cover image Elizabeth I

Elizabeth I

Jasper Godwin Ridley. Viking Books, $24.95 (391pp) ISBN 978-0-670-81526-5

British biographer of John Knox, Henry VIII and other personages, Ridley here broadens the reader's understanding of Elizabeth I as a woman who prevailed through ""shrewdness.'' Born in 1533, she was intelligent and aware from childhood on that the times were dangerous for people with royal blood. Along with her half sister Mary, the daughter of Anne Boleyn was declared illegitimate but not disowned by Henry VIII. Elizabeth was docile and undemanding, subservient to Bloody Mary and wary always, even when she became queen in 1558. Ripley views the Virgin Queen as a manipulator, frequently indecisive and mistaken in judgment, at considerable cost to England. But during the 45 years of her reign, the arts flourished and England became the mightiest country in the Western world. Elizabeth was widely mourned when she died in 1603, although she was notoriously cruel to anyone suspected of disloyalty. Photos not seen by PW. (January 18)