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Elizabeth's Women: Friends, Rivals, and Foes Who Shaped the Virgin Queen

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Queen Elizabeth One has always been one of my favorite historical figures to read about. Not only was she a strong and determined woman who fought to keep her throne, she did so in a time where men ruled the world and she managed to be wily, courageous enough and stubborn enough to keep her heritage, not to mention intelligent. When I saw this book was up for grabs, I had to read it. I read it in three days as it was that interesting.

Elizabeth is a rare figure of history to study and there has been a lot of books written about her through the years. Her allure and mystery still continues today. This book is different from the others I have read. This book is about Elizabeth's intimate friends, the women in her inner circle. The familiar names become even more personal in this book.

There is one disappointment though, a lot of these pages are re-hashes of Elizabeth's life and what have been published elsewhere, so there were a lot of familiar reading in this book. But this book does share more details of the women that have the greatest influence on Elizabeth as well as holding power over her court. This book mentions her mother, the infamous Anne Boleyn; her governess, Kit Astley; her sister, Mary, who became queen; her notorious cousin, Queen Mary of Scots; her cousins, the Grey Sisters and so forth.

This book is not exactly a flattering book about Queen Elizabeth ... it shows her in her darkest and most insecure moments of life. However, the author did not paint her unfairly because Elizabeth was above all else, a woman who was on the biggest stage of life. There were very few people that saw Elizabeth as she really was, completely make-up free and natural and these were the stories about these women. However, Elizabeth was a harsh queen to live with and these stories show that. At the same time, one can see how loyal these women were to Elizabeth and how richly she rewarded those who were loyal to her (except for the case of Lady Mary Sidney, who contracted smallpox after taking care of the queen when she suffered it). The author paints a woman who kept her cards close to her chest and at the same time, showing her suffering under tremendous strain as a neglected daughter and as a monarch determined to keep her small country together.

If you like history, and you like reading about Queen Elizabeth, you will enjoy this book. It does share a lot of the personal details that are lacking in other books about the Tudorian times. Even if you've read the other books on the queen, this book is still different enough for one to appreciate the different insights of Elizabeth's women and friends as well as her rivals.

9/7/10

Elizabeth's Women: Friends, Rivals, and Foes Who Shaped the Virgin Queen by Tracy Borman is a very well researched look at the life and reign of Elizabeth I, queen of England. Daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, Elizabeth's childhood was filled with drama that could easily fill many books and most scholars have already pondered the impact of her mother's beheading had on Elizabeth in her growing up. But what about the step-mothers who followed (there were four more wives after Anne Boleyn's death), Elizabeth's step-sister Mary, and the many servants and aristocratic women both within and beyond England's borders?

I was so excited to know that someone was going to explore such a wonderful moment in England's history through the prism of women's experiences. Unfortunately, the feminist in me withered as most of the stories are told from a petty and nearly apolitical position. The Spanish Armada is barely addressed and even when Sir Walter Raleigh makes an entrance, his volatile presence is subjugated to petty flirtations and exploits in the bedroom. The man led a rebellion against his queen and was executed for treason and yet, after reading this book, I know more about his sexual intrigues than I do his political ones.

So in spite of the exceptional scholarship, I have to say that I would not recommend this as a primary look at Elizabeth I; rather, I would suggest anyone interested in her life read another book about her and then read this one as a compliment or a slightly different perspective. And for those who are hoping to find loving and empowering relationship between women supported in this text, the few inspiring friendships Elizabeth seemingly had are very few indeed. In fact, one almost gets the sense that her relationships with her male counselors and flirtations with various courtiers held more weight in Elizabeth's life over all.

I would barely recommend this book, however, for in spite of the research the editing is so poorly managed as to be insulting. I am appalled that the editor didn't encourage Borman to use any word other than "ensured" (which in my edition is mis-spelled nearly every time as "insured") because Borman clearly is enamored of the word and I literally had to set the book aside because I found it tedious to read. The first time I read that Elizabeth was "incandescent with rage" I snickered at how the prose drew such attention to itself. Given how often Borman uses clichés, why the editor didn't just let her use "flew into a rage" again, especially after allowing the over-use bordering on abuse of "ensure," I was further amused to find that this incandescent rage would manifest on the page more than once. Really? Can't we find another way of saying Elizabeth was angry? Or were we insuring that our reader wouldn't notice how blatant it sounded if it were used more than once?

