Elizabeth I and the Tudor/Elizabethan Eras

Reacquaint yourself with the Queen as well as become more familiar with the historical and cultural forces that shaped her personality and her time and examine the mixture of history and legend that continues to surround her today.

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Books for Adult Readers

Nonfiction

Brigden, Susan. New Worlds, Lost Worlds: The Rule of the Tudors, 1485–1603 (Penguin History of Britain). Penguin USA, 2002.

Camden, William. The History of the Most Renowned and Victorious Princess Elizabeth, Late Queen of England [1625]. Wallace T. MacCaffrey, ed. University of Chicago Press, 1970.

Clarke, Danielle, ed. Isabella Whitney, Mary Sidney, and Aemilia Lanyer: Renaissance Women Poets (Penguin Classics). Penguin USA, 2001.

Cole, Mary Hill. The Portable Queen: Elizabeth I and the Politics of Ceremony. University of Massachusetts Press, 2000.

Crockett, Laura. Trippingly on the Tongue: A Booke of Instruction for Speaking Early Modern English. Historical Resources, 1997.

Doran, Susan. Elizabeth I and Foreign Policy. Routledge, 2000.

———. Elizabeth I and Religion 1558–1603. Routledge, 1994.

———. Monarchy and Matrimony: The Courtships of Elizabeth. Routledge, 1996.

Dovey, Zillah M. An Elizabethan Progress: The Queen’s Journey into East Anglia, 1578. Sutton, 1999.

Dudley, Wade G. Drake: For God, Queen, and Plunder. Brassey’s, 2003.

Duffy, Eamon. The Stripping of the Altars: Traditional Religion in England, C.1400–C.1580. Yale University Press, 1994.

———. The Voices of Morebath: Reformation and Rebellion in an English Village. Yale University Press, 2003.

Emerson, Kathy Lynn. Wives and Daughters: The Women of Sixteenth Century England. Whitson Publishing Co., 1984.

———. The Writer’s Guide to Everyday Life in Renaissance England: From 1485–1649. Writers Digest Books, 1996.

Erickson, Carolly. The First Elizabeth. St. Martin’s Press, 1997.

Freeman Thomas S., and Susan Doran. The Myth of Elizabeth. Palgrave Macmillan, 2003.

Frye, Susan. Elizabeth I: The Competition for Representation. Oxford University Press, 1996.

Haigh, Christopher. English Reformations: Religion, Politics, and Society under the Tudors. Clarendon, 1993.

Howarth, David. Images of Rule: Art and Politics in the English Renaissance. University of California Press, 1997.

Hulse, Clark. Elizabeth I: Ruler and Legend. University of Illinois Press, 2003.

Jenkins, Elizabeth. Elizabeth the Great. Putnam, 1959.

Kinney. Arthur F., ed. The Cambridge Companion to English Literature, 1500–1600. Cambridge University Press, 2000.

———. Renaissance Drama: An Anthology of Plays and Entertainments (Blackwell Anthologies). Blackwell, 2000. Covers the English Renaissance only.

Levin, Carole. “The Heart and Stomach of a King.” Elizabeth I and the Politics of Sex and Power. University of Pennsylvania Press, 1994.

———. The Reign of Elizabeth I. Palgrave Macmillan, 2003.

Levin, Carole, Jo Eldridge Carney, and Debra Barrett-Graves, eds. Elizabeth I: Always Her Own Free Woman. Ashgate, 2003.

Marcus, Leah S., Janel M. Mueller, and Mary Beth Rose, eds. Elizabeth I: Collected Works. University of Chicago Press, 2000.

Mattingly, Garrett. The Armada. Mariner Books, 1974.

Neale, J.E. Elizabeth I and Her Parliaments. 2 vols. J. Cape, 1953–57.

———. Queen Elizabeth. J. Cape, 1938.

Norris, Herbert. Tudor Costume and Fashion. Dover, 1997.

