My interest in Queen Elizabeth I has long been fed by documentaries, movies, and historical fiction titles such as I, Elizabeth by Rosalind Miles. I've always found her to be very fascinating and thought it was high time I read a biography about her. But which one do I choose? I found it serendipitous when a student at the high school library at which I'm interning checked in this extensive biography of the Virgin Queen, so I promptly checked it out myself.

I'm so glad I did. I've been on a bit of a non-fiction tear lately, and this biography didn't disappoint. Weir is very thorough, covering all aspects of the queen's reign, from her foreign policy to her personal life. The most discussed topic throughout Weir's writing is Elizabeth's battle to stay unmarried. Elizabeth spends years and years doing a courtly and strategic dance with other heads of state, leading them on for as long as possible in courtships she has no intention of agreeing to in order to keep the peace with foreign nations. Weir makes an excellent point that Elizabeth has good reason to be very wary of marriage. Just look at the disastrous marriages that her father kept entering into, and what happened to her unfortunate mother! Elizabeth knew that in order to be the true head of her country, she must remain single. I cannot imagine the pressure she constantly felt from both her advisors and subjects to capitulate and marry.

This book is recommended to all who are interested in Elizabeth and who want to read an extremely thorough narrative of the queen's private and public life. ( )

This is a non-fiction book covering Elizabeth's forty-five year reign. However, despite it being non-fiction it also makes for an entertaining read. I have a few of Alison's books and I'd definitely recommend them, she really manages to bring history and Elizabeth to life. It seems quite accurate too. My only criticism is that in certain places she starts talking about something that happened a few years later, or goes off on tangents every now and again - I don't mind that because I find little asides about people mentioned interesting, but I know that not everyone would do! I'd still definitely recommend it as an introduction to her life, though. She seems to have been very thorough. ( )

I usually love Alison Weir's work. The books I've read are well researched, well paced, and the historical characters have depth. She manages to give a mostly accurate view of this period in history while simultaneously telling an intelligible story from a sometimes incomplete historical record. This book, however, was 100 pages too long. I don't know if Weir intended to make Elizabeth I sound like whiny petty incompetent idiot, but that's the impression that I got from the way she wrote this book. I think I could have lived a long happy life without ever believing that the world's greatest female monarch spent all her time flirting with courtiers, being obsessed with her beauty, and later in life, letting the d-bag Essex push her around. I know that Weir purposely wanted to address Elizabeth's personal life (hence, the title) but it's kind of ridiculous to try to tell the story of a sovereign's life, especially a female sovereign, without talking about the way that sovereign governed her country. ( )

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Weir concentrates on Elizabeth's reign from 1558 to 1603. She makes the point that her private life was very much lived in public, and I would add that it was clearly very political. Weir concentrates essentially on the internal politics of Elizabeth's court, which is great as a means of studying her statecraft, but does mean we miss out on some of the other important policy areas - notably, from my point of view, Ireland, which figures only as the scene of the death of the elder Earl of Essex and the catastrophic military failure of his son. Weir is anyway much more interested in the personal dramas of Elizabeth's relationships with the younger Essex, Leicester, and Mary Queen of Scots, which are all in fairness rather good stories. She is particularly good on using appropriate contemporary quotes (though misattributes Nicholas White's letter to the Earl of Shrewsbury).
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This is the fourth Alison Weir novel that I've read and looking back, I've rated them all three stars. This is certainly not an endorsement, as the subject matter of these novels (16th century English history) is of great interest to me. Each of these works simply falls short in providing the kind of captivating reading experience that the subject matter offers.

The Life of Elizabeth I is a perfect example. Someone relying on this work for their sole exposure to Elizabeth I would think that virtually her entire reign was taken up with the pretense of marriagability. In that respect, this work is very narrow and does a great disservice, not only to Elizabethan accomplishments, but to the scope 16th century life in general. In addition, analysis contained in the book is virtually non existent. As with Weir's other works, the prose consists almost entirely of short declarative statements, one after another. The style is jarring and not conducive to either entertainment or education.

The same novel on a subject of lesser interest would garner only two stars, however it would be difficult to write a novel on Elizabeth rated under three stars, the subject matter is so rich with possibility. This is a swing and a miss. ( )