Published 1892-9, this four-volume collection contains Spanish documents relating to England during the reign of Elizabeth I. The papers were translated and edited by Martin Andrew Sharp Hume (1843-1910), a respected historian of Spain. Volume 4 (1899) covers the period 1587-1603, ending with Elizabeth's death.

“[Leanda] De Lisle brilliantly captures the atmosphere of dangerous uncertainty and furtive intrigue that characterized the last years of Elizabeth’s reign.”—The Sunday Telegraph (London) “Exciting and exacting . . . No fictional characters, of film or novel, can match the reality of the participants in this fascinating historical drama.”—The Wall Street Journal December 1602. After forty-four years on the throne, Queen Elizabeth is in decline. The kingdom is also waning, weakened by the cost of war with Spain and the simmering discontent of both the rich and the poor. The stage has been set, at long last, for succession. But the Queen who famously never married has no heir. Elizabeth’s senior relative is James VI of Scotland, Protestant son of Elizabeth’s cousin Mary Queen of Scots. But as a foreigner and a Stuart, he is excluded under English law from the throne. The road to and beyond his coronation will be filled with conspiracy and duplicity, personal betrayals, and political upheavals. Bringing history vibrantly to life, Leanda de Lisle unfurls a rich tapestry of scenes and players: As the Queen nears the end, we witness the scheming of her courtiers for the candidates of their choice; blood-soaked infighting among the Catholic clergy as they struggle to survive in the face of persecution; the widespread fear that civil war, invasion, or revolution will follow the monarch’s death; and the signs, portents, and ghosts that seem to mark her end. Here, too, are the surprising and, to some, dismaying results of James’s ascension and the lasting historical implications of this crucial period in British history. Leanda de Lisle’s keenly modern view of this tumultuous time gives us intimate insights into the political power plays and psychological portraits relevant to our own era. After Elizabeth is a unique look at a pivotal year, and a dazzling debut by an exciting new historian.

Published in 1868-71, these volumes provide valuable insight into the modus operandi of the medieval chronicler.

The forty-four-year reign of Elizabeth I, daughter of Henry VIII and the last Tudor monarch, was considered a golden age. It saw the emergence of the great playwrights such as William Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe, while the exploits of Sir Francis Drake and other ‘sea-dogs’ helped establish England’s position among the great maritime powers. This book looks at Elizabeth’s life through some of the many artifacts, buildings, documents and institutions that survive to this day. From the execution of her mother, Ann Boleyn, when she was just two-and-a-half-years-old, to her imprisonment on suspicion of supporting Protestant rebels, Elizabeth’s early life was a turbulent one, but her accession to the throne ushered in a period of stability. During her reign, England’s wealth and prestige grew through her patronage of seafaring privateers such as Drake, John Hawkins and Walter Raleigh. She encouraged the exploration and colonialization of North America, marking the birth of the British Empire and the establishment of British trade routes. Elizabeth was responsible for expanding the English Navy, its defeat of the Spanish Armada being considered one of England’s greatest military victories. In this magnificently illustrated book we see her birthplace at Greenwich Palace, her childhood homes, her prison in the Tower of London, the palaces she lived in, ruins of stately homes she visited, such as Gorhambury House, Kenilworth House, Upnor Castle and the Elizabethan town walls at Berwick, the many fortifications built during her reign to defend her realm, through to her final resting place in Westminster Abbey. Also found in this fascinating volume are books that she presented to her father and step-mother, Katherine Parr, with the binding embroidered by Elizabeth, her clothes, letters she wrote in her own hand, her coronation chair, her coat of arms asserting her title as Governor of the Church of England and her signature signing the death warrant of her cousin, the 4th Duke of Norfolk. This book is not just a journey back in time to the reign of Elizabeth I, but also a tour across the country to visit the sites which still evoke that golden era of the Virgin Queen.