In the course of British history there have been few royals with a childhood as traumatic as that of Elizabeth I. She endured the torment of her mother Anne Boleyn’s execution, her father’s death, the comings and goings of four stepmothers, sexual abuse from a stepfather (who was executed soon after), the death of a half-brother, imprisonment and the death of a half-sister before finally acceding to the throne. All this by the age of 25.
Throughout her young life, Elizabeth veered from sole inheritrix of the crown to hated bastard child
Not many could cope with such a relentless identity crisis. Throughout her young life, Elizabeth veered from sole inheritrix to the crown to hated bastard child. One moment she was championed as a shining example of piety, the next scorned as the bad seed of a notorious concubine. ‘How haps it yesterday Lady Princess and today but Lady Elizabeth?’ she would enquire, perplexed at the constant change of status.
She had barely known her parents, but their shadows defined every aspect of her life. Her half-siblings, Mary and Edward, were her closest family, yet in different ways they were a threat to everything she stood for. Her upbringing was a blur of governesses, stepmothers and tutors. By the end of it, Elizabeth trusted no one. What would a modern therapist make of all this? What kind of woman – what kind of queen – would this tumultuous youth produce?
That is the question Nicola Tallis addresses in her latest book. Through a rigorous dissection of primary sources, she investigates the princess’s life up to her coronation in 1559. It is familiar territory for the author, who has published biographies of Lady Jane Grey, Lettice Knollys and Margaret Beaufort.
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