
Elizabeth I who reigned over Shakespeares England & defeated the Spanish Armada is familiar both from her portraits & as Gloriana the Virgin Queen. Yet the reality of her character & her personal attitudes are harder to detect behind the public mask. Elizabeth I" a major biography by a leading Tudor expert looks in detail behind the public life at the private woman. It treats at length her early years & examines her actions & policies as queen. By any standards her life was an extraordinary one: her father Henry VIII executed her mother Anne Boleyn for whose sake he had set up the Church of England; her sister Queen Mary came near to having her executed. Coming to the throne in 1558 she remained the only unmarried queen regnant in Englands history holding for a woman unprecedented power. She faced major religious & political problems at home & abroad for much of her reign coping with them by a combination of guile procrastination & shrewdness. David Loadess biography brings out her remarkable talents & unique achievements."