History is, without a doubt, my favorite nonfiction, and The Life of Elizabeth I has easily catapulted to a place in my top three. I read Weir's Six Wives of Henry VIII last year, which was very good, but this one captivated me from page 1. Partly because of the tight focus on one person rather than six (actually seven, counting Hank), but mostly because Elizabeth I was a hard-ass mf'er and all-around badass.Even at her most ridiculous, she was so much more grounded and responsible than her father. They both benefitted from excellent advisors, and they both suffered because they were susceptible to manipulative douches. But Elizabeth handled it all so much better: Henry is known for his executorial penchant, but Elizabeth had very few people put to death, and only after giving them, like, five million chances to forswear their treasonous ways. But they just couldn't not keep plotting to overthrow her. She forgave several peopleMary Stewart, Thomas Howard, and Robert Devereuxfor plotting treason a whole bunch of times before finally losing patience. I found Devereux especially irritating (what a narcissist), especially compared to his dreamy stepfather, Robert Dudley, Elizabeth's steadfast soulmate. A romance for the ages. And the mystery surrounding the possible murder of Dudley's first wife, Amy, was full of suspense. Wish we could solve that one. The OG single lady, Elizabeth chose not to marry for political reasons. As long as she was eligible, she had a good excuse to maintain diplomacy with France and Spain. But, as a hard-ass mother, she would have been the last person to share her rulership with another person, let alone give control to a mentally unstable or decadent foreign man-child. Still, she seemed to enjoy her suitors for the most partand the attention.Weir has a consistently good sense of structure and there were very few details that I found needless. I don't enjoy descriptions of clothes and tchotchkes, which were very important to Elizabeth, but I understand that many people do. I did like the description of one of her outfits, an extremely revealing dress that exposed her breasts and belly button, which she wore while meeting with a foreign ambassador. When she was in her 50s. Haha! What a character.Elizabeth was an excellent stateswoman and a courageous ruler. She wasn't a religious fanatic, evidenced by the fact that English Catholics remained strongly loyal to her, even though she forced them to attend Anglican services. She overcame a terrible childhood to become a gracious and compassionate person. She invested heavily in education and the arts, but always lived within her means. She had a great sense of humor and was a master of sarcasm, and the fact that she was so susceptible to handsome charmers just proves that she was a human. Mostly, she truly got her people, which is not something that can be said about most rulers, including the current Elizabeth.

"Elizabeth the Queen" is a lengthy biography meticulously written by Alison Weir. It is a detailed portrayal of a remarkable queen whose reign spanned nearly 45 years (1558 to 1603). The author succeeds in conveying the uniqueness of the monarch, the dangers -- foreign and domestic -- that she consistently confronted, the grandeur and extravagance of the royal court, the connivances of courtiers, the jealousies of competing counselors, Elizabeths unwavering affection for her subjects, and her peoples reciprocal devotion.Elizabeth was remarkably strong-willed. She had to be. Men of noble birth believed that queens, being women, were inferior decision-makers. Her advisors thought initially that they knew better how the country should be administered and protected. Exceedingly knowledgeable about her foreign adversaries (and just about everything scientific, cultural, religious, and historical), Elizabeth rarely acquiesced. She would delay taking any action she had misgivings about. Much of this biography chronicles how her equivocation about marrying foreign princes postponed King Philip II of Spains attempt to dethrone her with a Catholic monarch. Two tenets guided Elizabeths decision-making: her trust that God directed her and her desire to benefit her people.I was amazed at how forgiving Elizabeth was of certain individuals she favored. Although she could be very abusive verbally -- her displays of temper were legendary her nature was not to be cruel. Virile courtiers took advantage of her. She loved masculine attention and flattery and reveled in the rituals of courtship. Two men stand out: Robert Dudley (eventually the Earl of Leicester) and Robert Devereux, the second Earl of Essex. Dudley had known Elizabeth before she became queen and was closer than any male to have been a lover. Well into the 1580s his ambition had been to marry her and become king. This motivation led him to take policy positions in the Privy Council more favorable to himself than to the welfare of the realm. Essex was much more dangerous. He was an egomaniac. Placed in government and, later, military positions of authority, obdurate and paranoid, he disobeyed repeatedly Elizabeths orders; yet, after her fits of rage, she succumbed always to his exhibitions of counterfeit remorse and devotion. Ultimately, she recognized the serious danger he posed to her sovereignty and stripped him of his powers. Determined to have his way, he staged a coup, failed, was convicted of treason, and was executed. Elizabeths tolerance of Mary Stuarts machinations to become Queen of England impressed me. For years the former Scottish queen had been complicit in Spains, the Popes, and Catholic subjects plans to elevate her. Elizabeth knew about Marys participation, but resisted repeatedly her councilors admonitions to have Mary tried, convicted, and executed. Elizabeth believed absolutely that legitimately ascended monarchs should not be interfered with. Mary had been deposed. Executing such a monarch, however treacherous thereafter she had become, violated her sensibilities. Only when her life was seriously threatened and King Philips anticipated invasion of England seemed imminent did Elizabeth authorize Marys trial and execution.I was touched by Elizabeths emotional responses to her declining health during the last year of her reign. Most all of her friends and all of her old councilors had died. She felt alone amongst a younger generation of self-seekers that were weary and dismissive of her and eager for a male successor. She had struggled mightily to ward off the encroachments of old age and had failed. The onset of what was probably tonsillitis became either bronchitis or pneumonia. During her last hours she took comfort in the prayers delivered over her, she unable to speak, with each reference to God raising her eyes skyward.