Other issues I had are editorial as well. There is a redundancy of information that could have easily been revised so that the book would read more fluidly. Before Mary, Queen of Scots, escapes to England the reader is told her son, James VI, would have her body properly buried long after her death. But don't worry because you'll read this, dear reader, one more time before Queen Mary of Scots actually is beheaded and buried so just in case you don't remember you've already been told about this Borman and her editor will make sure you read it one more time after the beheading.

So shame on her editor for not being more diligent and someone please give the author a thesaurus with the word "ensure" highlighted so she can maybe, just maybe, use another word. Please.

So it's a great idea for a book about Elizabeth, even one that is well researched but the execution is lacking and I would encourage and urge anyone interested in learning about Queen Elizabeth I to read another book first, even two or three others, before settling for this one.

It's awkward to say about a book "It's ok". You should come down authoritatively about its merits or its problems. But, this book, which describes various women who were important to the history of Elizabeth I, is just that - ok.

The book discusses a number of women who played an important role in Elizabeth's life: her governess, Kat Ashley, and her waiting women, some of whom were important gatekeepers to the Queen. It also covers politically significant figures, such as her various stepmothers (for her father Henry VIII remarried four times after her birth), her half sister Mary Tudor, who imprisoned Elizabeth in the Tower, and Mary, Queen of Scots, with whom Elizabeth had a long, complex and prickly relationship, which eventually led to Mary's imprisonment and execution. It is a very *thorough*, in that it touches upon almost all of the women who were involved in Elizabeth's long life. The author's choice of historical sources is generally sound, although she seems to defer too much to Agnes Strickland, a Victorian historian who relied on many sources that are no longer considered sound.

The real problems are with the structure and thesis of the book. The author tends to jump from topic to topic to topic, so that the book feels a bit fragmented. It is also unclear who the intended audience is. The author assumes a good knowledge of Elizabeth's personality and the time-line of her life. There are many references to future events that may be obscure or confusing if you are not already familiar with Elizabeth's biography.

Above all, the book is at odds with the spirit of Elizabeth and her age. She saw herself as an exceptional woman in a man's world, and was energized and excited by playing games of love and power with the men around her. Overwhelmingly, Elizabeth assumed that the women who supported her, such as her governess and waiting women, were simply there to serve her. She thought nothing of taking them for granted, abusing them, even beating them, and arbitrarily sending them into exile. In fact Elizabeth seems not to have liked other woman very much, and wanted a very male world to revolve around her.

If you are really interested in the minutiae of Elizabeth's life, this book will probably find a place in your library. Otherwise it isn't a "must read" by any stretch of the imagination.

[Joint review by Geoff Arnold and Kate Stout]

Just about everything I know about Elizabeth I has come from the Cate Blanchette movies and Karen Harper's Queen Elizabeth mystery series. I want to know more about Elizabeth I and the Tudor period, so I thought this book would be a good choice. It turned out to be an excellent choice. I was worried that it might be too serious and difficult to read, but it's not at all. It's very informative yet it's really easy to follow. It goes into a lot of detail about what Elizabeth and the women in her life wore, how they looked and what their personality traits were. I'm also enjoying reading about Henry VIII's various wives. I'll admit that I haven't finished the book and will read bits and pieces of it at a time. I'm definitely more of a novel reader than a reader of non-fiction, so for me it's a little much to read something like this all at once, but I'll definitely read a chapter at a time. Each chapter is about a certain time in her life, so that will be very easy to do.

I was so excited when this book arrived from Amazon.com. I couldn't wait to dive into it. After all, it promised a brand new view of Elizabeth I, "...portrayed here as the product of women...." The reader is assured that it is "...a thrilling new angle by the brilliant young historian Tracy Borman." The author herself guarantees that she has "...focused the story upon those women who help to reveal Elizabeth the woman, as well as Elizabeth the Queen." 418 pages later, I am still waiting for a revelation.

This book is only interesting to readers who know little or nothing about Elizabeth I. For the rest of us, it is just a tiresome rehashing of all the familiar stories. Elizabeth's relationships with her half-sister, Mary and Mary, Queen of Scots. Her ladies in waiting, both those who served her selflessly and those who "betrayed" her with secret pregnancies and secret marriages, usually in that order.

There are no new insights into any of these women, their lives nor their influence on Elizabeth. The only original thinking in the book is a few brief pages on Elizabeth's similarity to her mother, Anne Boleyn. Most biographers point out her similarities to her father, Henry VIII. This biographer looks at her resemblance to her mother both in looks and personality and how she used both to manipulate the men around her, again like her mother.

