The Virgin Queen by Christopher Hibbert
In her lifetime the cult of Queen Elizabeth, the virginal genius of a golden age, the "beauteous Queen of second Troy", rivalled that of the Virgin Mary herself. Praised for her wit and high intelligence, her consumate statecraft, her bravery and learning, and for a beauty as "radiant as the sun", she was considered so desirable a bride that even the Pope felt constrained to propose that she would make him a marvellous wife. This book presents a revealing portrait of an extraordinary woman by turns courageous and timid, gracious and violently cantankerous, kind and spiteful, sensitive and coarse, realistic yet grotesquely vain, at once so forceful and so vacillating and unpredictable that one of her principal minister complained in exasperation that she drove him "up the wall". Based on a wide range of contemporary documents and recent scholarship, Christopher Hibbert has drawn a picture of this fascinating and difficult woman, set firmly against the background her tumultuous times.
Christopher Hibbert was born in 1924 and educated at Radley and Oriel College, Oxford. He served as an infantry officer during the war and was awarded the Military Cross in 1945. His many highly acclaimed books include the following titles: The Destruction of Lord Raglan (which won the Heinemann Award for Literature in 1962), London: The Biography of a City, The Rise and Fall of the House of Medici, The Great Mutiny: India 1857, The French Revolution, Garibaldi and His Enemies, Rome: The Biography of a City, Elizabeth I: A Personal History of the Virgin Queen, Nelson: A Personal History, George III: A Personal History and The Marlboroughs: John and Sarah Churchill 1650 - 1744. Christopher Hibbert is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and an Hon. D. Litt. of Leicester University. He is married with two sons and a daughter, and lives in Henley-on-Thames.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780670810222 |
| ISBN 10 | 0670810223 |
| Title | The Virgin Queen |
| Author | Christopher Hibbert |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding type | Hardback |
| Publisher | Penguin Books Ltd |
| Year published | 1990-10-15 |
| Number of pages | 304 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |