619. Elizabeth I: The Virgin Queen (Part 4)

November 20, 2025

Description

How was Elizabeth I finally crowned Queen of England, after long years of perilous waiting? Why was her early reign so fraught with danger? Who was William Cecil, Elizabeth’s new secretary, and...

Books Referenced

Elizabeth I

Author: Helen Castor

Context:

Tom quotes Helen Castor's 'brilliant short biography of Elizabeth' regarding Elizabeth's speech outside the Tower of London, describing it as 'rhetoric and reality fused into a performance that was at once immediately legible and utterly unreadable.'

Tudor England

Author: Lucy Wooding

Context:

Tom quotes Lucy Wooding's book stating 'it could be argued that Elizabeth wanted stability as much as she wanted Protestantism' when discussing Elizabeth's motivations for her religious settlement.

The Early Elizabethan Polity: William Cecil and the British Succession Crisis, 1558-1569

Author: Stephen Alford

Context:

Described as 'the definitive biography of Cecil,' Tom quotes Alford saying Cecil 'was everywhere and everything in Elizabethan government' and also references Alford's analysis of Cecil's emergency succession plans as anticipating the Glorious Revolution.