Plowden, Alison. Danger to Elizabeth: The Catholics under Elizabeth I. Sutton, 1999.

———. Marriage with My Kingdom: The Courtships of Elizabeth I. Sutton, 2000.

Rowse, Alfred Leslie. Elizabethan Renaissance: The Cultural Achievement. Macmillan, 1972.

———. The Elizabethan Renaissance: The Life of the Society. Ivan R. Dee, 2000.

———. The England of Elizabeth. University of Wisconsin Press, 2003.

Scarisbrick, Diana. Tudor and Jacobean Jewellery. Tate, 1995.

Somerset, Anne. Elizabeth I. Knopf, 1991.

Starkey, David. Elizabeth: The Struggle for the Throne. HarperCollins, 2000.

Strong, Roy. The Cult of Elizabeth: Elizabethan Portraiture and Pageantry. Random House UK, 1999.

———. The Portraits of Queen Elizabeth I. Thames and Hudson, 1987.

———. The Renaissance Garden in England. Thames and Hudson, 1979.

Walker, Julia M. Elizabeth I As Icon: 1603 to 2003. Palgrave Macmillan, 2004.

———, ed. Dissing Elizabeth: Negative Representations of Gloriana. Duke University Press, 1998.

Watson, Nicola J., and Michael Dobson. England’s Elizabeth: An Afterlife in Fame and Fantasy. Oxford University Press, 2002.

———. The Life of Elizabeth I. Ballantine, 1999.

———. Six Wives of Henry VIII. Grove Press, 2000.

Williams, Neville. The Tudors (A Royal History of England, Antonia Fraser, ed.). University of California Press, 2000.

Wormald, Jenny. Mary, Queen of Scots: Pride, Passion and a Kingdom Lost. Palgrave Macmillan, 2001.

Historical Fiction

Well-reviewed historical fiction, including mysteries.

Barnes, Margaret Campbell. Brief Gaudy Hour. Ace, 1981. The life of Anne Boleyn.

Buckley, Fiona. To Shield the Queen: A Mystery at Queen Elizabeth I’s Court. Pocket Books, 1998. The first in a series of mysteries with Elizabeth’s court as the scenario. Other titles are Queen of Ambition, A Pawn for a Queen, To Ruin a Queen, Queen’s Ransom, Doublet Affair,and The Fugitive Queen.

Burgess, Anthony. A Dead Man in Deptford. Carroll and Graf, 2003. The death of Christopher Marlowe in 1593.

Finney, Patricia. Firedrake’s Eye. Picador USA, 1998. An Elizabethan thriller.

———. Unicorn’s Blood. St. Martin’s Press, 1999. The same.

Garrett, George. Death of the Fox: A Novel of Elizabeth and Raleigh. Harvest, 1991.

———. The Succession: A Novel of Elizabeth and James. Harvest, 1991.

Nye, Robert. The Late Mr. Shakespeare. Penguin, 2000.

Scott, Sir Walter. Kenilworth. Penguin Classics, 1999.

Books for Younger Readers

Blackwood, Gary L. The Shakespeare Stealer. Puffin, 2000. Ages 9+.

Cooper, Susan. King of Shadows. Aladdin, 2001. Ages 9+. A boy travels back in time.

Greenblatt, Miriam. Elizabeth I and Tudor England. Benchmark, 2001. Ages 9–12.

Guy, John. Tudor & Stuart Life. Consortium Books, 2001. Ages 9–12.

Irwin, Margaret. Elizabeth and the Prince of Spain. Allison and Busby, 1999. Ages 10+.

———. Elizabeth, Captive Princess. Allison and Busby, 1999. Ages 10+.

———. Young Bess. London Bridge Trade, 1999. Ages 10+.

Lace, William W. Defeat of the Spanish Armada (Great Battles Series). Lucent, 1997. Ages 12+.

Langley, Andrew. Shakespeare’s Theatre. Oxford University Press, 1999. Ages 12+.

