Historical Dictionary of the Elizabethan World: Britain, Ireland, Europe, and America

This book is fun to read, or to just pull off the shelf when something requires looking up. The scope of the topics is quite helpful. There are entries on Queen Elizabeth herself, subjects like her portraiture, various players at court, important families like the Howards, Dudleys and Seymours, as well as entries on political, cultural and religious issues. Where else can you look up why transubstantion was so important to the religious squabbles of the time, and learn about the sisters of William Cecil's wife. (The three women were the most educated in England.) The book also conveys a great deal of information visually with particulary explanatory maps of Elizabethan England (find out how far it is from Sussex to Warwick to Northumberland, for example,) and Elizabethan London (find out how far it was from Whitehall to the Globe Theater,) impressive pictures of characters like Essex, Nicholas Bacon and Throckmorton, and tables which show who held which post in privy council when (as well as explanations of what those posts meant.) The genealogical charts, of the Tudors, Stuarts, Greys, Howards, Valois and Hapsburg cannot fail to interest. (One error I caught though: the French King Henry IV's first wife, Margaux, was not the mother of Louis XIII, but that's not so relevant for the Elizabethan period.) There are also entries and illustrations of royal castles and properties of the time, as well as appendixes of Tudor related fiction, films and websites. There's also a heck of a bibliography. All in all a handy dandy reference book, visually appealing and informative, and entertaining taboot.

John Wagner's Historical Dictionary Of The Elizabethan World: Britain, Ireland, Europe, And America is an impressive work of comprehensive scholarship and an essential, core title for any personal, academic, or public library Elizabethan studies reference collection. This exceptional, highly recommended encyclopedic dictionary is enhanced for students and scholars with a bibliography, index, and appendices devoted to genealogies; Elizabethan Archbishops of Canterbury and York, and the Roman Catholic Popes; European Monarchs in the Sixteenth Century; Selected Historical Fiction with Tudor and Elizabethan Characters and Settings; Selected motion Pictures with Tudor and Elizabethan Characters and Settings; Selected Sound Recordings of Tudor and Elizabethan Music; and Selected Web Sites for Tudor and Elizabethan Topics.

Hundreds of brief, clearly written essays provide fascinating inside information on the Age of Elizabeth. The dictionary includes extensive information on the leading political, literary and religious figures and families of Great Britain. The author wisely recognizes that Britain did not exist in a vacuum, and so he has been careful to include European leaders and their complex interrelationships with Britain. Readers who have mistakenly assumed that the ill-fated invasion by the Spanish Armada was a single spectacular disaster, will learn that it actually involved a long series of ocean battles between the British fleet and the Spanish forces led by the reluctant Duke of Medina. Elizabeth I, William Shakespeare, Sir Walter Raleigh, Sir Francis Bacon, and Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester are presented in the context of their families and the social matrix of the period. Less well known figures discussed include the unfortunate Amy Dudley, and Margaret Douglas, Countess of Lennox. Many illustrations enliven the text. Battles, plots and rebellions, religious controversies, finance, treaties, art, architecture, literature and drama all are covered in this surprisingly comprehensive work. Readers who are not quite sure what function the Star Chamber served will find enlightenment here. Useful tables such as the dating of Shakespeare's works and charts for the genealogies of the Houses of Lancaster, York, and Stuart, as well as the Habsburgs and the Bourbons are extremely welcome. Appendices list historical fiction of the period, motion pictures, and sound recordings of Elizabethan music, providing a multidimensional approach to those seeking a balanced picture of the age. Appendix 7 provides a list of web sites devoted to Elizabethan and Tudor culture. These include sites that provide primary source materials, images of ships, persons, and fashions. Readers will be made aware of major internet resources: The English Heritage Web Site, the Folger Shakespeare Library Web Site, and even a site devoted to the Wars of the Roses. An extensive bibliography lists recent works on the Elizabethans and all aspects of their lives and culture. The book is indexed and articles are cross-referenced. A series of maps and a chronology will be most welcome to students of the period. John A. Wagner and the editors at Oryx have prepared a fine one-volume reference work that is sure to be a welcome addition to schools, and to public and academic libraries.