The Lady Elizabeth

“The Lady Elizabeth,” by Alison Weir is about Queen Elizabeth’s younger years starting from when she was a toddler and ending up to the part where she becomes Queen. I know there are a ton of books about The Tudors out in the world, but once again Alison Weir did a great job of making history come alive. As I said in previous reviews of her books Alison keeps her historical fiction books entertaining while still remaining to be historically accurate. Almost anything Alison fictionalizes she makes sure its believable.

Pros

The writing was very descriptive and I can picture the people and the palaces. I also enjoyed how we got points of view from other key players at the time while they didn’t take up the whole story. While some might think that scene regarding Elizabeth hiding a pregnancy and miscarrying to be a little out there, we can’t rule out that it didn’t happen either. If Thomas Seymour was tickling her and probably touching her, it could have led to something that shouldn’t have happened. There were also rumors that Elizabeth had a baby in secret or something. We won’t ever know for sure. There were women who had gotten pregnant without being married and they went into the country to give birth and hide that there was any evidence. I also liked that Elizabeth starts to become unsure if she would ever marry before changing her stance back to she would never marry again. I wouldn’t blame her, Elizabeth knew her father divorced many of his wives and beheaded 2 of them. I also liked the supernatural elements of Elizabeth seeing the ghost of her mother Anne Boelyn. 

Cons

There wasn’t much I disliked except how stupid Katherine Parr was when it came to her husband. Katherine she ignored the signs that her husband Thomas Seymour was being inappropriate with her stepdaughter. I know love is blind but not that blind. I would be very suspicious if my husband were doing things that I suspect were not right. Thankfully in the end Katherine smartened up and sent Elizabeth away for her safety.

Overall

Overall I enjoyed this. It was one of Alison’s earlier historical fiction books. I can’t wait to read her upcoming Tudor Rose series which will be about Elizabeth of York, Henry VIII and the last book being about Mary I also known as Bloody Mary. It will be interesting to read books from Elizabeth and Mary’s points of view without it being heavily fictionalized.