Heretic Queen

Queen Elizabeth I and the Wars of Religion

By: Susan Ronald

Narrated by: Wanda McCaddon

Acclaimed biographer Susan Ronald delivers a stunning account of Elizabeth I that focuses on her role in the Wars of Religion - the battle between Protestantism and Catholicism that tore Europe apart in the sixteenth century.

Elizabeth’s 1558 coronation procession was met with an extravagant outpouring of love. Only 25 years old, the young queen saw herself as the nation’s Protestant savior, aiming to provide new hope, prosperity, and independence from the foreign influence that had plagued her sister Mary’s reign. Given the scars of the Reformation, Elizabeth would need all of the powers of diplomacy and tact she could summon.

Extravagant, witty, and hot tempered, Elizabeth was the ultimate tyrant. Yet at the outset, in religious matters, she was unfathomably tolerant for her day. "There is only one Christ, Jesus, one faith," Elizabeth once proclaimed. "All else is a dispute over trifles." Heretic Queen is the highly personal, untold story of how Queen Elizabeth I secured the future of England as a world power. Susan Ronald paints the queen as a complex character whose apparent indecision was really a political tool that she wielded with great aplomb.

Susan Ronald was born and raised in the United States but has lived in England for more than 25 years. She is the author of The Pirate Queen, The Sancy Blood Diamond, and France: Crossroads of Europe. She owns a film production company and is a screenwriter and film producer.

©2012 Susan Ronald (P)2012 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

"This is a compulsive, engaging, and vivid history.… The drama of the English Reformation comes alive." (Alison Weir, New York Times best-selling author)

"A triumph." (Antonia Fraser, New York Times best-selling author)

"A searing account of the dark underside of the Elizabethan golden age. Susan Ronald has written a devastating and important reminder of the long, hard road from religious strife to accommodation." (Amanda Foreman, New York Times best-selling author of The World on Fire and The Duchess)

Informative and Enlightening

I knew little of Elizabeth I reign before listening to this audiobook. She is a fascinating woman, taking the throne at 25, trying to stabilize her country after the bloody reign of her sister Mary I, not to be confused with Mary Queen of Scots. Elizabeth was cunning, underestimated because she was "just a woman", she walked at tight rope returning England to its Protestant religion, while dealing with Catholic France and Spain.

Excellent Introduction to the Reign of Elizabeth I

Heretic Queen is a well-written and entertaining history of Elizabeth's reign. The focus is on the religious issues that faced the country during the Reformation, disputes between and among Catholics and various Protestant groups, both inside England and internationally, but it also provides on overview of her reign in general.

This is neither a romanticized life story nor a dry scholarly history. Rather, it is a serious non-academic history - the kind of book that lets you learn a lot without getting bored. Plus the reader is outstanding and kept my interest throughout.

Disappointing

Maybe I had it wrong, but I was looking for a story and got an historical narrative instead.

Very Detailed and Well Researched!

As stated above, I found this to be very well (thoroughly) researched. The narration was great and the author clearly put lots of time into researching and details. This has more detail than anything I've previously seen or read. Great book for those who want to really know the political life of HRH Elizabeth Tudor and her contemporaries. Thank you.

Good book about religious issues of Elizabeth

I highly recommend this book if you want to understand the queen's relationship with religion. Particularly between the struggles of the protestants and Catholics

Learning curve

So many small things that I was unaware of have been brought to light. I understand more of the players involved.

So Eye Opening. So well performed

Post modern folk are quite ignorant of the power of religion in most of the world today and in England and Europe before the enlightenment. <Heretic Queen>, (a good name for a Metal band) goes a long way to remedy this problem. Ronald keeps the story moving but also goes into enough depth so that each player and sub movement — from Philip II of Spain to all the popes who opposed Elizabeth (and Philip) to Catherine de Medici and her Ill-fated sons in France, to the Puritan and Jesuit causes — come through in clear detail and in relation to one another. Like most Tudor histories, she gives too much attention to Mary Queen of Scots and not enough to the various leaders of the Low Countries, the Presbyterian leaders, and the Continental “Heretics” who influenced England in Elizabeth’s reign.
Ronald’s prose is crisp and full of movement. Wanda McCaddon is a perfect voice for the book. Her accents with the quotes from the letters of French, Irish, Scottish, and the other Continental players add to the book vs distract.
A vital book for anyone who wants to understand how religious tolerance came to be the dominant viewpoint in the West. It came from Elizabeth’s experience of trauma, being whipsawed from Cramner’s ascendancy in her childhood under her brother Edward to Mary’s bloody reprisals in her youth. Only a survivor of these horrible crimes against the Name of Jesus could “invent” the Elizabethan settlement and stick to it for 40 years as monarch. It’s a miracle how she pulled it off and survived the wrath of Spain and the Popes.

Pretty thorough but not overly

Unfortunately, just barely brushed over both Queen Mary’s execution and the tremendous influence of both the father and the son, the,Cecil’s, had on Queen Elizabeth

at last told in full

Herein lies the much more complte history of a section of history hither to now given in much abbreviated form. I had often suspected there was alot more to the tales of this time's hisory.
thank you

It’s a Wonder!

Great narrative on the intertwining of religion and politics. It makes me wonder how they and we could/can survive! Things and events don’t seem to change!