This single original thought could have fit comfortably into an article or academic paper. There was no reason to write a book.

Mary Queen of Scots, and Queen Victoria are world-class queens, but they must yield the gold to Elizabeth I who made a successful cult of virginity, who was wily, brave, and charismatic, stubborn and calculating, and maddeningly indecisive, a fault which worked in her favor. She knew how to pick men. She steered her country with the aid of superb advisers but they and her country were firmly under her control.

Gloriana was the greatest queen who ever lived, a superb politician who was an extremely successful ruler in her own right, an astounding feat for a woman of the sixteenth century. Neither her sister Mary nor her cousin Mary Queen of Scots controlled their governments, as Mary Tudor deferred to her husband Philip and the Scots Queen earned the contempt of the Scottish lords, lost their favor by marrying Bosworth and fled over the border to England and her eventual execution. Queen Victoria did not have absolute power but her stamp and her influence shaped her empire and gave the Victorian age a special flavor, both good and bad. But Elizabeth is at the top of the pinnacle.

Much of this biography will be familiar, but there is a lot of information that is much less well known and this book is gossipy, intimate, and rich in sometimes obscure details so that author Borman's approach will appeal not only to established Tudor aficionados, but to the new admirers coming along.

Women contributed a great deal in shaping Elizabeth's character and set her on a course to greatness. Elizabeth would not have remembered her own mother, Anne Boleyn, as she was a toddler when Anne was executed, and although Queen Elizabeth never mentioned her mother, she wore until her death a ring which opened up to reveal her portrait in profile and a full faced effigy of her mother, side by side. Anne Boleyn's genes gave Elizabeth many attributes, including her intelligence, her vanity, her clothes-sense, her brittleness, her musical ability and her sparkling black eyes. Henry's genes molded her too, of course, and with her red hair and long nose she was a chip off the old block. But for the sake of argument, we might say that the greatest contributor to Elizabeth's future was her own mother.

After Anne Boleyn knelt before the swordsman on Tower Green, Elizabeth was shuttled from one stepmother to another as Henry married and lost to death Jane Seymour, discarded Anne of Cleves and executed the feckless Catherine Howard. Although Jane favored Mary, she was kind to Elizabeth, and Anne of Cleves had a soft spot for the little red haired princess; however, she also cherished Mary. Catherine gave Elizabeth a few trinkets, but intellectually they were poles apart. Nevertheless, Catherine's execution for adultery must have profoundly shocked the Princess. Her next stepmother, Catherine Parr, had an enormous influence on her for not only was she a fine classical scholar, she had considerable talent for governing. When Henry was away fighting a useless war in France, he left Catherine as his regent and she very competently steered the ship of state all by herself. Young as Elizabeth was, she saw first hand that a woman can rule successfully.

After the death of Edward VI. Henry's only son, the country was plunged briefly into civil war but Mary Tudor's forces against those of Jane Grey who Edward named as successor were quickly victorious and Mary ascended the throne. Lady Jane Grey and her husband Guildford were executed, and the sixteen year old Jane, a brave,spunky scholarly girl has become one of history's great tragic heroines.

Elizabeth was in grave danger under Mary and was slapped in the Tower as Mary believed Elizabeth was plotting behind her back to put herself on the throne. However,Elizabeth, keeping her ear to the ground, learned a lot while observing Mary who did not have her sister's political acumen. Mary made a very unpopular marriage in wedding Philip II of Spain, she tried to turn England into a Catholic state and suffered two embarrassing phantom pregnancies. And she had burned 300 Protestants. Elizabeth watched and waited under house arrest after her release from the Tower. Five years of Mary was more than the country could stand and upon Mary's death at 42, England welcomed Elizabeth with joy and relief.

The most loyal and best loved member of Elizabeth's household was Kat Ashley who served Elizabeth faithfully for thirty years. Kat was really a substitute mother and although her advice was not always good Elizabeth listened to her and Kat guarded her like a tiger. She was so influential that many supplicants for Elizabeth's ear had to get the permission of Kat to have an audience with the Queen. When Kat died, Elizabeth shut herself away for many days, holding her grief close to her chest. Blanche Parry became Elizabeth's next chief gentlewoman of the privy chamber serving the Queen for fifty seven years. Even her most intimate councilors could access the Queen only through Parry.

