Queen Elizabeth I

Queen Elizabeth’s Rotten Teeth

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Recently I read somewhere that Queen Elizabeth had horrible teeth. The reason her teeth were bad - Sugar! Early on in the Tudor England sugar wasn't as readily available, but during the reign of Elizabeth the importation of sugar from places like the West and East Indies, Morocco and Barbary led the way to the blackening of England nobility's formerly "pearly whites". When I first read about the Queen's teeth I heard that Elizabeth brushed her teeth with honey - yes, you [More]

Letter from Queen Elizabeth to Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester

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As the Queen's favorite, Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester had petitioned to be sent to the Netherlands to assist in protecting the Protestants in the country. King Philip of Spain had recently taken control of the country after the abdication of Charles V. King Philip was shocked at the number of Protestants in the country and how fast the movement was growing - he wished to stop the movement and return the Netherlands to Catholicism. As a Protestant herself Elizabeth [More]

Book Review: “The Heretic Heir” by G. Lawrence

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As a follow-up to "The Bastard Princess", author G. Lawrence out-does herself in the second book of the Elizabeth of England Chronicles - "The Heretic Heir". If you enjoyed the first book, "The Bastard Princess" you will definitely enjoy this book. The writing is superb and leaves you rooting for Elizabeth through the reign of her sister, Queen Mary I of England. As the sister of the queen, Elizabeth finds herself in trouble more than once throughout her years under the [More]

Elizabeth’s Ladies

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Let's take a look at the women who surrounded Queen Elizabeth and see what their lives were like. As we know already when you were a Lady-in-Waiting or Maid-of-Honour to the Queen that it meant she was responsible for you and your reputation. One would not dare marry without her consent, or be without virtue. As you'll see from this list there were a few of her ladies that stepped outside the rules and disobeyed their Queen. While this is by no means ALL of Elizabeth's [More]

Book Review: “Best Served Cold” by Martha D. Jones

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The Tudor Court, a vibrant testosterone-fuelled maze of manners, duty, politics and sex. To be a woman in such an environment requires guile, luck and loyal friends - a princess needs these even more. To her father she was a disappointment, a bastard, a whore, to her sister a threat and to her stepmother she was Beth. The girl who became Elizabeth I, the woman with the heart of a lion, her heart beat like a woman's nonetheless and her desires were no different. Martha D. [More]

Book Review: “Before the Reign Falls” by David Black

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The life and story of the Lady Jane Grey is one that I have not often read about. I've posted a couple of articles about Jane including her wardship to Thomas Seymour and her letter to Queen Mary I. When I was approached by?Austin Macauley to read and review this book I was very excited to learn more about Jane. The book is called, "Before the Reign Falls - The Lost Words of Lady Jane Grey" by David Black.   During the renovation of a decrepit old barn by several [More]