The Men Who Would Be King: Suitors to Queen Elizabeth I

by Josephine Ross

The story of the many suitors of Elizabeth I—one of the most eligible brides in 16th century Europe

In the only history available on this ever-fascinating subject, readers will meet the many men who competed fruitlessly for Elizabeth's hand and affections. From her childhood—overshadowed by the marital upheavals of her father Henry VIII and the tragic first encounter with courtship, to the fantastical flirtations of her old age, Elizabeth refused to commit herself to any man.

During the marriage negotiations, which spanned half a century, romance blended with diplomacy as one illustrious suitor after another endeavored to ally himself to her in the most intimate of treaties. She played one suitor against another, exploiting her situation to the full both for England's profit and her pleasure. 

One man did come close to winning her—ambitious, devious Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, suspected by many of having murdered his wife, was the most persistent of the suitors to the Queen, and though he never attained the prize he longed for, he was dearly loved by Elizabeth all her life.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Tudor Period, Biography, British Literature, 16th Century, European History

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1975

About the author

As a finalist in Vogue talent contest, Ross won a job on Vogue and joined the magazine after graduating from London University.
She left the magazine two years later to write full time, and her publications include a biography of The Winter Queen (1979) and Beaton in Vogue (1986).
She is married to medieval historian and writer James Chambers; and her interests include history and fencing. She lives in London.

Reviews

[Juliew. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although this had some outdated information it was still a very readable account of Elizabeth I's many marriage negotiations.Among the more notable men Philip II of Spain,Archduke Charles of Austria,Henry Fitzalan,Earl of Arundel,Eric XIV of Sweden,Henry,Duke of Anjou and of course Robert Dudley.This goes into considerable detail with some of her suitors,the best accounts being given by the Spanish ambassadors to her court over a number of years.I liked that the author uses primary sources and that she gave clear and concise reasons why some of the men were accepted as king material while others were not.Intrigue,diplomacy,duels,murder and romance I think few Elizabeth I fans could resist this book.

[Jen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I generally rate books independent of what others say, because I don't know your life. However, I'm always curious when it seems that my rating is overshot (I'm usually far more harsh than others). So I investigated those who rated the book lower.

Here's what I got from the ones that wrote reviews:

-book is overly detailed
-it doesn't read like a novel
-there's a lot of research with not a lot of story

Yeah, so it's a history book. History books generally don't read like novels. Because they aren't novels. They are history--and that should include research and details.

Personally, I was not overwhelmed by the research, because it is what a history book should be...researched. I thought the author took some jumps of logic and analysis that I would be hesitant about taking, but it was backed up. I also thought she should have cited her sources more clearly throughout the text.

The book was extremely interesting because there were some suitors I had only had mentioned in passing, such as Eric of Sweden (dang, as a Swede, I would have loved her as Queen).

This is not going to change your view of history or of Elizabeth. But it is a nice sugar dusting on the french toast of your knowledge.

[Kara · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent examination of Queen Elizabeth I that looks at her life through the lens of all the times she almost got married, and points out how she spent almost her entire life, cradle to grave, being in “talks” for this or that engagement.

And, despite a career as a professional unmarried virgin, she had a long list of men who were in the running for her hand, mostly French princes, but some other princes from Sweden, Spain, Austria, etc, and quite a lot of English nobles, besides the well-known contender of Robert Dudley.

The main theme is that, from age two onwards, Elizabeth was shown examples of women close to her in very similar circumstances, who married, and then lived (or rather, died) to regret it. Anne Boleyn was just the first of many as she grew up and watched a slew of others – Katherine Howard, Catherine Parr, Mary Tudor, Jane Grey, Catherine Grey, Mary Stuart, etc. – make marriages that were their doom.

However, if marriage equaled death in Elizabeth’s mind, she was also smart enough to realize that playing with idea of marrying this or that gentleman or prince could win her quite a lot of political capital, as well as gratifying her own ego, and she played “the marriage game” to the hilt, and, again, despite her Virgin Queen title, becoming the most advanced champion of the game.

You could argue some of the psychological analysis is dated, but it’s still a fascinating approach to a most fascinating monarch.

