Elizabeth I
Additional Reading > Biographies
The standard biography of Elizabeth remains J.E. Neale, Queen Elizabeth (1934, reissued as Queen Elizabeth I, 1971). It should be supplemented by other scholarly biographies; among the most useful are J.B. Black, The Reign of Elizabeth, 1558–1603, 2nd ed. (1959); Neville Williams, Elizabeth, Queen of England (1967; U.S. title, Elizabeth the First, Queen of England, 1968), which stresses the formation under Elizabeth of an English national consciousness; and Paul Johnson, Elizabeth I: A Biography (U.K. title, Elizabeth I: A Study in Power and Intellect, 1974). Jasper Ridley, Elizabeth I (1987; U.S. title, Elizabeth I: The Shrewdness of Virtue, 1988), emphasizes the role of religion in the queen's domestic and foreign policy. Christopher Haigh, Elizabeth I, 2nd ed. (1998), is a lively exposition of a skeptical case. David Starkey, Elizabeth: Apprenticeship (2000), is a fresh look based on a rereading of her early life. Popular biographies of Elizabeth, even when well researched, tend to be highly speculative about Elizabeth's emotions and motivations. Among them are Elizabeth Jenkins, Elizabeth the Great (1958, reissued 1972); Lacey Baldwin Smith, Elizabeth Tudor: Portrait of a Queen (1975); Carolly Erickson, The First Elizabeth (1983); and Alison Plowden, The Young Elizabeth (1971), and Elizabeth Regina: The Age of Triumph, 1588–1603 (1980). Selections and extracts of contemporary accounts of Elizabeth may be found in Joseph M. Levine (ed.), Elizabeth I (1969); Richard L. Greaves (ed.), Elizabeth I, Queen of England (1974); and Lacey Baldwin Smith (ed.), Elizabeth I (1980).Contents of this article:
