Oct. 13, 2010
BOOK REVIEW: Tracy Borman's 'Elizabeth's Women' Explores Influential Women in Life of Virgin Queen
Reviewed By David M. Kinchen
As fans of Tudor TV know, there's a current absence of dramatic portrayals of Henry VIII and his daughter, Elizabeth I on television. The Showtime series "The Tudors" is a distant memory, even though it finished its 2007-2010 run only this past June. The drought extends to the big screen with nothing new featuring such Virgin Queen actresses as Helen Mirren or Cate Blanchett.
All this means is that now is as good time as any to pick up a copy of Tracy Borman's "Elizabeth Women: Friends, Rivals, and Foes Who Shaped the Virgin Queen" (Bantam Books, an imprint of Random House, illustrations, notes, bibliography, index, 496 pages, $28.00).
Historian Borman ("The King's Mistress") explores the relationship of thirty women who played a role in shaping the character of Elizabeth, including her mother, Anne Boleyn, beheaded when Elizabeth was only three years old. Departing from the traditional approach of historians -- male and female alike -- who have concentrated on the men in Elizabeth's life, Borman profiles the women who shaped Elizabeth's view of life.
Occupying the highest rank was Boleyn, eager to nurture her new child, only to see her taken away and her own life destroyed by damning allegations — which taught Elizabeth never to mix politics and love. Another important woman in Elizabeth's life was Kat Astley, the governess who attended and taught Elizabeth for almost thirty years, invited disaster by encouraging her charge into a dangerous liaison after Henry VIII’s death. Mary Tudor—“Bloody Mary”— envied her younger sister’s popularity and threatened to destroy her altogether. And animosity drove Elizabeth and her cousin Mary Queen of Scots into an intense thirty-year rivalry that could end only in death.
Contrary to the often held view that Elizabeth repudiated or ignored her mother, Borman says that the Virgin Queen went out of her way to choose women to serve her from the ranks of relatives of Anne Boleyn. "She appointed a significant number of women from Anne Boleyn's side of the family, including her cousins, Philadelphia and Katherine Carey, daughter and sister, respectively of Henry Carey," Borman writes. "Katherine's daughter Mary later became another member of the household. The privy chamber lists at Elizabeth's accession and the years that follow contain regular mentions of the Careys, as well as the Knollyses, Howards, and various other Boleyn relatives."
Elizabeth had only to look at her father's treatment of his eight wives to decide that matrimony was not in the cards for her. Borman tells how the horror of Anne Boleyn's execution, swiftly followed by that of her stepmother, Katherine Howard, influenced Elizabeth. Her sister, Mary, the offspring of Henry VIII and Henry's first wife, Catherine of Aragon, had a disastrous marriage to Philip II, suffering two phantom pregnancies and her abandonment by the Spanish king.
Add to this the disappointments in affairs of the heart by the sisters of Lady Jane Grey and Mary, Queen of Scots, and its no wonder that Elizabeth resisted attempts by the men in her circle to find a suitable husband for her. The Virgin Queen was well and truly married to her beloved England and no mortal man could compete.
Borman argues that women influenced Elizabeth more than men because they enjoyed much greater access to the queen than men. Her ladies in waiting and other women were close at hand and could indulge in gossiping and other pastimes, unlike the men in the queen's life who were restricted to the public spaces of the various palaces. Elizabeth was an early fan of the mafia concept of keeping your friends close and your enemies closer.
Elizabeth's relations with men reflected the queen's public and political side, Borman says, while her relations with women revealed the human side of the queen. She could be fickle, demanding, vicious and cruel, but she could also be kind, generous, loyal and trusting. It must have been difficult to live each day with such a complex woman, but the rewards of being close to her must have outweighed the problems or else so many women wouldn't have made the effort.
Borman's fascination with Elizabeth is evident on every page of this very readable book, a work that adds greatly to scholarship but it accessible to the general reader -- as long as the general reader is obsessed with the Tudors!
About the author
Tracy Borman studied and taught history at the University of Hull in England and was awarded a Ph.D in 1997. She went on to a successful career in heritage and has worked for a range of historic properties and national heritage organizations, including the Heritage Lottery Fund, The National Archives and English Heritage. Borman has recently been appointed Chief Executive of the Heritage Education Trust, which encourages children to visit and learn from historic properties.