Elizabeth could be extraordinarily nasty and behaved coldly towards Mary Sidney, Leicester's sister, although Mary nursed the Queen through an almost fatal attack of small pocks. Elizabeth was not scarred by the terrible disease, but Mary was horribly disfigured. Elizabeth was paranoid about her succession. Lady Jane Grey's two sisters, Katherine and Mary were separated from their husbands by the order of the Queen, to the great grief of both, but the girls had a tincture of royal blood. Interestingly Mary was only four feet tall, and a hunchback. Her husband, Thomas Keyes, a minor court official, was six feet eight. This biography is loaded with delicious little tidbits like that.

Mary Stuart was Elizabeth's bete noir and could be a snake in the grass. Mary was the most dangerous enemy Elizabeth ever had and although Elizabeth knew Mary was treacherous she shrank from executing her as an anointed queen and therefore sister. Elizabeth also dreaded the retaliation of Catholic Spain and France. Mary was caught with her finger in the cookie jar when she secretly corresponded with Anthony Babington, a deluded young gentleman who thought he was a knight in shining armor with a mission to rescue his princess by killing the "usurper" All of the letters between Mary and Babington were intercepted by Elizabeth's spy chief Walsingham, but Mary didn't know this and kept getting herself involved deeper and deeper. Elizabeth's advisers prevailed upon Elizabeth to sign the order for the Scottish's queen's execution after the trial in which Mary was found guilty. But when the deed was done, Elizabeth went ballistic, blaming her councilors for the execution.

The fabled Mary had long ago lost her celebrated beauty and a witness described her thus: "round shoulder'd, of face fat and broad, double chinned, and hazel eyed, borrowed hair." Nevertheless, Mary put on the performance of her life on the scaffold and she soon grew into a myth. But Elizabeth also became a myth in her own lifetime after the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588 and when she exhorted her troops at Tilsbury, addressing them from the back of a great war horse.

As the queen sank into her final illness in 1603, Arbella Stuart, the niece by marriage to Mary Queen of Scots, and who was a girl Elizabeth had sent from court because of her arrogance, was herself dying and Elizabeth was filled with remorse over her former treatment of the girl. She also lamented the execution of Mary Queen of Scots as she had grieved over her long before. Elizabeth had given up on life and morbid thoughts forced their way into her mind as she slipped away and died on the early morning of March 24.

Her body was constantly guarded by her ladies who served her in death as faithfully as they had in life and they were undoubtedly aware that the likes of their mistress Queen Elizabeth, would never come again.

Having read very many historical accounts of Elizabeth I and the Tudors, I was quite excited to read one that viewed Elizabeth from a little different perspective. "Elizabeth's Women: Friends, Rivals, and Foes Who Shaped the Virgin Queen" by Tracy Borman is not the same run-of-the-mill repackaged scholarly thesis from the same old source material. There is a great deal of information and insights into Elizabeth Tudor and what actually made her tick. In writing my own fiction set in Elizbethan England, this is exactly what I was looking for - the possible reasons why Elizabeth did what she did and why her behaviour, while exasperating to those closest to her, had reasons that were set deep in her past. Tracy Borman did did her homework and she bothered to ask the questions that are so longer overlooked reagarding Queen Elizabeth I.

Henry Tudor (Henry VIII) was not a doting father nor was Anne Boelyn an ideal mother. Elizabeth's life was filled with turmoil from the moment she was born and how she learned how to keep not only her self but her psyche safe in a sixteenth century world was openly hostile toward women in power is what is so intriguing about this particular historical account. Queen Elizabeth was shaped by many of the men and especially the women around her and they made her into what she ultimately became. From her relationship with the memory of her own mother, a string of stepmothers and governessses, treacherous court members and fellow monarchs all had their input into the making of the Virgin Queen. It was probably having witnessed the loveless marriage between her sister, Queen Mary to Phillip II of Spain and his shameless flirtations toward Elizabeth that underscored how politics and intellect must always come before any sort of sentiment in the choosing of a spouse. What this example as well as previous examples from childhood did was convince Elizabeth that the moment she did finally take a spouse he could do to her exactly what Henry VIII had done to both Elizabeth's mother and Katherine Howard - both of whom were brought up on charges of adultery - was that marriage very often lead to heartbreak and the executioner's block. Elizabeth also had a great deal of fear surrounding childbearing. Elizabeth I was the product of both of her parents, of a superior intellect and she understood power much better than most women of her age. As the daughter of Henry VIII she liked power and decided probably even before becoming Queen that she had no intention of handing that power over to anyone else once it was firmly within her grasp.

