Elizabeth I: The Golden Reign of Gloriana

by David Loades

Elizabeth I, who reigned over Shakespeare's England and defeated the Spanish Armada, is familiar both from her portraits and as Gloriana, the Virgin Queen. Yet the reality of her character and her personal attitudes are harder to detect behind the public mask. Elizabeth I , a major biography by a leading Tudor expert to mark the 400th anniversary of her death in 1603, looks in detail behind the public life at the private woman. It treats at length her early years and examines her actions and policies as queen. David Loades's biography brings out her remarkable talents and unique achievements.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Biography, Tudor Period

450 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

David Michael Loades was a British historian who specialised in the Tudor era. After military service in the Royal Air Force from 1953 until 1955, Loades studied at the University of Cambridge. In the 1960s and 1970s he taught at the universities of St. Andrews and Durham. From 1980 until 1996 Loades was Professor of History at the University of Wales; after taking emeritus status, Loades served as Honorary Research Professor at the University of Sheffield from 1996 until 2008.

Reviews

[Pete daPixie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have to confess to being a long standing admirer of Gloriana and her age. I was searching my library shelves for Weir's biography, and as that was missing, picked out this 2003 publication by David Loades. The author is an established Tudor historian and has written a biography of Mary Tudor (1989) and a work on the Tudor Court. He is Honorary Research Professor at Leeds University.
Like all good historical biographies this one is built upon it's extensive notes and bibliography, with reference to primary source manuscripts and state papers as well as contemporary publications from the likes of Ascham,Bacon,Foxe,Hakluyt,Holinshead and Spenser. The secondary sources are no less comprehensive, with enough further reading to keep the Tudor buff fully occupied.
Chapter 13 'The Great Queen' is a concise summary of the reign. Loades writes, 'In no issue of foreign policy could her prevarication and indecisiveness be said to have led to disastrous consequences for her country. On the international stage there was no better survivor. At home her achievement can only be judged with hindsight. A combination of good sense and longevity settled the church, and it was no fault of hers that confessional issues became so divisive forty years after her death. She gave her country pride, and set its commercial development on a course that was eventually to be spectacularly successful; for that she deserves more credit than she is usually given.'
Also, 'While the Spanish ambassador declared that ten thousand devils possessed her, the ordinary Englishmen saw in King Hal's full blooded daughter a queen after their own heart. She swore, she spat, she struck with her fist when she was angry; she roared with laughter when she was amused.'
What's not to like?

[Indra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Somewhere between four and five stars actually. This book doesn't seem to be very popular among Elizabeth's biographies, but I believe it is a great book for those, who read about Elizabeth for the first time. Although it doesn't provide much personal details of her daily life (and it's a bit surprising, considering that the annotation promises to look "in detail behind the public life at the private woman") -, David Loades argues his opinions very well; presents a balanced narrative of Elizabeth and her reign; points clearly what is known more or less sure and what is not known; avoids speculation and slipping into fanciful theories; and pays much attention - about the third of the book - to the first 25 years of her life and the circumstances of her birth, which is a good thing.

I also liked Introduction, where Loades voices some problems of writing about Elizabeth. Here is one of them: "To Conyers Read it was Sir William Cecil who was the constructive driving force behind the achievements which pass under Elizabeth's name. To Sir John Neale it was the parliamentary gentry, with their new power and innovative enterprise (an enterprise which the queen did her best to restrain). To Wallace McCaffrey she was a largely reactive politician, very much at the mercy of events, whose main skill lay in doing as little as possible. There are almost as many Elizabeth's as there are historians who have studied her (..)." So true.

[Gene · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was more a history of England's government and public policies in Elizabeth's reign then a biography of the queen herself. It's a well documented look at the good and bad of how the Queen carried out governing the land and has a heavy emphasis on foreign policy and relations. That has pretty much been documented many times already. I would have liked to see more of an attempt to show Elizabeth's life with her court and the day to day relations with her subjects and courtiers.Plus things like the many progresses she did and how this developed her image with the people. Mr. Loades plays it safe and sticks to mostly government policy which can be easily documented. He gets 3 stars because the information he gives is well documented and accurate but no more then that since he does not tell us anything that for the most part we don't already know.

[Colleen O'grady]

Am going to read this one while waiting for Alison's copy to come through from other libraries

[Denise · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not as interesting a read as books by Alison Weir.

[Ellen]

Made it to chapter 4, and then it was due at the library.