Lasky, Kathryn. Elizabeth I: Red Rose of the House of Tudor, England, 1544. Scholastic, 1999. Ages 9–12.

———. Mary, Queen of Scots: Queen without a Country, France, 1553 (The Royal Diaries). Scholastic, 2002. Ages 9–12.

Marrin, Albert. The Sea King: Sir Francis Drake and His Times. Athenaeum, 1995.

McCarthy, Shaun. Sir Walter Raleigh (Groundbreakers, Explorers). Heinemann, 2002. Ages 9+.

McMurtry, Jo. Understanding Shakespeare’s England: A Companion for the American Reader. Archon, 1989. Ages 12+.

Meyer, Carolyn. Beware, Princess Elizabeth: A Young Royals Book. Gulliver, 2002. Ages 12+.

———. Doomed Queen Anne : A Young Royals Book. Gulliver (2004). Ages 12+.

———. Mary, Bloody Mary: A Young Royals Book. Gulliver, 2001. Ages 12+.

Stanley, Diane, and Peter Vennema. Bard of Avon: The Story of William Shakespeare. William Morrow, 1992. Ages 7–12.

———. Good Queen Bess: The Story of Elizabeth I of England. HarperCollins, 2001. Ages 7–12.

Thomas, Jane Resh. Behind the Mask: The Life of Queen Elizabeth I. Clarion, 1998. Ages 11+.

What Life Was Like in the Realm of Elizabeth: England, AD 1533–1603 (What Life Was Like Series). Time-Life Books, 1999. Ages 12+.

Picture Books

Aliki. William Shakespeare & the Globe. HarperCollins, 1999.

Mannis, Celeste Davidson. The Queen’s Progress: An Elizabethan Alphabet. Penguin, 2003.

Other Materials for Children

Queen Elizabeth I—Paper Dolls to Color. Bellerophon Books, 1985.

Edupress Hands-On Heritage Renaissance Activity Book: Contains art, crafts, and cooking ideas in their historical contexts, along with some reproducible historical aids. Activities include making stand-up paper models of Renaissance people, making a perfume sachet; making a horn book; designing a unique coin for trading; painting a mural of life in London and the River Thames; making and using juggling sticks; constructing a stand-up model of an Elizabethan public theater; creating sound effects that might have been heard in the production of one of Shakespeare’s plays; making a mask of a performer in a masque; creating a floral garland; learning popular Renaissance songs; learning painting techniques of great Renaissance artists; and much more. $7.19. See www.barbsbooks.com/renaissance.htm.

Films and Videos

Rather than duplicate lists of films and television productions from the Internet, we list here two websites that contain lists of productions relating to Elizabeth I and the Tudor/Elizabethan eras:

http://tudorhistory.org/movies. Tudors in the movies and on television, from Miranda Richardson as the delightfully demented Queen Elizabeth in the Black Adder television series, to other portrayals of the Queen by Glenda Jackson and Cate Blanchett.

www.englishhistory.net/tudor/films.html. A site that lists only films about the Tudors, with objective annotations.

The websites above contain links to the Internet Movie Database pages for each production. For an alternative set of reviews, go to www.rottentomatoes.com.

Related Websites

The Newberry Library website for the exhibit “Elizabeth I: Ruler and Legend” may be found at www.newberry.org/elizabeth.

Tudor-Era Websites

http://englishhistory.net/tudor.html. “Tudor England from 1485–1603” includes biographies, images, and a good section of primary sources such as Anne Boleyn’s speech before her execution, the last letter of Mary Queen of Scots, and poems, letters , and speeches of Elizabeth I.

www.tudorhistory.org. One of the best general websites on the Tudor era in the “Tudor Web Ring,” suitable for students as well as adults. Includes biographies of major figures, and sections on architecture, maps, genealogical trees, and primary sources available in electronic form, among many others.

www.royal.gov.uk. Official website of British monarchy with a good historical section on the Tudors and individual biographies of Tudor rulers.

