Elizabeth

Philippa Jones is an historian and read Egyptology
at Cambridge University. She lives in Bristol and
has worked at Bristol’s Museum and University.
She has published many books and articles,
including the critically acclaimed
The Other Tudors:
Henry VIII’s Mistresses and Bastards
.

Every author worthy of their salt has reason to thank their publishers, those largely unsung heroes who turn our thoughts and endeavours into the finished product we hope you will enjoy. However, I have particular cause to tender my thanks to Aruna Vasudevan, my Publisher, and Elise Bradbury, my Editor, as well as all the people at New Holland for their unflagging support and guidance, including some serious editing.

In mid-2009 I was diagnosed with cancer and have been undergoing some pretty aggressive chemotherapy for the last six months. Without their help, this book might not have seen the light of day. I won’t bore you or put you off your lunch by giving a short discourse on the side effects of chemotherapy; suffice to say that it would take a large sum of cash in excess of that won by the couple from Cirencester [£56,000,000 on the Lottery] to persuade me to do it again.

I thoroughly enjoyed researching and writing this book, and watched in awe as Aruna and Elise turned my initial text into this finished product. A poor ‘thank you’ hardly seems to do them justice, but I offer it anyway.
Thank you
.

As Elizabeth herself wrote to François, Duc d’Alençon in May 1581:

‘It is time to finish those uneven lines which keep you from your affairs, praying the Creator to keep you in His holy keeping, having trusted myself very cordially in your hands.

Your very assured as well as obliged’,

Philippa Jones

Elizabeth I (1533–1603; Queen of England and Ireland 1558–1603), the last of the Tudor monarchs, reigned over a golden age in English history. The Elizabethan age is known for a flowering of literature and poetry – the time of Shakespeare, Spenser and Marlowe – as well as for establishing England as a seafaring power, whose explorers sailed to distant lands to establish colonies and trade. Regal, beautiful and independent, this indomitable Queen presided over a domestic and European political landscape of intrigue, where courtiers and officials vied for attention and favour, and Catholics and Protestants struggled for dominance. As a woman of great intellect, born to Henry VIII, a man known for his significant achievements, as well as an extremely complicated love life, Elizabeth had a multitude of reasons to choose a path of independence.

As a girl, Elizabeth had witnessed the ruthless banishment and execution of her mother, Anne Boleyn, when she no longer served the King’s purpose. As a young princess, Elizabeth was herself in and out of favour, observing at firsthand the machinations of political ambition and how family could turn against one in an instant,
leading to betrayal and even death in some circumstances. A cautious reaction to marriage would, therefore, be an understandable reaction for any young girl in her position.

For Elizabeth, growing up at a time when marriages, particularly those of royalty, were largely arranged to forge alliances that could potentially lead a kingdom into war, it might have seemed a wise course of action to remain unmarried. In reality, however, probably a mixture of factors led Elizabeth to choose this path, including her own desire for independence, free from the influence of a man behind her throne, fears for her own future and that of her country’s and an innate distrust of men, resulting from her own early experiences with her father, Henry VIII, and later with such men as Thomas Seymour, her guardian’s husband. Perhaps it was simply that Elizabeth fell in 10 love with a man that she could not have – for whatever reason, Elizabeth would never choose to marry.