The Winter Queen: Elizabeth of Bohemia [Paperback]

Carola Oman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 2000 | Series: Phoenix Press

With wonderful accounts of the Shakespearean England from her youth to Restoration England to which she returned, this is the rags-to-riches story of Elizabeth of Bohemia. "It is as easy to read and absorbing as a novel, and has the advantage of scholarly documentation."--Times Literary Supplement.

Product Details

• Paperback: 512 pages
• Publisher: Phoenix Press; Revised edition (October 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1842120573
• ISBN-13: 978-1842120576
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 5.9 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #387,015 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #21 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > People, A-Z > ( E ) > Elizabeth I
  • #26 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Historical > British > Elizabeth I
  • #47 in Books > History > Europe > Czech Republic

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The story of "Europe's grandmother", March 26, 2002

By 

Elaine Cunningham (New England) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Winter Queen: Elizabeth of Bohemia (Paperback)

Elizabeth, the daughter of King James VI of Scotland and I of England, was widely acclaimed as the most beautiful princess in Europe. Her hand was sought by many, but James selected the Protestant prince of a small German state, Frederick of the Palatine, to counterbalance the intended match of his eldest son with the Catholic royal daughter of either France or Spain. It would prove to be a true love match, as well as a political disaster.

This history follows the eventful life and tumultous times of Elizabeth of Bohemia, known as the Winter Queen for the brief duration of her husband's reign. The research is solid, the writing scholarly yet engagingly annecdotal. The narrative is particularly strong: settings are described with unusual care and color, and telling bits of cultural detail help evoke a sense of time and place.

The relationships between Elizabeth and her many family members are vividly drawn. Most poignant among these were her strong sibling attachment to her oldest brother Henry, her passionate but disappointing marriage to the moody Frederick, and the sense of betrayal she must have suffered when her father all but abandoned her. She survived war and endured exile -- not only from Bohemia and her husband's hereditary Palatine, but also from England. Neither James nor his successor Charles I acknowledged her as a queen, or permitted her to return to England.

Students of history might be interested in Elizabeth's descendents, which, in 1938, included the ruling sovereigns of Denmark, Great Britain, Greece, the Netherlands, Norway, Roumania, Sweden, Belgium, Bulgaria, and Italy. By any measure, this is an impressive family saga!