![]() ![]() Here, for instance, is Kat Astley, the royal governess, back in focus as a kind, gossipy woman who, after Henry dies, smilingly allows the pubescent princess to get far too intimate with Catherine Parr's new husband, in the process landing them all in very hot water. On the plus side we get to hear all those bits of Elizabeth's life half-remembered from school history, or at least from the novels of Jean Plaidy. Tracy Borman's decision to explore the distaff side of the late Tudor court results in an account with exactly the sort of strengths and weaknesses you might imagine. ![]() Step forward, then, all those sisters, cousins, aunts, not to mention ladies-in-waiting and gentlewomen of the chamber, who have tended to disappear from popular accounts of Elizabeth's reign. ![]() Yet a moment's reflection suggests that the women fleetingly glimpsed in the background of our national soap opera, helping her majesty dress or delivering secret messages at dead of night, must logically have spent more time with the queen than Sir Walter Ralegh or William Cecil ever did. ![]() The Virgin Queen, whether played by Cate Blanchett, Helen Mirren or even Glenda Jackson, has mostly been shown as an honorary man, consorting with dukes, bishops and salty old sea dogs. Y ou can understand the rationale behind a book on Queen Elizabeth I and the women in her life. ![]()
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