Just superb. As a long standing Elizabethan, reading this book has been a joy. Without a shadow of a doubt, the greatest English monarch and Alison Weir guides us through this golden time from under the oak tree at Hatfield Palace in 1558, to her passing at Richmond in 1603.The level of research of contemporary documents, state papers and the almost twenty pages of bibliography provide a most intimate and extraordinary insight into the reign of good Queen Bess. The author provides no Notes, but I didn't find that detracted at all from this biography. The detail is such, with each page containing quotations and original letters that 'Elizabeth the Queen' takes the reader back over four hundred years into her public and private life. Published back in 1998, I just wonder why it has taken me so long to finally read this book.N.B. Certainly not averse to a good conspiracy theory, and there are many from the sixteenth century, I notice that a certain American writer of fiction, Steve Berry has just had published by Hodder, a book entitled 'The King's Deception'. He purports that Elizabeth died c1543 and was replaced by a ten year old boy, who then performed a drag act for the next sixty years, unknown to the world. Please Mr Berry, stay over your side of the Atlantic where there are far more plausible conspiracy theories to be pursued.

The Life of Elizabeth I by Alison Weir, is more 'the reign of Elizabeth I', in that it only gives the bare essentials of background before starting with when succeeds to the throne of England at the age of 25. However, Weir has covered the earlier parts of her live in other books, so there isn't much reason to go into it here.Past that, it is a biography, and good one too. Weir takes us on a tour of Elizabeth's life, and talks about her court, her politics, her intrigues, her courting.... Weir usually takes time out to discuss the general conditions of life in the era she's writing about, but this happens a little unexpectedly in two chapters in the middle of the book, instead of setting the scene at the beginning. There's a lot of talk about her court, and the people who populate it, and discussions of many of the stories that grew up around her reign. Generally what you expect from a good biography, and handled very well.In all, a good, entertaining book, and worth a read to anyone interested in Elizabeth I or the Elizabethan era in general.

Alison Weirs magisterial biography of Elizabeth I left me with mixed feelings. It is an extraordinary work, and a treasure-trove for those who want to know what Elizabeth was truly like. What it does not show the reader is the country she ruled. But perhaps it was never meant to, and for anyone drawn to Elizabeth as an individual, it is essential reading meticulous in its research, and very well written.Weir gives us a splendid picture of the Queen as she navigated the shoals of potential marriage alliances, plots against her and rivalries at Court. The challenges that faced her when she came to the throne are well known; the country was riven by religious strife that had been provoked in large part by her father, and her siblings, Edward VI and Mary, had failed to heal these rifts. That Elizabeth would to a limited extent do so, at least for the duration of her reign, was to be one of her greatest achievements. Weir allows us to see the shrewdness and caution that brought this about. She is good, too, on the marriage negotiations that the Queen pursued for many years. I had always assumed that Elizabeth never meant to get married and that this diplomatic dance was only to leave both France and the Hapsburgs hoping for a marriage alliance, so that neither would become her enemy in the interim. In fact, Weirs detailed account suggests that Elizabeth really did consider a diplomatic marriage, albeit reluctantly. As to the various plots that were made against her, Weir writes particularly well of the relationships with Mary Queen of Scots and Essex, and the fate that befell these two rather foolish people a fate that Elizabeth would clearly have spared them, had they but given her the slightest excuse for mercy.There are one or two ways in which this book could have held my attention even more closely than it did. Weir says little about the mental scars that Elizabeth must have borne from the fact that her father had her mother beheaded. On the other hand, Elizabeth was so reticent about this in her lifetime that there is little to go on, and anything that Weir said would perhaps have been speculation something that she in general avoids. Also, there is a large cast of characters at Court, and enormous detail of the Queens correspondence; and at times this drowns out the personalities that mattered. In particular, although Dudley, Mary Queen of Scots and Essex do leap off the page, Burghley somehow does not, a pity in view of his crucial role in the reign. (Though Weir does finger him for the murder of Amy Dudley that actually is speculation; but it is most intriguing.) At times I felt I might have preferred to learn more about fewer characters.More seriously, quite near the end of the book, we hear of the famines that plagued England for some years towards the end of Elizabeths life, of the effects of the Enclosures, and of the large growth in population. I thought Weir might have made more of this, and of the cultural and maritime achievements that marked this outstanding reign. I suppose one could argue that that was simply not the intention of the book; that its focus was always meant to be Elizabeth and not the England that she ruled. Yet I should have liked to read less of the interminable marriage negotiations after all, we know from the beginning that they came to naught and more of the extraordinary England of Elizabeth that still dazzles us today.The fact remains that this book is a wonderful work of scholarship. It is also well-written; the chapters on the death of Dudleys wife, the end of Mary Queen of Scots and the end of Essex are especially vibrant. Besides, if one wants social history, one can I am sure find it elsewhere. For those and there are many who are fascinated by Elizabeth herself, this book is indispensable.