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             History 
                  On-Line provides bibliographic information on books and 
                  journal articles published by UK academic publishers. The details 
                  below represents a selection of books on the history of war 
                  in History On-line Try History 
                  On-line for additional information. 
                
                
                
                 Elizabeth 
                  I   
              Wallace MacCaffrey 
            In this major biography of the queen, Wallace 
              MacCaffrey focusses on Elizabeth's career as a practising politician, 
              taking into account her testing personal experience, her temperament, 
              her own view of her role and the constraints she frequently faced 
              whether imposed by the inheritance from her predecessors or by contemporary 
              events. The Elizabeth who emerges from these pages has a more human 
              appearance than the stiff, richly garbed, bejewelled Elizabeth of 
              the royal portraits. She is more fallible. And more interesting. 
            Paperback - ISBN: 0340614552 - $16.99 - 
              April 1994 - 496pp. 
              
            
                
            Authority and Consent in Tudor England: 
              Essays Presented to C.S.L. Davies 
              Edited by George Bernard and 
              Steven Gunn 
            Brought together as a tribute to the distinguished 
              Tudor historian C.S.L. Davies, the essays in this collection address 
              key themes in the current historiography of the Tudor period. These 
              include the nature, causes and consequences of change in English 
              government, society and religion, the relationship of centre, localities 
              and peripheral areas in the Tudor state, the regulation of belief 
              and conduct, and the dynamics of England's relations with her neighbours. 
              The contributors, colleagues and students of Cliff Davies, are all 
              leading scholars who have provided fresh and interesting essays 
              reflecting the wide ranging inquisitiveness characteristic of his 
              own work. They seek to cross as he has done the traditional boundaries 
              between the medieval and early modern periods and between social, 
              political and religious history. A coherent collection in their 
              own right, these essays, by showing the many new directions open 
              to those studying the Tudor period, provide a fitting tribute to 
              such an influential scholar. 
                 Hardback - ISBN: 0 7546 0665 1 - September 
                  2002 - £47.50 - 312 pp. 
            King James VI and I: Selected Writings 
              Edited by Neil Rhodes, Jennifer 
              Richards and Joseph Marshall 
            "Yet hath it been ever esteemed a matter 
              commendable to collect [works] together, and incorporate them into 
              one body, that we may behold at once, what divers Off-springs have 
              proceeded from one braine." This observation from the Bishop 
              of Winchester in his preface to King James's 1616 Workes is particularly 
              appropriate, since James's writings cross the boundaries of so many 
              different fields. While several other monarchs engaged in literary 
              composition, King James VI and I stands out as "an inveterate 
              scribbler" and is certainly the most extensively published 
              of all British rulers.This volume provides a broad representative 
              selection of King James's writings on a range of secular and religious 
              topics. Each text is provided in full, creating an invaluable reference 
              tool for 16th and 17th century scholars working in different disciplines 
              and a fascinating collection for students and general readers interested 
              in early modern history and literature. In contrast to other editions 
              of James's writings, which have been confined to a single aspect 
              of his work, the present edition brings together for the first time 
              his poetry and his religious writing, his political works and his 
              treatises on witchcraft and tobacco, in a single volume.What makes 
              this collection of James's writings especially significant is the 
              distinctiveness of his position as both writer and ruler, an author 
              of incontestable authority. All his authorly roles, as poet, polemicist, 
              theologian, political theorist and political orator are informed 
              by this fact. James's writings were also inevitably influenced by 
              the circumstances of his reigns and this volume reflects the turbulent 
              issues of religion, politics and nationhood that troubled his three 
              kingdoms.  
             Hardback - 0 7546 0482 9 - April 2003 - 
              c. £45.00 - c. 370 pp.  
            
