I know the month isn’t through yet, but I finished a fascinating book of historical fiction–The Virgin Queen’s Daughter by Ella March Chase.
From even before her reign, there were rumors that Elizabeth I had given birth to an illegitimate child, even though there was never any definitive proof. Chase has taken this rumor and built an intriguing novel around the possibility that the rumor was true and that the child was a daughter.
Elinor de Lacey first sees the queen when she (Elinor) is a young child, visiting the Tower of London with her father and Elizabeth is a prisoner. She is fascinated by her and decides she wants to go to court when she is older. She eventually does, only to find herself caught up in all kinds of intrigue, realizing too late that what she really wants is life back home.
Chase does a great job of presenting a picture of court life, appreciating the way in which we have romanticized it but helping the reality to shine through.
I’ll admit that I’ve always been intrigued by the life of this queen and the way she managed to not only survive a very dangerous childhood/young adult period but to become an incredibly powerful statesman. This book, while admittedly based on a never-proven rumor, still does a great job of presenting what it must have been like to serve Elizabeth, scarred as she was by everything that had happened to her before she took the throne.