Borman presents a very complex picture of a fascinating woman in a way that reads like fiction. We see the politics and intrigue on a nearly constant basis throughout the book. I would highly recommend it to anyone who is even remotely interested in Elizabeth or the rest of the Tudor legacy and who has been wanting a book about the psychology behind the woman. Tracy Borman has given us a great deal to think about which other authors in this particular historical area of focus have skipped over entirely.

"Elizabeth's Women: Friends, Rivals and Foes Who Shaped the Virgin Queen," is, of course, a close look at the 16th century's Elizabeth I; not the current Elizabeth II, who reigns today in the United Kingdom. It is a fine British history, written by Tracy Borman, and is, apparently, the first book to explore that great Queen's relationships with the women in her life.

Elizabeth I was, as is well-known, a Tudor, the daughter of England's notorious Bluebeard Henry VIII, and was the last of her line to rule the kingdom. The Tudors are a subject of fascination for many people, and it's not hard to see why: so much sex, drama, warfare, death. There have been many many books about all of them, including Elizabeth, many plays, many movies. Henry notoriously had six wives: Elizabeth was the daughter, and only issue, of the second, the bewitching Anne Boleyn, an unhappy woman who came to a bad end thanks to her failure in producing only a daughter, and her husband the King's roving eye. Elizabeth came to the throne unexpectedly, after the early death of her half-brother Edward, son of the King's third wife, Jane Seymour, who died after birthing the boy. Edward's death saw Elizabeth's dangerously obsessive half-sister Mary Tudor, daughter of Henry's first wife, Catherine of Aragon, whom he had put aside in order to marry Anne Boleyn, come to the throne. For a mercifully short-lived, blood-soaked reign, as she unsuccessfully tried to restore the country to the Catholic religion. The English of the day were none too comfortable with the idea of a female ruler, of course - they were considered but weak creatures. Nevertheless, there was Queen (Bloody) Mary, and then there was Queen Elizabeth, who reigned for a very long time, longer than the lifespan of most of her subjects, and made herself a legend in her own time, down to ours. And here endeth the history lesson.

We can assume that Elizabeth's feelings about the mother she hardly knew, who was executed when her child was still quite young, were complex, and may well have influenced Elizabeth's decision never to marry, and thus become the Virgin Queen. But Elizabeth was to be surrounded by women all her life, from the queens who succeeded her mother, and became her stepmothers, all, while they lived, to her servants, who had more influence on her than was generally realized. Then there were the rivals to Elizabeth's throne, from Mary Queen of Scots, with whom she had a well-documented lifelong rivalry, to the sisters of Lady Jane Grey, to the "flouting wenches" who surrounded her, such as Lettice Knollys, who stole away her closest male favorite, Essex.

The writer has previously authored KING'S MISTRESS, QUEEN'S SERVANT: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF HENRIETTA HOWARD. She studied and taught history at the University of Hull and was awarded a PhD in 1997. She has since worked for a range of historic properties and national heritage organizations, including the Heritage Lottery Fund, the National Archives, and English Heritage. She has recently been appointed Chief Executive of the Heritage Education Trust, and also works as Head of Interpretation for Historic Royal Palaces. She has regularly appeared on television and radio, and has been featured in a range of magazine and newspaper articles. She also gives talks and lectures on many subjects. Borman here follows promisingly in the historical biography tradition of Alison Weir and Lady Antonia Fraser. Mind you, I had rather a difficult time keeping all those Toms, Dicks, and Harrys straight, not to mention the odd Edward. And as for all those Margarets, Marys, Katherines/Catherines, Janes, and Annes: aside from the famous ones, they could be tough going. I really wished there were some family charts. And timelines.

However, the author appears to have done a great deal of research in the original documents of the era, and has brought many previously-unknown facts to light. We learn about Elizabeth's shock at the execution of poor teenage Katherine Howard, the elderly Henry's fifth wife, a relative of Elizabeth's mother and therefore of hers; an execution for reasons stated, and in a manner delivered, that horribly echoed the death of Elizabeth's own mother. And we learn about Elizabeth's close, life-long relationship with the German Anna of Cleves, Henry's fourth wife, who managed to keep her head though she did not please him, and lived in England until her death, from natural causes. If you thought there was nothing new to be said about Elizabeth I, this book will pleasantly surprise you.