                
            The Birth of the Elizabethan Age 
              England in the 1560s 
              Norman Jones 
            "Norman Jones has really brought the age 
              and its people fully to life, approaching them from all conceivable 
              angles and in every aspect of their lives, private and public. For 
              once we really live with the generality of Englishmen and women. 
              At the same time, the role and actions of the ruling sort are not 
              left out: everything is most convincingly knit together. This is 
              a major achievement, and I especially admired the way in which the 
              author managed to instil in the reader the joy he had in putting 
              this book together." Sir Geoffrey Elton, Clare College, Cambridge 
            This is the first of a new series of books 
              that will tell the history of early modern England from the perspective 
              of those living at the time. Norman Jones' fascinating account details 
              both the individual preoccupations (such as illness and famine) 
              and the larger historical changes (such as fears over the succession 
              and the establishment of Protestantism) which dominated life during 
              the 1560s. 
            Paperback - ISBN: 0631199322 - September 
              1995 
            Elizabeth 
              I and the Verdicts of History 
              Patrick Collinson 
            Archbishop Matthew Parker feared that Elizabeth 
              would be 'strangely chronicled'. From her death to the screening 
              of the film 'Elizabeth', the life of 'Gloriana' has been a subject 
              for all kinds of imaginative fiction. History, too, has traded as 
              much in myth as fact. Elizabeth's first historian, William Camden, 
              was not responsible for the myth, although his translators were. 
              The nineteenth century invented a 'whiggish' Elizabeth who identified 
              herself with the destiny of her people, although the leading Tudor 
              historian, A. J. Froude, was not a fan. Post-J. E. Neale and A. 
              L. Rowse, Froude's critical interrogation of the reign has been 
              revived in the latest Elizabethan historiography. 
            Historical Research, 
              vol. 76, no. 194 (forthcoming November 2003) 
            
                
                 The 
                  Word of a Prince: a Life of Elizabeth I from Contemporary Documents 
              Maria Perry 
            Unique, fascinating and revealing insight into 
              the personality of Elizabeth through study of her papers. 
            Paperback - ISBN: 0 85115 633 9 - £17.99 
              - 1999 - 276 pp. 
             Tyrone's 
              Rebellion: the Outbreak of the Nine Years War in Tudor Ireland 
              Hiram Morgan 
            The insurrection in Ireland between 1594 
              and 1603 is examined and identified as the single greatest threat 
              to Elizabeth's reign 
                Paperback - ISBN: 0 85115 683 5 - £16.99 
                  - 264 pp. 
              
            
                
                 Sermons 
                  at Court: Politics and Religion in Elizabethan and Jacobean 
                  Preaching 
                  Peter McCullough 
                 
            This book describes preaching at the royal 
              courts during the reigns of Elizabeth I and James I (1558-1625) 
              and reconstructs the contexts - architectural, religious, political 
              - in which the sermons were preached. The book is accompanied by 
              a definitive calendar on diskette of court sermons for the period. 
              Cambridge Studies in Early Modern 
              British History 
             
            Hardback - ISBN: 0 521 59046 9 - £45 
              - 256 pp. 
             
                 Prayer 
                  Book and People in Elizabethan and Early Stuart England 
                  Judith Maltby 
            '
 a remarkable book 
 the force 
              of [Dr Maltby's] argument is inescapable. No historian of the Reformation, 
              of the rise of Anglicanism, or of popular religion in the localities, 
              can afford to neglect her work.' John Guy, The 
              Church Times  
                  Cambridge Studies in Early 
                  Modern British History      Hardback - ISBN: 0 521 45313 5 - £50 
                  - 331pp 
                The 
                  Early Elizabethan Polity: William Cecil and the British Succession 
                  Crisis, 1558-1569 
                  Stephen Alford 
                Traditionally historians have argued 
                  that the court of Elizabeth I (1558-1603) was factional, divided 
                  between competing subjects who were manipulated by their Queen. 
                  This revisionary account provides a different interpretation: 
                  of councillors who were united by two connected dangers, namely 
                  Catholic opposition to Protestant England and Elizabeth's refusal 
                  to marry or to settle England's succession. 
                  Cambridge Studies in Early 
                  Modern British History 
                Hardback - ISBN: 0 521 62218 2 - £47.50 
                  - 286 pp. 
                The 
                  Polarisation of Elizabethan Politics: the Political Career of 
                  Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, 1585-1597 
                  Paul E. J. Hammer 
                The Earl of Essex was the last great 
                  favourite of Elizabeth I. Using an unparalleled range of sources, 
                  this revisionist study presents a new picture of Essex and of 
                  the outbreak of faction in Elizabethan politics. 
                  Cambridge Studies in Early 
                  Modern British History 
                Hardback - ISBN: 0 521 43485 8 - £55 
                  - 468 pp. 
                 
