The Redheaded Princess

This is another Ann Rinaldi historical work, this one covering the early years of the woman who was to become Queen Elizabeth I, probably one of the most famous of all the English rulers. The story covers her very early years right up to the time when she becomes queen.

She received an extremely good education (especially for a time in history when education was not a high priority at all for most people). The book goes into the various dangers to her in her personal relationships, and shows the behind-the-thrones movements that were almost always in process in some kind or another.

It also shows just how savage a time it was in England, especially when Mary was having people burned alive at the stake just because they weren't Catholics. It was also very easy to get on the wrong side of a monarch, or of those supporting him or her, and end up being put in the Tower of London and then being executed.

It was also a time of filth, starvation and disease, and of widespread deaths due those factors. Those in power lived in splendor, and those not in power lived in poverty.

The very fact that Elizabeth managed to live long enough to become Queen, despite the physical dangers from both natural causes and man-made maneuvers, is a credit to her courage and internal strength. A very interesting book.

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