All the Queen's Men

Power, Ambition, and the Making of Elizabeth I

Sophie Shorland

An immersive biography of Elizabeth I that sheds new light on her ambitions and desires of the iconic “Virgin Queen” and repositions Tudor England within the dramatic power struggles of the sixteenth-century.

The throne of England hung in the balance, and every prince in Europe wanted to claim it. When Elizabeth I was crowned in 1558 she became the most eligible woman in Europe. All saw the same prize: marry Elizabeth, rule England. Ambassadors flooded her court, armed with portraits, jewels and marriage proposals from princes, archdukes and kings. Sweden promised mountains of silver. Spain offered imperial protection. Austria pledged powerful alliances. Even Ivan the Terrible—already twice married—sent envoys bearing gifts and threats in equal measure.

For nearly five decades, Elizabeth kept them all waiting. She contrived to play each suitor against the other to her own end. A persistent Erik XIV wrote love letters for a decade, convinced he could win her hand. She strung along the charming French Duke of Alençon, exchanging rings before wriggling free with an alliance secured. Meanwhile, Robert Dudley, never far from Elizabeth's side, became the favourite who made foreign ambassadors tremble with envy.

Written with historian Sophie Shorland's unique eye, acerbic wit, and viivd prose, Shorland draws on ambassadorial dispatches, secret intelligence reports and Elizabeth's own letters. All the Queen's Men reveals how Elizabeth I turned the competition for her hand into foreign policy—using courtship as diplomacy, flirtation as statecraft, and her perpetually single status as the key to England's survival in the tangled web of world politics.

Sophie Shorland has a PhD in Early Modern English literature and is a former Research Fellow at the University of Warwick. She was a semi-finalist in the BBC's New Generation Thinkers competition and the proposal for her first book was shortlisted for the Tony Lothian Prize.

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Endorsements & Reviews

Praise for Sophie Shorland

"Charles II, the Stuart king who restored England’s monarchy in 1660 after years of turbulence and civil war, is well known to history. Charles II’s queen-consort, though, is all but forgotten. In The Lost Queen, Sophie Shorland aims to acquaint us with this remarkable woman. Ms. Shorland, an independent historian based in Britain, has researched Catherine’s tastes and domestic life thoroughly, showing her to be more cultured and engaging than one might have assumed. A rich portrait of a figure too long ignored."
The Wall Street Journal

"Shorland takes a very friendly approach to describe the difficult life of King Charles II's Queen Consort, the Portuguese Catherine of Braganza. It is gorgeously written with visual descriptions that are so clear that they can be painted on canvas. The level of engagement that the writing provides would make this book a blockbuster movie, filled with sparkling characters fighting for the top spot in the Royal Court." World History Encyclopedia

"Intriguing and meticulously researched, this book about Catherine of Braganza is highly recommended for readers interested in British history and royal biographies."

Library Journal

"Sophie Shorland's The Lost Queen is wonderfully rich in the 17th-century details of lives, loves, politics, and power, in England and in Europe. The book rightly challenges ideas about the wife of Charles II and his treatment of her. We've too easily preferred the gossip of the merry monarch's mistresses over this remarkable woman showing dignified courage and tenacity in the face of constant threats to her position." Suzie Edge, author of Mortal Monarchs: 1000 Years of Royal Deaths

"A lively and long-awaited biography of one of Britain's most under-rated queens." Linda Porter, author of Mistresses

"This lively, fascinating book retrieves an overlooked queen from a historical siding and restores her to the center of European politics and Charles II's London." Suzannah Lipscomb, award-winning historian and broadcaster, and author of What is History, Now?

"Although this is Shorland's first book, she writes with the confidence of a much more experienced author. She has thankfully discarded the rigid conventions of academia in favor of telling a good story, embracing character, emotion, and drama. Her often lighthearted manner is for the most part refreshing, especially given a story so bleak." The Times (UK)

"Between these covers we rediscover a lost queen, having now emerged from the shadow of her husband, Charles II. She stands before us as never before, complex, astute and fully realised, all thanks to Shorland’s sensitive and robust retelling of her life. 'Let Bonfires blaze' indeed, for here, finally, is the long-awaited history of Catherine of Braganza." Anthony Delaney, History Hit presenter, author of the forthcoming Queer Georgians

"Another neglected Early Modern woman finally gets the biography she deserves! Shorland's is a confident, cosmopolitan and always accessible life of the Queen Consort who brought England nothing less than the first toeholds of a truly global empire, and the habit of tea-drinking." Ophelia Field, author of The Favourite

"What a wonderful subject Sophie Shorland has picked. It's for far too long that Charles II's Portuguese queen has been neglected or misrepresented. Shorland connects her to our own times in a splendidly sympathetic and sparky portrait, filled with unexpected images of a courageous woman who wasn't afraid to create her own circle and defend her beliefs at an English court dominated by her husband's mistresses. Wittily written and rich in detail." Miranda Seymour, author of I Used to Live Here Once: The Haunted Life of Jean Rhys