            
                
            Leicester and Court: Essays on Elizabethan 
              Politics 
              Simon Adams  
            During the past twenty-five years Elizabethan 
              history has been transformed by the work of Simon Adams. Famous 
              for the unique depth and breadth of his research in libraries and 
              archives throughout Britain, Western Europe and the USA, he has 
              brought to life the most enigmatic of the greater Elizabethans: 
              Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester. Together with his edition of Leicester's 
              accounts and his reconstruction of Leicester's papers, Adams has 
              published numerous essays and articles on Leicester's influence 
              and activities. They have reshaped our knowledge of Elizabeth and 
              her Court, Parliament, the localities from Wales to Warwickshire 
              and such subjects of recent debate as the power of the nobility 
              and the noble affinity, the politics of faction and the role of 
              patronage. Sixteen of Adams' most important essays are found in 
              this collection, organised into three groups: the Court, Leicester 
              and his affinity, and Leicester and the regions. The collection 
              ranges from much-cited essays in standard textbooks to papers at 
              international conferences, as well as articles in a variety of journals. 
              This volume will be essential reading for students and academics 
              of the Elizabethan period and early modern history, as well as general 
              enthusiasts interested in the reign of Elizabeth I. 
            Paperback - ISBN: 0719053250 - April 2002 
              - £19.99 - 432pp. 
            Theatre and Empire: Great Britain 
              on the London Stages under James VI and I 
              Tristan Marshall  
            Theatre and empire looks at the genesis of the 
              British national identity in the reign of King James VI and I. While 
              devolution is currently decentralising Britain, this book examines 
              how the idea of a united kingdom was created in the first place. 
              It does this by studying both the political language of the King's 
              project to replace England, Scotland and Wales with a single kingdom 
              of Great Britain and the cultural representations of empire on the 
              public and private stages. The book argues that between 1603-1625 
              a group of playwrights celebrated a new national consciousness in 
              works as diverse as Middleton's Hengist, King of Kent, Rowley's 
              The Birth of Merlin and Shakespeare's Cymbeline. While specifically 
              Jacobean interdisciplinary studies are few compared with Elizabethan 
              and Caroline works, Marshall attempts to redress the balance by 
              offering a fresh appraisal of James Stuart's reign. By looking at 
              both established and little known plays and playwrights Theatre 
              and empire rewrites our understanding of the political and cultural 
              context of the Jacobean stage. Theatre and empire will be of interest 
              to both historians and literary scholars of the period. 
                Hardback - ISBN: 0719057485 - August 2000 - £47.50 
                  - 224pp.   
           