My only experience with Elizabethan history thus far has been two Cate Blanchett movies and the Blackadder comedy series, so I picked up 'Elizabeth's Women' with few preconceptions. One of the book's primary strengths is the author's ability to distinguish the hundreds of individuals who are mentioned in the text, keeping all of the various Lords and Ladies straight in my own mind was no small feat, and Tracy Borman greatly eased the task.
The thesis undertaken is that Elizabeth I was primarily influenced by women, when much of the written history of the period is male-centric, and treats Elizabeth more as an anomaly, or just 'one of the guys.' The first half of the book is devoted to Elizabeth's younger years before she assumed the crown, and ably documents the formative influences on her character. So many of the women she associated with ended up in the Tower, her mother included, that Elizabeth appears to have adopted a husbandless philosophy from a very early age. Transcripts of her letters show a brilliant mind, and the author preserves the original spelling throughout the book's many quotes, so that the flowery inflection of Tudor thought suffuses the pages.
Elizabeth had plenty of feminine examples to draw from, her mother Anne Boleyn, the several governesses who raised her, and the disastrous reign of Mary Tudor who espoused Catholicism against the tide of popular opinion, married a Spaniard at a time when the British were xenophobic, and sat in council quilting, content to let the men govern. Elizabeth also had an excellent relationship with Henry VIII's surviving wife (who managed to keep her head upon her person), and her scandalous relationship as a young teen with Lord Seymour and resultant time in the Tower taught her the dangers of flirtation.
Several of the women who served Elizabeth did so for decades, and it was they who spent hours with her in her inner chambers, and it was their own servants, relatives, and friends who bought gossip and news from all corners of the kingdom. Elizabeth's ladies controlled access and were frequently sought to petition issues before the Queen.
Elizabeth's selfish, vain persona shines through, she thoughtlessly casts aside Lady Mary Sidney, who ministered to her during a bout of smallpox and was herself disfigured, stabs another in the hand at supper, boxes ears, slaps and yells; but perhaps this is where the book misses in content. The famous period of the Spanish Armada is given only a page, and throughout the book a background of ongoing historical events could place Elizabeth's behavior in a larger context, yes she broke another woman's hand and blamed it on a "fallynge chayndyleere," but at this juncture, troops were mustering and she was under great pressure, etc. Most readers of 'Elizabeth's Women' will probably be far more Lizzy-savvy than I, and already well versed in the historical background, so that for many 'Elizabeth's Women' may be more of a completion point in a knowledge cycle, rather than serving as my own start. It is an interesting thesis well proven, and quite a different take on an era widely perceived as the exclusive domain of Kinges and Prynces.

It hardly makes sense to put all kinds of women Elizabeth had to deal with into one study: half of mankind are women. What have her relations with sovereign queens to do with those with ladies-in-waiting? The real annoyance with this book, however, is a terrible habit of mixing up all kind of sources with the author's prejudices. Propaganda pamphlets against Elizabeth's regime like "A Letter of Estate" or heavily biased 17th century histories are indiscriminately interspersed with fragments of real letters; yet even these are often so "freely" (mis)interpreted that they simply serve to mislead. This cocktail is often pure fantasy, for example in the case of the Earl of Leicester's alleged married life.

The case is not better in other instances. It is simply wrong to claim that Elizabeth treated Mary (Dudley) Sidney badly, according to the Spanish ambassador she was still "very fond" of her when Lady Sidney retired from court in 1579. The Sidneys were habitually complaining ... It is also dead wrong to claim that Robert Dudley would have liked to marry Mary Stuart, nothing could be further from loads of well-known evidence. The author is clearly seeking to perpetuate clichés instead of aiming at a more authentic picture. She is even unable to use people's proper address: to call Robert Dudley Earl of Leicester alternately "Leicester" and "Sir Robert" on the same pages is ridiculous (though he was a knight, he was never actually called thus, he was known as the Lord Robert before he became an earl); his wife Lettice, née Knollys, was not "Lady Knollys" (that was her mother, who also figures here); the christian name of this couple's son was Robert, not Denbigh (that was his courtesy title).

The treatment of Lettice Knollys in this book is really disgusting; the repeated claim that this beautiful lady was "arrogant" exists only in the author's head. Other than Borman claims, Lettice only became discgraced through her marriage with Leicester, before that she was one of the Queen's favourites. Finally, to blame her for not effusing sentimental letters upon her eldest son's execution is really bad taste: we have no idea what she felt, and any letters may have been lost; judging from her earlier letters to Essex she was probably distraught, as she must have been for Christopher Blount's execution, her "best friend" and third husband. It's sad, but people who seek information or a plausible analysis should keep well away from this.