[Mercedes Rochelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is an interesting approach to a subplot we often read about in biographies of Elizabeth I. Instead of being a background to her story, the courtships are the focal point and help explain the complicated artifices she used to keep her political balls in play. She was a master juggler! Many of her suitors were clearly inappropriate—mostly based on religion—but she somehow managed to keep reeling them in after they showed signs of losing interest. Only when there were no more stratagems to play did she finally express a definitive “no”. Or maybe not! The author feels that elaborate flatteries were necessary to mollify her deep-seated insecurities, so there was a dual purpose to the convoluted game she played. Only during her first disastrous wooing (Thomas Seymour) was she the naïve recipient of a man’s advances. But Elizabeth was a fast learner, and she immediately understood the trap she nearly fell into. Instead, she came to depend on arm’s-length adulation as reassurance that she was truly desirable. As we all know, Robert Dudley succeeded in penetrating her emotional armor, but the queen managed to find a different means of satisfaction:

“Her affair with Lord Robert Dudley was an intensely sexual relationship that was never consummated. The exhibitionism of it all was part of the excitement for Elizabeth; it was a form of acting that required an audience, for the extravagance of her indiscreet familiarity with her favorite was not proof of sexual surrender, but rather a tantalizing, titillating substitute.”

Elizabeth’s background, the example of her mother and stepmothers, as well as the disastrous marriage of Mary Queen of Scots gave her more than enough reason to view marriage with antipathy. Of course, the reaction of her countrymen to her sister Mary’s choice of a foreign prince argued against going that route, while others’ reaction to Dudley—in other words, marrying a subject—made it clear that there was no easy choice for a husband. No wonder she favored the cult of the Virgin Queen, which initially made no one happy, though in the end, they wouldn’t have had it any other way. This was a very enjoyable read and I highly recommend it.

[Lady Jane · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is an examination of all the courtships in the queen's life and how the fact that they were never consummated contributed to her political power as queen. The prose is almost poetic in form as it describes her dalliances from childhood well into old age, fun to read, easy to follow, a charm to reflect on, with many interesting historical gems that were fun to look up on the side. The queen who was courted from infancy to old age by the finest men in Europe died a maid because she seemed fearful to put their professed adoration to the test of lifelong commitment. Once the first flame of excitement died off for any suitor in particular, she'd always find a reason to break the relationship. She never found the very special man who could convince her otherwise by force and action, and in her position as queen it would have been difficult to believe it came with no ulterior motives. A very interesting psychological study, as she'd rather leave before she is left. Growing up in the shadow of King Henry VIII's reign and what he did to his mother and stepmothers, surely she learned to be wary of marriage and instead used only the prospect of it for flirtation, to satisfy her emotional needs, and for political negotiations without intending to ever go through it. Used as a prime example of the archetype of the Coquette in Robert Greene's "Art Of Seduction," she surely maximized the power of her gender, her beauty, and intelligence for as long as she could and well into ripe old age. God save the Queen!

[Beth · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an enjoyable read covering the quite familiar territory of the life of Elizabeth I, looking at the influence of her father and the effect marriage had on the lives of the women around him, her sister’s example and the careful balance she had to maintain all her early life. The abuse and manipulation she suffered as a very young girl made her very aware of the precariousness of her situation and how she had to maintain control and could trust no one. Elizabeth declared her determination never to marry from a very young age, but nobody could believe she was serious—how could a woman could desire such a thing? This book showed how Elizabeth used her extreme marriageability as a weapon to protect herself and her country and how much she thoroughly enjoyed the chase without ever giving up her freedom. Ultimately, the aging queen was no longer desired and it might be wondered if she did regret some of her decisions, but she had maintained her country’s freedom in the face of decided enemies and often played the one off against the other very skilfully for a very long time.

[Andrea · Rating 4 out of 5]

I seem to finding a lot of these topical biographies lately. This one centers on the decades-long courting of Elizabeth I by nearly every noble in England and Europe. The author did a good job of building the atmosphere of Elizabeth’s childhood and takes a decent stab at her psychology and potentially formative opinions shaped by the parade of stepmothers she had. As Elizabeth takes the throne, the stakes for her potential marriage are high and the author did a good job of giving a sense of the personality and motives of various illustrious suitors. As Elizabeth ages, I started having flashbacks to Helen Mirren in Elizabeth I which was so well done it was actually uncomfortable to watch in some places – sad, lonely aging queen making a fool of herself over various sweet young things and really wanting to believe they longed for her and not the throne. Overall, a good read and a nice supplement to more generally focused works on Elizabeth’s reign.

