ELIZABETH: Creature of Circumstance
By
A history of English ancestry this, a series of essays whose English title, Elizabethan Commentary, is more enlightening, since the emphasis is on the English Reformation with Elizabeth in focus against her times. The material rambles from 16th century to the present day, in facts, ideas, literature, religion. The attitude is personally combative, and the manner not arrestingly Bellocian. Discourses on the physical lineage that moulded Elizabeth's character and personality and stamped and determined her life; on relations with Scotland; on the persistence of Catholic undercurrents; on the transitions in political life; on the undermining and disappearance of traditions; on the Armada and the national mood; on Thomas Seymour , William Cecil, Mary Stuart and the Casket letters. It is filled with personal bias and personal dogmas regarding the reading of history, government, theology, power, wealth, justice, etc. Spotty going.