Publisher's website: www.bantamdell.com
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BOOK REVIEW: Tracy Borman's 'Elizabeth's Women' Explores Influential Women in Life of Virgin Queen
Reviewed By David M. Kinchen
As fans of Tudor TV know, there's a current absence of dramatic portrayals of Henry VIII and his daughter, Elizabeth I on television. The Showtime series "The Tudors" is a distant memory, even though it finished its 2007-2010 run only this past June. The drought extends to the big screen with nothing new featuring such Virgin Queen actresses as Helen Mirren or Cate Blanchett.
All this means is that now is as good time as any to pick up a copy of Tracy Borman's "Elizabeth Women: Friends, Rivals, and Foes Who Shaped the Virgin Queen" (Bantam Books, an imprint of Random House, illustrations, notes, bibliography, index, 496 pages, $28.00).
Historian Borman ("The King's Mistress") explores the relationship of thirty women who played a role in shaping the character of Elizabeth, including her mother, Anne Boleyn, beheaded when Elizabeth was only three years old. Departing from the traditional approach of historians -- male and female alike -- who have concentrated on the men in Elizabeth's life, Borman profiles the women who shaped Elizabeth's view of life.
Occupying the highest rank was Boleyn, eager to nurture her new child, only to see her taken away and her own life destroyed by damning allegations — which taught Elizabeth never to mix politics and love. Another important woman in Elizabeth's life was Kat Astley, the governess who attended and taught Elizabeth for almost thirty years, invited disaster by encouraging her charge into a dangerous liaison after Henry VIII’s death. Mary Tudor—“Bloody Mary”— envied her younger sister’s popularity and threatened to destroy her altogether. And animosity drove Elizabeth and her cousin Mary Queen of Scots into an intense thirty-year rivalry that could end only in death.
Contrary to the often held view that Elizabeth repudiated or ignored her mother, Borman says that the Virgin Queen went out of her way to choose women to serve her from the ranks of relatives of Anne Boleyn. "She appointed a significant number of women from Anne Boleyn's side of the family, including her cousins, Philadelphia and Katherine Carey, daughter and sister, respectively of Henry Carey," Borman writes. "Katherine's daughter Mary later became another member of the household. The privy chamber lists at Elizabeth's accession and the years that follow contain regular mentions of the Careys, as well as the Knollyses, Howards, and various other Boleyn relatives."
Elizabeth had only to look at her father's treatment of his eight wives to decide that matrimony was not in the cards for her. Borman tells how the horror of Anne Boleyn's execution, swiftly followed by that of her stepmother, Katherine Howard, influenced Elizabeth. Her sister, Mary, the offspring of Henry VIII and Henry's first wife, Catherine of Aragon, had a disastrous marriage to Philip II, suffering two phantom pregnancies and her abandonment by the Spanish king.
Add to this the disappointments in affairs of the heart by the sisters of Lady Jane Grey and Mary, Queen of Scots, and its no wonder that Elizabeth resisted attempts by the men in her circle to find a suitable husband for her. The Virgin Queen was well and truly married to her beloved England and no mortal man could compete.
Borman argues that women influenced Elizabeth more than men because they enjoyed much greater access to the queen than men. Her ladies in waiting and other women were close at hand and could indulge in gossiping and other pastimes, unlike the men in the queen's life who were restricted to the public spaces of the various palaces. Elizabeth was an early fan of the mafia concept of keeping your friends close and your enemies closer.
Elizabeth's relations with men reflected the queen's public and political side, Borman says, while her relations with women revealed the human side of the queen. She could be fickle, demanding, vicious and cruel, but she could also be kind, generous, loyal and trusting. It must have been difficult to live each day with such a complex woman, but the rewards of being close to her must have outweighed the problems or else so many women wouldn't have made the effort.
Borman's fascination with Elizabeth is evident on every page of this very readable book, a work that adds greatly to scholarship but it accessible to the general reader -- as long as the general reader is obsessed with the Tudors!
About the author
Tracy Borman studied and taught history at the University of Hull in England and was awarded a Ph.D in 1997. She went on to a successful career in heritage and has worked for a range of historic properties and national heritage organizations, including the Heritage Lottery Fund, The National Archives and English Heritage. Borman has recently been appointed Chief Executive of the Heritage Education Trust, which encourages children to visit and learn from historic properties.
Publisher's website: www.bantamdell.com
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