[Daniel Kukwa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've taken off one star for a single reason: I have an incredibly hard time trying to believe that Elizabeth's virginity remained pure throughout her reign. Considering her background, her passions, and life in the Tudor/Renaissance world, to say nothing of anecdotal evidence from the time, I require far more convincing evidence than the occasional claims in this book. But that issue aside, this is as concise and straightforward an examination of one narrow topic as you are likely to find in an historical work. It maintains its focus on Elizabeth's suitors without wavering for a moment, and it manages to cover an enormous topic with expediency and efficiency. It does mean a reader must possess a familiarity with Elizabeth's background...but I'm assuming most people choosing to read this book will possess such knowledge.

[Megan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wouldn't say that this told me much I didn't already know from novels, but it put all the information together in one place and did a competent job of it. A timeline would have been helpful.

[Kats & Koffee · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have been reading this book on and off for almost a year now. It's very intriguing about the men who chased after Elizabeth I from her teenage years up until her death. When I think of Elizabeth's suitors the two that always come to my mind are Robert Dudley, her life long friend (and assumed lover) and Thomas Seymour who pursued Elizabeth when she was just a child. The story dives deep into the men who sought after the English throne and one of the most desired women to rule it. It is stated that Elizabeth enjoyed the chase and the attention but would go no further than the flirtation. There were many men who wanted her just for the conquest to become the new King of England but Elizabeth had no intentions of ever letting a man rule the country she almost was not able to inherit. The story is complex yet very enjoyable and great read for any Elizabeth I fan.

[Helen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book provides a highly readable account of Elizabeth I and the men who wanted to marry her - political alliances, courtiers, and some actual relationships. I could have done with some more detail about some of the less familiar characters - more Christopher Hatton and Erik of Sweden and less Alencon and Leicester. But this book was first published a few years after the hit TV series Elizabeth R and very much gives us the same narrative - the young Elizabeth harassed by the attentions of Thomas Seymour, her flirtations with Leicester, etc. I could have also done with a bit less about how Elizabeth was ‘old’ from the age of about 30 and described as positively decrepit and deprived because of her lack of sex and children from the menopause onwards. One wonders if the author would say the same things today now that she herself is older than Elizabeth was when she died.

[Sally Hallman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Textbook Analysis of Elizabeth I

The book is very informative I tonal, but reads as a thesis on the Queen rather than a story of the Queen. Once again I feel the author got tired of the subject matter before the end and rushed through some of the relationships toward the end of her life. This was informative but very dry in its' portrayal of what was probably one of the most interesting Monarchs ever in England.

[Stacie Jordan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an easy to read book on the would-be suitors for Queen Elizabeth I. Some wanted to force her, some were not serious in her eyes, and some wanted a political alliance. From the time she controlled these, and fed the narrative people wanted. One man stayed the test of time. No one thought when she said as a child, she would never marry, that she would actually be able to stay unmarried. This can be read by those that don't normally read history.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars.

[Carol Griffiths · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although this was written some time ago, it is a good and fair assessment of Elizabeth's various suitors. The style is very readable and the work is well researched and referenced.

[Cwelshhans · Rating 3 out of 5]

Readable and focused if not particularly illuminating

[h · Rating 3 out of 5]

For the most part, this was an enjoyable book, which centered around Elizabeth I's various romances and flirtations. The author spends a great deal of time quoting documents and sources, but I would have liked this better if she had used footnotes to indicate the sources themselves. In addition, there were places where it seemed to me that the author's various biases crept through. Her descriptions of Mary were unflattering, and those were not taken from the historical sources; she personally seems to find Mary unlikable. Sir Walter Raleigh merits only 3 pages of discussion in a 218 page book. Perhaps this was because the author was writing extensively about at least one flirtation (the Duke of Alencon) which hasn't received as much attention in the popular royalty-obsessed culture. But it is a curious choice to relegate him to three pages at the end of the book, without even mentioning the name of the lady in waiting he married, which doomed him. Also, the author referred to Elizabeth's withered old age when she was in her late 40's, and these kinds of descriptions may have been historically accurate from a certain perspective, but the impression it gives is that the author found Elizabeth to be a bit grotesque - not that this is sourced from history, but that it's her own feeling about her subject.

