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The Elizabethans (2011)

by A.N. Wilson(Favorite Author)

3.57 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

0091931525 (ISBN13: 9780091931520)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Hutchinson

review 1: To understand the mindset of the Elizabethans - the war, the plagues, the nasty, brutish, short lives, religious revolution and the utter importance of these entirely alien sectarian battles - it's necessary to understand that the England forged in Elizabeth Tudor's reign came to an end in the reign of Elizabeth Windsor. This is the heart of AN Wilson's theory and his pacy, witty book. Like many Tudor historians Wilson seems to be half in love with Queen Elizabeth, whom he portrays as a woman of almost preternatural wit and with a deftness of touch (political and common) that politicians and royalty - Elizabeth was both - even in today's media savvy age would die for. Yet another royal biography - really? This is more than, though, a portrait of an age told through its fig... moreurehead but also the men, and occasionally women, who frame the era, often mere bit part actors but occasionally more substantial. Burghley, her secretary of state, a mix of cunning, religiosity and utter devotion. Dudley, glamorous Robin, who won her heart but had to be sidelined for reasons of state. His wayward stepson Essex, her last great love, who made the mistake of entering an old queen's bedchamber and seeing her sans makeup and wig, probably a far greater faux pas than losing it in Ireland. Philip, the over-reaching Spanish king and zealot. Campy, daft Christopher Hatton. And of course Mary, Queen of Scots - every epic hero needs an arch-enemy: whom Wilson portrays as glamorous, misguided, dishonest but most damning of all, really quite stupid.Among this cast of dozens Elizabeth is the stand-out, not just in the set pieces (who couldn't be moved by the Tilbury speech, not least its artifice?) but as a woman in a man's world who managed not only to survive despite almost constant threat throughout her long life, but to thrive, dominate even. And she did it all - the virginity, the Armada, the terrible portraits, for the people, which is probably the secret of her success. On her way to her coronation she was introduced to her judges, and she reminded them of their duty: 'Have a care over my people...they are my people. Every man oppresseth them and spoileth them without mercy. They cannot revenge their quarrel nor help themselves. See unto them, see unto them, for they are my charge.'Whether Wilson quite proves his theory - that it's all come to the end of days, and Elizabeth I's legacy: Church, Empire, education and government, are unravelling in the time of Elizabeth II - is debateable. It's certainly an old school conservative view of the course of events but it weaves its way rather unsteadily through this book. Rather than a grand philosophy, better to enjoy this as an entertaining, gossipy and occasionally thrilling mix of an Elizabethan version of Heat, the Spectator and Twitter all rolled into one.
review 2: What a joy to find a historian whose writing is so magnetic that you forget you're reading history!Beginning with the provocative assertion that our generation has lived to see the end of the Elizabethan world, Wilson then notes the danger a modern reader can fall into of seeing that world through a lens of anachronistic judgements. Throughout, Wilson helps you to see Elizabethan times with an Elizabethan eye. In so doing, he repeatedly invites the modern reader to examine herself and her times as acutely as he parses Elizabeth's reign. For me, the most exciting thing a history book can do is display how past events inform recent culture and attitudes. Wilson's book does this frequently, and my favorite example occurs in the chapter on the Armada:"England, from 1588 until the 1950's would be shaped in its self-perception by the experience of the Armada, and by Elizabeth's eloquent vision of herself holding out against 'any prince of Europe' who threatened the island kingdom. Churchill would draw on all this spirit for one last glorious display of collective insular courage in the summer of 1940."I highly, highly recommend this book to both the voracious and the occasional history reader. less

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