Author: Joseph Allen Matter

Publisher:

Published: 1969

Total Pages: 400

ISBN-13:

"Queen Elizabeth I of England never married, but she came close to it on one or two occasions, or so we are led to believe. One of those thought to be a likely candidate for the honor was the second Earl of Essex—much to the horror and dismay of the other courtiers who crowded the royal court. And yet Essex did not marry Elizabeth; in fact, he was disgraced after expressly ignoring a royal command—and tried for treason. The sequence is well known, and yet the explanation for what can only be taken to be Essex's stupidity, on the one hand (he well knew the imperiousness of Elizabeth's will), and Elizabeth's rage and mortification, on the other, has remained unclear until Joseph Allen Matter steeped himself in the volumes of the British State Trials and, on the basis of the official records, came up with the careful reevalutation that is My Lords and Lady of Essex. The Essexes were an ill-starred family. Taking no notice of the troubles of Elizabeth's onetime favourite, the second earl's successors in the reign of James I (1603–1625) fought among themselves and conspired against their sovereign—ending up with depression regularity in the law courts, there to becomes the subject of Mr. Matter's minute researches. By making use of many of the surviving documents of the period, in particular of the State Trial of Mr. Matter has reconstructed a fascinating period of English history, restoring to what is often passed over as an arid recitation of facts the full flavor of personality, intrigue, and the comedy of manners that is humanity in any age or time."-Publisher.