            James I: The Masque of Monarchy 
              James Travers 
                This is the third title in the prestigious 
                  new English Monarchs series from the National Archives where 
                  England's royal leaders are introduced through conptemporary 
                  historical documents. Each volume contains a narrartive history 
                  of the reign illustrated through state papers, personal correspondence 
                  and other historical documents created at the time and now preserved 
                  mainly at the National Archives. 
                Few monarchs have ascended the English 
                  throne amid as much eulogy and rejoicing as James I when he 
                  came to his English Kingdom in 1603. There was good reason for 
                  it. James brought a ready-made, legitimate dynasty to a nation 
                  which had spent much of the previous century agonising about 
                  the succession. The eulogies continued throughout his reign 
                  and after his death. However for every line of flattery there 
                  was also one of malicious gossip and this mixture has made his 
                  reign very difficult to evaluate fairly.  
                The popular view of James today is likely 
                  to be negative, focused on his personal habits such as his stutter, 
                  his extravagant spending and his demonstrative homosexual behaviour, 
                  rather than his competence as King. This book looks beneath 
                  the flattery and above the gossip by going back to the first 
                  hand evidence: original papers and letters held at the National 
                  Archives. A lively narrative sets this unique material in context 
                  and provides a fresh, balanced survey of England's first Stuart 
                  King. 
                Historical documents include:  
                Shakespeare and his company at James' 
                  coronation procession  
                  James authorising the torture of Guy Fawkes  
                  James intervening in a witchcraft trial  
                  Pocahontas at James court 
                Paperback - ISBN: 1903365562 - October 
                  2003- £14.99 Elizabeth I: The Golden Reign of Gloriana 
              David Loades 
                
                This is the launch title in a prestigious new series introducing England's royal heritage through the very stuff of history itself: priceless original papers, letters and other documents, mostly held at the National Archives.  
                Offering a fresh perspective on the immensely popular area of Tudor history, this first title deals with the reign of Elizabeth I, perhaps England's greatest monarch. Sixteenth-century documents, many in Elizabeth's own hand, are reproduced in full colour, sometimes for the first time. Items are included which cover all aspects of her long and eventful reign, from her relationshsips with key members of her court and the problematic Mary Queen of Scots to the legendary victory in 1588 against the Spanish Armada. Each key document is beautifully reproduced in a double-page spread which also includes an extended contextualising caption and a modern transcription where necessary. The original sources are woven together by a brief narrative history of the reign, fully illustrated in colour with portraits, photographs and other material from the archives. 
                Historical documents include:  
                Elizabeth's first speech as Queen, 20 November 1558  
                  Proclamation declaring the death sentence against Mary Queen of Scots, 4th December 1586  
                  James intervening in a witchcraft trial  
                  The 'Last Letter' from the Earl of Leicester, the Queen's favourite, to Elizabeth, 29 August 1588 
                Paperback - ISBN: 1903365430 - March 2003 - £14.99 
                  
            
                