[Chris · Rating 2 out of 5]

I find that I have a strange attraction to stories of the British Royalty, especially tales of the House of Tudor. This was on the new non fiction shelf at the library and I thought that I would give it a chance. It appeared to be very thoroughly researched and it was full of lots of details and "quotes" from letters and other papers from the people involved in the saga that was the very public love life of Elizabeth I. While the details were good, it did seem a tad long and exhausting to read, and I really felt like the movie that was made in 1953 with Jean Simmons called "Young Bess" gave me about as much as anyone who was not a scholar would need to know about the whole affair. (Pardon the pun).

[Jodi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Been revisiting some Jane Austen fan fiction (the trilogy on Darcy) but managed to switch up my reading and get some more 'serious' books read.
This book has a very targeted audience for this book. Seriously, it only discusses, in great detail, the suitors for Queen Elizabeth I. Archduke Charles takes the bulk of the pages (thought there would be more on "The Frog" myself but he was dealt with relatively quickly) with extensive use of primary sources from the Imperial and Papal Courts.
This is not a current book, but a 'find' my husband gave me for Christmas. Thoroughly enjoyed it.

[Jackie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have always wondered if Queen Elizabeth I chose not to marry because of the death of her mother, Anne Boleyn and this book supports my feelings. What a horrible trauma to live through - knowing her mother died and how she died. I think Queen Elizabeth chose to remain unmarried because she probably thought it was the best way to stay alive especially with the numerous claims to the throne, the history of her father and the times that she lived in.

I think this is a very well written book and I appreciated the details in this queen's life.

[Sylvie · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is more research than novel though the author render Elisabeth life with anecdotic qualities making it more palatable. The only issue are the same arguments being brought repetitively as the author try to analyze Elisabeth psychology behind her choice of rejecting all her suitors. It's understandable considering this book reads almost like a thesis but it would have gained by being shorter, to the point

[Jade · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a really good read after the Alison Weir book I read before it. You know how sometimes you finish something and you just want more on the same subject. That kind of thing. Really goes in depth to Elizabeth I's courtships--no sensationalism, just facts--awesome. I especially liked the chapters on Alencon who tends to get short shrift in most books. A quick and informative read. Nice little photo section and great references.

[Stacy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Maybe it's because I've read so much about Elizabeth, particularly Sarah Griswold's fantastic Elizabeth & Leicester. But this seemed to just rehash all the stories I already knew. A modern psychiatrist would have a field day with Elizabeth's issues about marriage; however, this work offered no new insights into the situation.

In short, a new Tudor fan will love this. Myself, not so much.

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author focuses on the romantic (and political) interests of Elizabeth 1, but it would have been interesting to read about this aspect of the queen's life in context with major events during her reign. The subject matter is very engaging but could have been elevated within broader context. Still, the book is a worthwhile read.

[Stefanie Robinson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This wasn't a very hefty book, but it was an interesting, albeit broad overview of the men who wanted to marry Queen Elizabeth I. They certainly were not wanting to marry for love, but certainly for the position it would have afforded them. I would like to look into more thorough biographies than what was provided here. This was a good introduction and jumping off point for more research.

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a fascinating book about all the suitors who vied to become king consort of England. I was torn between sorrow for this Queen who was ruled pychologically by her fear of love and her need of it. What a fierce woman though in her desire to rule alone.

[Micaela · Rating 2 out of 5]

If you're just looking for a quick history book equivalent of a rom-com, this is great. If you're looking for good quality historical research and discussion, maybe look for something that actually has citations and a purpose besides gossip.

[Sawyer Lovett · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not bad, but a little pretentious. slow reading, but educational.

[Saul · Rating 4 out of 5]

Elizabeth indeed. what a personality!

[EFern · Rating 2 out of 5]

boring; i'm not enough of history buff to follow it alll...quit 1/3 way thru and skimmed to end; i guess i wanted more drama than history