Elizabeth I - Susan Doran

In this major biography of the queen, Wallace MacCaffrey focusses on Elizabeth's career as a practising politician, taking into account her testing personal experience, her temperament, her own view of her role and the constraints she frequently faced whether imposed by the inheritance from her predecessors or by contemporary events. The Elizabeth who emerges from these pages has a more human appearance than the stiff, richly garbed, bejewelled Elizabeth of the royal portraits. She is more fallible. And more interesting.