The Queen's Bed: An Intimate History of Elizabeth's Court Author: Anna Whitelock | Language: English | ISBN:
B00EGJE37W | Format: PDF
The Queen's Bed: An Intimate History of Elizabeth's Court Description
From the private world of a beloved queen, a story of intimacy, espionage, rumor, and subterfuge
Queen Elizabeth I acceded to the throne in 1558, restoring the Protestant faith to England. At the heart of the new queen’s court lay her bedchamber, closely guarded by the favored women who helped her dress, looked after her jewels, and shared her bed.
Elizabeth’s private life was of public concern. Her bedfellows were witnesses to the face and body beneath the makeup and raiment, as well as to rumored dalliances with such figures as Earl Robert Dudley. Their presence was for security as well as propriety, as the kingdom was haunted by fears of assassination plots and other Catholic stratagems. Such was the significance of the queen’s body: it represented the very state itself.
In The Queen’s Bed, the historian Anna Whitelock offers a revealing look at the Elizabethan court and the politics of intimacy. She dramatically reconstructs, for the first time, the queen’s quarters and the women who patrolled them. It is a story of sex, gossip, conspiracy, and intrigue brought to life amid the colors, textures, smells, and routines of the court.
The women who attended the queen held the truth about her health, chastity, and fertility. They were her friends, confidantes, and spies—nobody knew her better. And until now, historians have overlooked them. The Queen’s Bed is a revelatory, insightful look into their daily lives—the untold story of the queen laid bare.
- File Size: 1660 KB
- Print Length: 481 pages
- Page Numbers Source ISBN: 0374239789
- Publisher: Sarah Crichton Books (February 11, 2014)
- Sold by: Macmillan
- Language: English
- ASIN: B00EGJE37W
- Text-to-Speech: Enabled
X-Ray:
- Lending: Not Enabled
- Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,590 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
- #1
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > History > World > Renaissance - #1
in Books > History > Modern (16th-21st Centuries) > 16th Century - #2
in Books > History > Renaissance
- #1
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > History > World > Renaissance - #1
in Books > History > Modern (16th-21st Centuries) > 16th Century - #2
in Books > History > Renaissance
The Tudors are an endless source of entertainment and scholarship. I've spent many enjoyable hours reading about them. Anna Whitelock's new book is about the inner court of Elizabeth I, and as the British edition's title calls it, "Elizabeth's Bedfellows." As a new biography of Elizabeth, The Queen's Bed is good, a detailed and readable account. But as a history of the inner court, and in particular, Elizabeth's closest advisors and servants, it falls short.
I am tempted to excuse this failing due to the lack of source material that details the lives and actions of the women closest to Elizabeth. After all, women were often an afterthought in the 16th century -- who would have thought to write about servants, even those of the Queen? But as it happens, someone has already written a book on the topic and found quite a lot of information about the women of Elizabeth's privy chamber.
Elizabeth's Women: Friends, Rivals, and Foes Who Shaped the Virgin Queen by Tracy Borman came out about four years ago. It tells a story of the upper class, well-educated women who populated Elizabeth's court and world. They were an influential and politically savvy group, and Elizabeth talked with them about policy and diplomacy. It was quite a revelation to me that these were not just servants who tended to the Queen's makeup and dress. They were intelligent and opinionated advisors who were often targeted by foreign diplomats for inside information.
The Queen's Bed is a fine book about Elizabeth, but if you were hoping for a little more information about the part the women of the Queen's privy chamber played, I'd have to point you toward Borman's book instead.
TOP 500 REVIEWER VINE VOICE
The subject of countless biographies and historical fictions, Elizabeth I continues to fascinate us over 400 years after her death. And rightly so, for her story is a compelling one. The bastard daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, she became ruler in 1558 of a divided nation. Many thought her unfit to rule; many wished her dead. Many thought she should marry; she chose to remain the Virgin Queen. Even so, Elizabeth becomes one of England's greatest monarchs, reestablishing Protestantism and uniting her nation.
In Anne Whitelock's The Queen's Bed the author takes another look at Elizabeth and her reign, but through the eyes of her ladies-in-waiting, women of privilege who act as her servants, guards, companions, and "bedfellows". Whitelock reveals this intimate world of women with extensive research and an accessible style. We learn of Kate Ashley, Elizabeth's governess and surrogate mother, of the beautiful Lettice Knollys who attracts the attention of Elizabeth's favorite, Robert Dudley, of Mary Sidney who nurses the Queen through smallpox, only to contract the disease herself, and of her beloved cousin, Catherine Howard, whose death in 1603 hastens Elizabeth's own. Whitelock tells the stories of these women, among others, to reveal a little seen Elizabeth--vulnerable, loving, inconsistent, and even a little spiteful. Yet despite the author's considerable skill and its interesting perspective, The Queen's Bed is not especially groundbreaking, much of what I read I have read before. Nevertheless I still consider it a very worthwhile look at the intimate life of England's greatest Queen.
By C.R. Hurst
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