox and then caught it herself. From her earliest childhood, Elizabeth was cared for by Lady Margaret Bryan at Hatfield, who became almost a second mother to the very young Elizabeth. She suffered the loss of this mother figure when her half brother Edward came along, but being the child she was, she regrouped and moved forward. Resilient and determined, the young girl survived disease and the stain of being labelled a bastard. She watched as each of her father Henry VIII's wives played out their various roles; she barely lived through the horror of her cousin Lady Jane Grey's brief reign and execution, and she managed a shaky existence in a somewhat love-hate relationship with her half sister Mary. By the time she became Queen of England, her survival skills were well honed, but her reign was plagued continuously by scandals, intrigues, and plots, many of which involved the ladies in her circle. Somewhat ironically, the most troublesome women seemed to be her own cousins and assorted relatives and especially those with claims to the throne: the famous Mary, Queen of Scots; the grasping and ambitious Lady Margaret Douglas; beautiful rival Lettice Knollys, who became the wife of Elizabeth's true love Robert Dudley and was the mother of Elizabeth's last favorite, Robert Devereux; Lady Catherine Grey and her sister Mary, who enraged Elizabeth with their clandestine romances; Lady Arbella Stuart, put forward by her formidable grandmother Bess of Hardwick, as Elizabeth's heir-in-waiting. As far as her ladies in waiting, Elizabeth had high expectations of them in terms of service--often keeping them from husbands and families--and kept a court governed by a strict moral code. She only wanted attractive women serving her, but then could be jealous and spiteful of them, often verbally and physically abusing them if they displeased her (usually by their secret romances and pregnancies), and she often felt betrayed by the likes of Lady Mary Howard, Mary Fitton, Elizabeth Vernon, Bess Throckmorton. As she neared her declining years, her most faithful women were her Boleyn cousins, Katherine Carey Howard and Philadelphia Carey Scrope, as well as Anne Dudley, Countess of Warwick, but even these ladies had hidden agendas and favorites they begged favors for. Her relationships with all these ladies were complex and complicated, with lots of baggage, issues, lies, subterfuge, favoritism, and intrigue galore. Perhaps saddest is the the last section, "The Sun Now Ready to Set," as Elizabeth outlived so many of her closest ladies, and the younger ones showed her very little respect toward the end of her life.Well researched and very readable, Borman makes use of an excellent number of sources, both primary and secondary, and includes some good illustrations. If you're a big Tudor fan, there's not much new here, but this would be a good diversion for those with just a basic knowledge of Elizabeth's life. It's a good distillation of material from various sources presented in a pleasant narrative.

DEATH AND THE VIRGIN QUEEN: ELIZABETH I AND THE DARK SCANDAL THAT ROCKED THE THRONE by Chris Skidmore, 2010.

Skidmore's nonfiction work provides a somewhat startling new look at the mystery surrounding the sensational death of Amy Robsart, wife of Lord Robert Dudley, Queen Elizabeth's well loved favorite, as well as a readable recounting of the matrimonial games of the Virgin Queen. One of the earliest and most troublesome issues after Elizabeth's accession to the throne was finding her an appropriate husband: candidates were sought far and wide and at home, too, and ranged from Edward Courtenay (a Plantagent claimant to the throne) to Prince Eric of Sweden and Archduke Charles of Austria. Elizabeth's deeply personal relationship with Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, is discussed in great detail, and Skidmore carefully outlines how much Dudley cared for the queen and how high his ambition was in terms of wanting to be her husband. However, Dudley was already married: to Amy Robsart, a well connected Norfolk squire's daughter, whom he saw very seldom and mostly kept buried in the country.They had married young (they were each 17), and Skidmore posits that they were a love match. Well connected but with little wealth, the couple spent more time apart as Dudley's star began to rise with his appointment as Master of the Horse; Amy receded more into the background. With Dudley's huge involvement in Elizabeth's marriage business, rumors began circulating in 1559 that Amy was ill, that she had breast cancer. Skidmore notes that it was also quite openly stated in correspondence and in conversations that Amy was fearful of being poisoned and that the queen was aware of it. It was even discussed that once his wife was disposed of, Dudley and the queen would then marry.When Amy, who was staying at Cumnor Place for an extended period, was found dead at the bottom of a staircase with her neck broken on Sept. 8, 1560, foul play was immediately suspected, and Dudley and Elizabeth scrambled to save their reputations. And although it was all highly suspicious, Dudley was cleared and Amy's death declared an accident by the inquest, but Elizabeth's relationship with Dudley was forever changed by the event. Skidmore, having access to the recently discovered forensic report, provides an explanation of what it revealed: that Amy not only had a broken neck, but gashes (dyntes) in her head as well, which further fuels speculation. For those unfamiliar with the case, this book reads well and Skidmore does a fine job covering all the points and providing context; for those who know the story, it still will be of interest. While not solving the mystery of Amy Robsart's death, Skidmore's work gives a good account of the facts and opens new avenues of exploration concerning an event that certainly affected Elizabeth I's life profoundly and has intrigued historians and Tudor fans for over 450 years.

ELIZABETH I by Margaret George, 2011.