                
            Elizabeth I: The Competition for 
              Representation 
              Susan Frye 
            Elizabeth I is perhaps the most visible 
              woman in early modern Europe, yet little attention has been paid 
              to what she said about the difficulties of constructing her power 
              in a patriarchal society. Elizabeth I: The Competition for Representation 
              examines her struggle for authority through the representation of 
              her female body. Frye's method is to provide historical accounts 
              of three representational crises spaced fifteen years apart: the 
              London coronation entry of 1559, the Kenilworth entertainments of 
              1575, and the publication of The Faerie Queene in 1590. In ways 
              which varied with social class and historical circumstance, the 
              London merchants, the members of the Protestant faction, courtly 
              artists and artful courtiers all sought to stabilize their own gendered 
              identities by constructing the queen within the 'natural' definitions 
              of feminine as passive and weak. Elizabeth fought back, acting as 
              a discursive agent by crossing and then disrupting these definitions. 
              She and those closely identified with her interests evolved a number 
              of strategies through which to express her control of the government 
              as the ownership of her body, including her elaborate iconography 
              and a mythic biography upon which most accounts of Elizabeth's life 
              have been based. The more authoritative her image became, the more 
              violently it was contested in a process which this book examines 
              and consciously perpetuates. 
            This perceptive and innovative study of 
              one of the most visible and powerful women in European history offers 
              an unusual focus: Queen Elizabeth I's difficulty in constructing 
              her power in a patriarchal society. Through the examination of three 
              crises of allegorical representation in her reign this study traces 
              by literary and historical means the queen's struggle to retain 
              control over the iconography of both her physical self and her political 
              domain. `impressively researched ... a book with many good things 
              in it, and the introduction especially is a lucid critique of and 
              response to work in the field' - Times 
              Literary Supplement 
            England's 
              Elizabeth: an Afterlife in Fame and Fantasy 
              Michael Dobson and Nicola J. 
              Watson  
            No monarch is more glamorous or more controversial 
              than Elizabeth I. The stories by which successive generations have 
              sought to extol, explain, or excoriate Elizabeth supply a rich index 
              to the cultural history of English nationalism - whether they represent 
              her as Anne Boleyn's suffering orphan or as the implacable nemesis 
              of Mary, Queen of Scots, as learned stateswoman or as frustrated 
              lover, persecuted princess or triumphant warrior queen. This book 
              examines the many afterlives the Virgin Queen has lived in drama, 
              poetry, fiction, painting, propaganda, and the cinema over the four 
              centuries since her death, from the aspiringly epic to the frankly 
              kitsch. Exploring the Elizabeths of Shakespeare and Spenser, of 
              Sophia Lee and Sir Walter Scott, of Bette Davis and of Glenda Jackson, 
              of Shakespeare in Love and Blackadder II, this is a lively, lavishly-illustrated 
              investigation of England's perennial fascination with a queen who 
              is still engaged in a posthumous progress through the collective 
              pysche of her country. 
            '... the pictures wonderfully illustrate her incarnations. 
              England's Elizabeth dazzles.' - The 
              Independent magazine 
            'Their book is an excellent example of a distinctly 
              modern (indeed post modern) genre of biographical writing Dobson 
              and Watson are balanced and incisive Jonathan Bate' - 
              The Sunday Telegraph 
            Hardback - ISBN: 0 198183 77 1 - November 2002 
              - £19.99 - 360 pp. 
             
            
                 Elizabeth's 
                  Wars: War, Government and Society in Tudor England, 1544-1604 
              Paul E.J. Hammer 
            'This is an excellent book which students 
              will find clear and helpful. It copes well with the familiar dilemma 
              of military history, dealing with the realities of combat but never 
              losing sight of their wider social, political and diplomatic contexts.' 
              - Steven Gunn, Merton College, Oxford  
             