General English Renaissance Websites

www.english.cam.ac.uk/ceres.The Cambridge English Renaissance Electronic Service, a site for study, research, and collaborative work on early Modern English manuscripts and the English Renaissance.

Elizabethan Art, Literature, and Music

www.luminarium.org/renlit. “16th Century Renaissance English Literature.” An impressive website with sections on most of the major authors of the period, with biographies, links to online works, essays, and other sources for each. The section on Elizabeth I contains online poems, speeches and letters by her, essays and articles about her, an image gallery, and outdentgraphy. Links to essays and other sources on many other topics such as the Plague, science and medicine, religion and philosophy, exploration, and politics.

http://web.uvic.ca/shakespeare/Library/SLTnoframes/intro/introsubj.html. “Shakespeare’s Life and Times.” This site emphasizes Shakespeare’s life and work, but contains excellent sections on other aspects of Elizabethan life, including the background of ideas, the drama, the supernatural, and literature, art and music. Supported by the University of Victoria, Canada.

www.curtisclark.org/emusic/. “The Internet Renaissance Band.” Midi files for Renaissance works, including those of William Byrd, John Dowland, Henry VIII, and other English composers.

www.midiworld.com/mw_byrd.htm. Biographical information and Midi audio files for most of William Byrd’s work.

Other Topics in Elizabethan Culture

Heraldry, costume, food, dance, games, etc.

www.goldenacorn.net/garden. “Flowers for an Elizabethan Garden,” a compendium of knowledge about flowers of the Elizabethan age for modern gardeners.

http://www2.hn.psu.edu/faculty/jmanis/hent_naun/hentzner_naunton.pdf (PDF). Text of two contemporary works by travelers in Elizabethan England.

www.fleurdelis.com/royal.htm. The evolution of the royal coats of arms of England.

www.maryrose.org. Explore in cyberspace one of Henry VIII’s warships, the “Mary Rose,” which sank in 1545 and was raised from the ocean in the late twentieth century.

www.godecookery.com/goderec/goderec.htm. Fascinating recipes from the Middle Ages and the Renaissance in England.

Language

www.best1.net/~peasants/workshop.html. PDF files of worksheets on Elizabethan pronunciation, games, etc.

www.tower.org/insult/insult.html. An automated Elizabethan insult generator.

Exploration

www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/united_states/early_indian_east.jpg. Map of language groups of Native Americans at the time of exploration of America.

Websites for Students

Some with curriculum materials.

http://edsitement.neh.gov/view_lesson_plan.asp?id=395. This lesson seeks to sensitize students to the complex nature of revenge as it is portrayed in Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Students learn how Shakespeare’s play interprets Elizabethan attitudes toward revenge, as reflected in the structure of the Elizabethan revenge tragedy, one of the most popular forms of drama of that era. Grades 9–12.

www.studentsfriend.com/aids/curraids/analysis/sourceex.html#anchor2207916. Offers practice in analyzing sources and in examining the nature of historical knowledge using the film Queen Bess.

www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/Tudors.htm. A UK website for students, with good biographies of major Tudor and Elizabethan figures (and some obscure ones, such as the court artist Levina Teerline), and excellent and concise essays on many issues of the day, such as Poverty in Tudor England, Tudor Monasteries, Tudor Artists, the Babington Plot, the Spanish Armada, Tudor sports and pastimes, and many more, with comprehensive cross references and links. An outstanding site.

www.springfield.k12.il.us/schools/springfield/eliz/elizabethanengland.html. A very nice website on Elizabethan England created by high school students, with biographies as well as essays on a variety of topics, such as costumes and sets in Shakespeare’s theatre, musical instruments, crime and punishment, and dozens more.

www.bvt.org.uk/sellymanor/tudors.html. Website for Selly Manor, a Tudor house in Birmingham, England, with information on Tudor everyday life, craft activities, riddles, games, and other.