Watching Elizabeth again earlier this year (as well as enjoying various kinds of historical fiction lately) inspired me to seek out some books about her era. I've already read books about Walsingham and the armada, so I decided to find a good biography of Elizabeth herself: Allison Weir's The Life of Elizabeth I.


Let me just say this right off: Elizabeth the movie is fiction. Or fictionalized. It is "inspired by a true story". There are some broad plot elements that are true, and there are a lot of good lines that are lifted from actual history (though many of them were said in different contexts). A lot of the broad currents of Elizabeth's 40+ year reign are compressed down into a couple of stories that, in the movie, seem to occur within a few months of her ascension. From the perspective of improving the storytelling, it may be justified, but it's not great history. A few examples? She already knew Lord Robert was married (and they would have a close lifelong relationship, and he wasn't involved in treason). Anjou courted her much later, and she was (it seems) in love with him and seriously considered marriage (though it's true that he liked to dress up in women's clothes). Lord Burghley was her #1 lifelong advisor, not pensioned off with a title as the movie implies. Walsingham did not murder Mary of Guise after seducing her in front of her son. and so forth. Does this lower the movie in my estimation? Well, not really; it's still a good time.

Anyway, the biography. I enjoyed most of it, but I have to admit I got bored with the incessant "Elizabeth leading on some royal suitor then using delaying tactics" story, as well as the "Elizabeth and Dudley having a fight and then making up" story (or, later, the same story about Elizabeth and Essex). I know, these were major currents throughout her life and an accurate history must report them. But still, it all felt basically like a soap opera. And it was tedious and repetitive. I would have enjoyed a fair bit less of the high school romance and more politics, spies, and intrigue. A lot more about the Armada, for example. Or here's as fascinating question about Elizabeth's reign that the book made no attempt to answer: how did England go from one of the weakest to one of the strongest nations in Europe? It has a lot to do with her navy, of course, but there's virtually nothing about how that naval power came about, and very little about Elizabeth's policy of encouraging piracy by the likes of Drake (who comes into the story more as dashing court hanger-on than naval genius). The problem, I guess, is that the book was bent on providing a portrait of Elizabeth the person rather than Elizabeth the queen, and all that historical jibber-jabber took a back seat. So maybe it's my mistake for choosing the wrong book (which I will remedy soon enough). So there's an optic top tip: choose the right book in the first place.

All that said, the historical research that went into the book is impressive. The author has compiled letters from all sorts of people who were at court, both to and from the main players, and letters from others commenting on the action. It all gives her an amazing breadth of contemporary perspective on who was doing what with whom and what they thought about it. Weir manages to take us inside of Elizabeth's head for most of her reign, giving us a good idea of her thoughts and feelings and her overall character. The book's very readable too, with the flow of a decent novel. It drags in a few places as I said, but was overall lively and interesting throughout. Certainly, it met my desire to learn more about Elizabeth, but I'm still eager to learn more about that period.