             The human and financial cost of war between 
              1544 and 1604 strained English government and society to their limits. 
              Paul E. J. Hammer offers a new narrative of these wars which weaves 
              together developments on land and sea. Combining original work and 
              a synthesis of existing research, Hammer explores how the government 
              of Elizabeth I overhauled English strategy and weapons to create 
              forces capable of confronting the might of Habsburg Spain. 
            Hardback - ISBN: 0333919424 - July 2003 -£47.50 
              - 344 pp.                 
             The 
                  England of Elizabeth: the Structure of Society 
                  A.L. Rowse, with a new introduction 
                  by Christopher Haigh 
                View introduction 
                  and preface   
            [Rowse] was an extraordinary pioneer.' - 
              David Starkey 
             'Rowse's study is by far the best of Elizabethan 
              Society.' - New Statesman 
                'The most attractive and the greatest 
                  age of England portrayed in detail as it actually was.' - Sunday 
                  Times 
                'I am above all glad that the most attractive 
                  and the greatest age of England should be portrayed in detail 
                  as it actually was, with shrewd but sympathetic comment.' - 
                  G.M. Trevelyan, Sunday Times 
                'Mr Rowse's study is by far the best, the 
                  most scholarly account, of Elizabethan Society.' - H.R. Trevor-Roper, 
                  New Statesman  
             The Elizabethan Age is arguably that greatest 
              in English history. Furthermore it is not something dead and apart 
              from us: it is alive and all around us. England contains the visible 
              memorials of Elizabethan society: the houses they built; the objects 
              they cherished; the patterns they imposed upon the very landscape. 
              Rowse's classic study is a detailed account of that society and 
              tradition from the lowest social class to the men and women who 
              governed the realm.  
            This reissue of Rowse's famously vivid portrayal 
              of the Elizabethan world is complemented by a major introduction 
              from Christopher Haigh which offers both a reflection on Rowse's 
              masterpiece and an assessment of the Elizabethan Age. 
            Paperback - ISBN: 1403908125 - March 2003 
              - £17.99 - 632 pp.                 
             The 
                  Expansion of Elizabethan England 
              A.L. Rowse, with a new introduction 
              by Michael Portillo 
            'Dr Rowse has created a masterpiece on a 
              great subject.' - The Times Literary 
              Supplement 
            'One of the major works of historical literature 
              to appear in our time.' - The New 
              Statesman 
             '. . . Rowse's second volume of his The 
              Elizabethan Age brilliantly fulfils the high promise of its predecessor.' 
              - The Economist  
             Elizabethan society is arguably the most 
              successful in English history. The adventurers and merchants (as 
              well as the poets and playwrights) of that age are legendary. The 
              subject of this classic study by A.L. Rowse is that society's 'expansion'. 
              Elizabethan society expanded both physically (first into Cornwall, 
              then Ireland, then across the oceans to first contact with Russian, 
              the Canadian North and then the opening up of trade with India and 
              the Far East) and in terms of ideas and influence on international 
              affairs. Rowse argues that in the Elizabethan age we see the beginning 
              of England's huge impact upon the world. 
            Paperback - ISBN: 1403908133 - April 2003 - £17.99 
              - 472 pp.                
             The 
                  Myth of Elizabeth 
                  Susan Doran and Thomas S. 
                  Freeman 
                View sample 
                  chapter   
            'This is an excellent collection. All the 
              essays are very strong and many are by noted scholars. This book 
              will find a wide readership.' - Carole Levin, University of Nebraska-Lincoln 
               
            'A splendid and useful collection.' - Professor 
              Diarmaid MacCulloch, Oxford University  
             Elizabeth I is one of England's most admired 
              and celebrated rulers. She is also one of its most iconic. This 
              wide-ranging interdisciplinary collection of essays examines the 
              origins and development of the image and myths that came to surround 
              the Virgin Queen. The essays question the prevailing assumptions 
              about the mythic Elizabeth and challenge the view that she was unanimously 
              celebrated in the literature and portraiture of the early modern 
              era. They explain how the most familiar myths surrounding the queen 
              developed from the concerns of her contemporaries and continue to 
              reverberate today. Published to mark the 400th anniversary of the 
              queen's death, this volume will appeal to all those with an interest 
              in the historiography of Elizabeth's reign and Elizabethan, and 
              Jacobean, poets and dramatists. 
            Paperback - ISBN: 0333930843 - February 
              2003 - £15.99 - 280 pp.                 
            
                 Elizabeth 
                  I as Icon, 1603 to 2003 
              Julia M. Walker 
            Surveying four-hundred years of British history, 
              Walker examines how the memory - the icon - of Queen Elizabeth has 
              been used as a marker for Englishness in disputes political and 
              social, in art, literature and popular culture. From her second 
              Westminster tomb to the pseudo-secret histories of the Restoration, 
              from Georgian ballads to Victorian paintings, biographies, children's 
              books, Suffragette banners, novels and films, trends in scholarship 
              and rubber bath ducks, the icon becomes more powerful as the idea 
              of Englishness becomes more arbitrary. 
            Hardback - ISBN:1403911991 - Forthcoming November 
              2003 - £25 - 256 pp. 
                  
