Elizabeth's Bedfellows: An Intimate History of the Queen's Court

This history of the iconic Queen Elizabeth's reign is likely one of the best such accounts I have read. Anna Whitelock places the Queen's Bedchamber and the ladies Elizabeth was most intimate with at the center of her history, including the grimy and realistic details of the make-up Elizabeth wore to preserve her appearance and the physical decay of her body over time. From this focal point, Whitelock recounts the courtly flirtations, the Parliamentary politics, the Catholic schemes, and the assassination plots which populated Elizabeth's reign with tension and uncertainty. After reading this history, I nearly felt as though I had lived through Elizabeth's rule, which is one of the best sensations a history book can leave one with. I show more would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in Elizabeth and the Tudor era. show less

Offering a detailed portrait of Queen Elizabeth I from the perspective of her court. Anna Whitelock describes in rich detail the complexities and contradictions of "the Virgin Queen."

Yes, reading about all the assassination attempts upon QEI does get tiring after the 7th or 8th time. And yes, an approach that was more analytical and less strictly chronological probably would have improved the book. But Whitelock is a very good researcher, and there is a lot of fascinating material here on the Queen's personal household that I've seen nowhere else. I was particularly interested in the information presented about the women who served the Queen as her attendants and bed-mates. They often had to balance allegiance to their own families and show more kinship networks with devotion and service to the Queen. In the interlocking cousinage of Late Tudor England, it seems as if no one was more Two Degrees of Separation from the royal household! show less

I have frequently talked about my fondness for the Tudor Dynasty, which lasted from 1485 to 1603. The period featured scads of colorful and interesting characters, drama, espionage, treachery, love, hate, corruption, and nearly any other positive or negative activity from tennis to mass executions one can imagine.

Anna Whitelock’s recently published volume, The Queen’s Bed: An Intimate History of Elizabeth [I]’s Court peers into the most closely guarded secrets of the Court of the Virgin Queen. These secrets involve the women closest to her. This platoon of servants were with her from dawn to dusk; from the moment she opened her eyes in the morning through her several-hour ordeal of dressing, primping, and applying makeup, until show more she is disassembled and readied for a night’s sleep. The most favored women share her bed chamber through the night, and sometimes even her bed.

Rumors of scandals quickly began swirling around Elizabeth almost from the moment she received the crown of England. The rumors largely revolved around her single status. Whitelock’s meticulously researched and documented work stuns the reader with its depth and breadth of detail. Eight pages of color pictures – including well-known portraits of Elizabeth and those of her Ladies-in-Waiting and Maids of the Chamber -- are a treasure trove of insights into one of the most powerful women in history.

Among a series of epigrams, Whitelock quotes the queen, “We princes, I tell you, are set on stages in the sight and view of all the world duly observed; the eyes of many behold our actions, a spot is soon spied in our garments; a blemish noted quickly in our doings.” This was in the days long before cameras, paparazzi, and gossip columns.

Whitelock writes, “The Queen’s Bedchamber was at once a private and public space. The Queen’s body was more than its fleshly parts; her body natural represented the body politic, the very state itself. The health and sanctity of Elizabeth’s body determined the strength and stability of the realm” (8). As pressure grew on England from without – the excommunication by the pope, plots by her cousin Mary, Queen of Scots, and Spanish supporters of Mary I, her deceased half-sister, and from within that she should marry and produce an heir, Elizabeth maintained her kingdom. William Cecil, Lord Burghley, her most trusted advisor said, “The state of this crown depends only on the breath of one person, our sovereign lady.”

We also learn some astounding statistics. “The court [included] more than a thousand servants and attendants, ranging from brewers and bakers, cooks, tailors and stable hands to courtiers and ambassadors” (17). Whitelock notes, when Elizabeth moved between her homes, three hundred carts of personal possessions moved with her (17). 146 yeoman of the Guard accompanied the queen wherever she happened to be (18).

Anna Whitelock’s, The Queen’s Bed, provides endless fascination for readers of history and biography of significant women on the world’s stage. 5 stars

--Jim 3/5/14 show less

I've read several excellent books on Elizabeth I but this one is unique in its focus on her women of the bedchamber and her male courtiers.

Must know a great deal already about QE-1 in order to follow this history. Begins as an intimate look at the smaller circumference of the inner chambers, loses its focus and blends with other biographies, only with less detail, and less scholarship.

a very enjoyable read