Memoirs of the Court of Queen Elizabeth
Aikin, Lucy, 1781-1864Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019
Rating 3.6- Word count
- 1.6M words
- Chapters
- 158
Tags
English Originals World HistoryHistorical Figures Historical ReappraisalPalace IntriguePortrait GalleryPolitical IntriguePower GameGroup BiographyBiographical NarrativeElizabethan EraSocial ObservationEnglish MonarchySummary
Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Memoirs of the Court of Queen Elizabeth by Lucy AikinAuthor: Aikin, Lucy, 1781-1864,Language: English, Class: DA: History: General and Eastern Hemisphere: Great Britain, Ireland, Central Europe, Release Date: May 16, 2007Editor's review
This memoir of Queen Elizabeth's court is a historical portrait gallery written by Lucy Aikin in the early nineteenth century, using court life as the entry point to connect the political upheavals, character portraits, and everyday etiquette of the Elizabethan era. Aikin was known for historical writing and adaptations of children's literature; her prose is clear and restrained, and she excels at sketching character through anecdotes and letters, so the book has both the skeleton of a chronicle and the charm of anecdotal notes. Its value lies not in proposing groundbreaking arguments but in showing how a nineteenth-century British intellectual woman understood the Tudor court and how history was written in that era. For readers familiar with the basic facts, it offers a nuanced perspective on court etiquette, diplomatic maneuvering, and the situation of women; for general readers, it serves as a gentle guide into the Elizabethan age. It suits slow reading; dipping into a chapter on a particular figure or event offers fragmentary pleasure.Who it's for
A good fit for
- General history readers interested in the Tudor dynasty and the Elizabethan era
- Readers who want to understand nineteenth-century British historical writing and the work of women historians
- Casual readers who enjoy court anecdotes, character sketches, and letters
- English literature or history students who need practice reading English historical sources
Not a good fit for
- Professional historians seeking the latest scholarship and rigorous source criticism
- Readers expecting novelistic plotting and strong dramatic conflict
- Readers with limited stamina for English who would prefer a Chinese translation
Reading tips
- Start with the table of contents and pick a chapter on a figure or event that interests you; there is no need to read straight through.
- Jot down names and positions as you read to help understand the court's social networks.
- Read alongside a general history of the Elizabethan era to compensate for the book's period limitations.
- For the English original, read a short section each day; skip archaic expressions at first and keep your reading rhythm.
About the publisher
Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.
Contents
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- 8
- 9
- 10
- 11
- 12
- 13
- 14
- 15
- 16
- 17
- 18
- 19
- 20
- 21
- 22
- 23
- 24
- 25
- 26
- 27
- 28
- 29
- 30
- 31
- 32
- 33
- 34
- 35
- 36
- 37
- 38
- 39
- 40
- 41
- 42
- 43
- 44
- 45
- 46
- 47
- 48
- 49
- 50
- 51
- 52
- 53
- 54
- 55
- 56
- 57
- 58
- 59
- 60
- 61
- 62
- 63
- 64
- 65
- 66
- 67
- 68
- 69
- 70
- 71
- 72
- 73
- 74
- 75
- 76
- 77
- 78
- 79
- 80
- 81
- 82
- 83
- 84
- 85
- 86
- 87
- 88
- 89
- 90
- 91
- 92
- 93
- 94
- 95
- 96
- 97
- 98
- 99
- 100
- 101
- 102
- 103
- 104
- 105
- 106
- 107
- 108
- 109
- 110
- 111
- 112
- 113
- 114
- 115
- 116
- 117
- 118
- 119
- 120
- 121
- 122
- 123
- 124
- 125
- 126
- 127
- 128
- 129
- 130
- 131
- 132
- 133
- 134
- 135
- 136
- 137
- 138
- 139
- 140
- 141
- 142
- 143
- 144
- 145
- 146
- 147
- 148
- 149
- 150
- 151
- 152
- 153
- 154
- 155
- 156
- 157
- 158
FAQ
Is this book a memoir written by Queen Elizabeth herself?
No. The memoir in the title refers to Lucy Aikin's account of the people and events of Elizabeth's court; it is a historical portrait written by a later author, not the queen's autobiography.Can I read this book without any background in British history?
Yes, but it is best to first learn the basics: Elizabeth I's accession, the Reformation, and Mary, Queen of Scots. The book's threads are loose, and without a framework it is easy to get lost among the figures and anecdotes.What are the features of this edition?
This is a public-domain English e-book released by Project Gutenberg, freely available and easy to search and excerpt. The text is the nineteenth-century original, with spelling and expression bearing the marks of its time, so readers should be prepared for that.This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.
About the author
Aikin, Lucy, 1781-1864 Author · English · 1781–1864Lucy Aikin (1781–1864) was an English historian and biographer. Public information about her life and education is limited. On the available evidence, she was known for historical and biographical writing, with a particular interest in English court politics and the lives of monarchs. Her representative work is Memoirs of the Court of Queen Elizabeth, which describes the court figures, political events, and atmosphere of Elizabeth I's reign, reflecting her attention to historical sources and orderly narrative. The library currently holds one work by her. Overall, Aikin occupies a place in nineteenth-century English historical and biographical writing, and her work offers a useful narrative account of late Tudor court politics.