             The 
                  Reign Of Elizabeth I 
              Carole Levin 
            'A concise guide to Elizabeth's life, Levin's 
              book describes the Queen's complex web of alliances and personages, 
              without losing the reader. The Reign of Elizabeth is recommended 
              reading for anyone interested in a "user-friendly" look 
              at England's most famous queen.' - Renaissance Magazine 
             '...a brief, well-written overview of Elizabeth's 
              political, religious and cultural significance.' - Publisher's Weekly 
               
             The reign of Elizabeth I was marked by 
              political, religious and social change. Carole Levin evaluates Elizabeth 
              and the significance of her reign both in the context of her age 
              and our own, examining the increasing cultural diversity of Elizabethan 
              England and the impact of the reign of an unmarried queen on gender 
              expectations, as well as exploring the more traditional themes of 
              religion, foreign policy, plots and conspiracies. 
            
            Paperback - ISBN:0333658655 - October 2001 - £14.99 
              - 160 pp.  
               
            
            
            Patronage, Culture and Power: the 
              Early Cecils, 1558-1612 
              Pauline Croft 
             
            The Cecils were the dominant noble family in Elizabethan 
              and Jacobean England. William, Lord Burghley rose to power and great 
              wealth under Elizabeth I, then used his extensive patronage and 
              exceptional breadth of interests to advance the Cecils' remarkable 
              political and cultural pre-eminence. This wide-ranging collection 
              of essays draws on architectural and art history, court studies, 
              English literature, garden history, musicology, economic history, 
              and women's studies. 
            The extensive building programme of William, 
              Lord Burghley and his son Robert, Earl of Salisbury was the most 
              spectacular of the 16th and early 17th centuries, and much of it, 
              particularly Burghley House and Hatfield House, still survives. 
              Their encouragement of new processes of manufacturing was, like 
              their splendid houses, innovative, forward-looking and highly influential. 
            The Cecils were also innovative patrons 
              of the arts. They were pioneers in the vogue for collecting paintings; 
              patrons of musicians such as John Dowland and writers such as Ben 
              Jonson; and introduced new styles of Renaissance design into gardens 
              and interiors. The Cecil women, too, were influential in both political 
              and cultural spheres. The notable character of Mildred, Lord Burghley's 
              wife, and the marriage alliances and female courtiership of the 
              Cecil daughters are some of the themes explored in this refreshingly 
              inter-disciplinary collection of essays. 
            Hardback - ISBN: 0300091362 - January 2002 - £40.00/$65.00 
              - 306 pp. 
            Sir Francis Drake: the Queen's Pirate 
              Harry Kelsey  
            In this lively and engaging new biography, 
              Harry Kelsey shatters the familiar image of Sir Francis Drake. The 
              Drake of legend was a pious, brave, and just seaman who initiated 
              the move to make England a great naval power and whose acts of piracy 
              against his country's enemies earned him a knighthood for patriotism. 
              Kelsey paints a different and far more interesting picture of Drake 
              as an amoral privateer at least as interested in lining his pockets 
              with Spanish booty as in forwarding the political goals of his country, 
              a man who became a captain general of the English navy, but never 
              waged traditional warfare with any success. Drawing on much new 
              evidence, Kelsey describes Drake's early life as the son of a poor 
              family in sixteenth-century England. He explains how Drake dabbled 
              in piracy, gained modest success as a merchant, and then took advantage 
              of the hostility between Spain and England to embark on a series 
              of daring pirate raids on undefended Spanish ships and ports, preempting 
              Spanish demands for punishment by sharing much of his booty with 
              the Queen and her councillors. Elizabeth I liked Drake because he 
              was a charming rogue, and she made him an integral part of her war 
              plans against Spain and its armada, but she quickly learned not 
              to trust him with an important command: he was unable to handle 
              a large fleet, was suspicious almost to the point of paranoia, and 
              had no understanding of personal loyalty. For Drake, the mark of 
              success was to amass great wealth - preferably by taking it from 
              someone else - and the primary purpose of warfare was to afford 
              him the opportunity to accomplish this. 
            Hardback - ISBN: 0300071825 - October 1998 
              - £22.50 - 592 pp. 
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