A huge, sprawling saga spanning the later part of Elizabeth Tudor's reign from 1588-1603. I have always been a fan of long and involving historical novels of this nature, and of Margaret George's in particular, and this one did not disappoint me. Ms. George knows her history and she knows how to weave and spin out her stories, involving the reader and keeping their attention throughout.  In this novel, Elizabeth herself narrates the bulk of the story, but interwoven with her narrative is that of her most famous cousin and rival, Lettice Knollys. These two make a good counterpoint to each other: Elizabeth's and Lettice's lives became forever intertwined when young Lettice came to Elizabeth's court and became involved with Robert Dudley, the Earl of Leicester, and Elizabeth's love. After the Queen refuses to marry him, and Lettice's first husband dies, Dudley and Lettice secretly marry. Once their marriage is revealed,  Elizabeth, hurt and enraged, banished them both from court; she forgave Dudley and recalled him, but Elizabeth swore she'd never forgive Lettice for what she considered her betrayal. When this novel opens, the Spanish Armada has left Spain and is threatening England's future. By the end of the novel, Lettice, still alive and residing quietly in the country in 1634, is reminiscing to her grandchildren about her life and that of her glittering and powerful cousin.

George quite simply brings the entire Elizabethan era to life in her writing. Her use of period detail is wonderful and adds so much to the novel's meaning, and she writes so elegantly and vibrantly about the many colorful characters of that glorious era. The story is filled with enthralling people and events: the Armadas (there were four); the continuing problems in Ireland with the O'Neill; Sir Francis Drake and Sir John Hawkins and their piracy against Spain; Sir Walter Raleigh and his attempts to found a colony in the New World of Virginia; the Irish heroine Grace O'Malley; the Cecils, father and son, who ran the English government between them; Shakespeare, Edmund Spenser, John Donne and other literary lights; the mystical Dr. John Dee; Sir Francis Walsingham, who managed the Queen's elaborate spy network; Robert Devereux, Lettice's son and Elizabeth's last, and most tragic, favorite, and so many others. This is a rich, dense, and juicy book--it contains among its pages enough court scandals, gossip, political intrigue, executions, religious strife, and financial dealings to fill several books. At the center of everything is Elizabeth, always in the thick of it, always thinking and puzzling and scheming and attempting to maintain her power and control at all costs. And in the background was Lettice, the one woman she could not control.

George creates some wonderful scenes within this story, fictional and otherwise: Elizabeth at Tilbury speaking to the troops gathered against the Armada; Elizabeth's meeting with the wild and unruly Grace O'Malley; Elizabeth spontaneously attending a goose fair while on a Progress; Lettice juggling relationships with three different men, but only truly in love with one of them; Lettice and Shakespeare discussing several of his plays as he writes them, and Lettice's attempts to help her son, Robert, and slowly coming to the dreadful realization that he is doomed. One of the most moving sections is near the end of Elizabeth's life, when the aging queen and her cousins Catherine Carey and Lettice Knollys arrange to meet at Hever Castle, the ancestral Boleyn home, never visited by any of the three before. Here, amidst a secret bower once used by Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, Lettice and Elizabeth come to an understanding, lay to rest old rivalries and ghosts, and finally find forgiveness in each other.

In this book, Margaret George definitely used all her writing skills to bring these larger than life figures to life in these pages. I thoroughly enjoyed the witty dialogue, clever exchanges and asides, and humor that she injected into the lives of her characters. The scene in which Elizabeth's godson John Harington installs the newly invented water closet in Elizabeth's chamber is quite funny in its description. In every detail, George has created a believable world long gone and made these real historical people human in every way. She has outdone herself totally and written a meticulously researched and powerful novel about two women who were alike in so many ways--looks, intelligence, wit, strength of character, charm, courage, craftiness--and manages to give an entertaining and complex portrait of how they lived--the choices they made (or were made for them), the different paths they followed, and how their lives intertwined and played out across the broad and richly woven tapestry of their world. Enjoyable for historical fiction fans, especially those of the Elizabethan period. Highly recommended.

Another book on the Tudors?

THE TUDORS: The Complete Story of England's Most Notorious Dynasty by G.J. Meyer, 2010.
An excellently written, fresh look at the five monarchs of England known as the Tudors. In a single volume, the author provides an enlightening, myth-debunking, enthralling narrative that covers all the Tudors from the founder of the dynasty, Henry VII, to the last of them, the glorious Elizabeth I. Great description but not so overloaded with detail that the reader gets bogged down, Meyer makes good use of his sources and recent scholarship on this era of English history. All the sinners and saints, statesmen, lovers, victims, the wives of Henry VIII, the Lady Jane Grey episode, Mary I's fatal Spanish marriage, the boy king Edward who wanted a second Protestant Reformation in England--it's all here and done up in very readable and entertaining style. One complaint I read recently was that the author presents too many bad (negative) aspects of these monarchs; I disagree, his goal is to de-romanticize them and make them more human. There were also complaints of events/issues/important figures being left out, but honestly, it's a survey type book, and some things have to be left out. The subtitle is misleading in that sense. I found the book well worth reading, and I would recommend it even for Tudor addicts who think they know all there is to know about them, and even though the length (600+ pages) could be off-putting, I would recommend it to anyone who wants a good general introduction to the Tudors, their lives, and that period of English history.