In The Favourite, Mathew Lyons strips away the myth – and the self-mythologising – to find Sir Walter Ralegh in the one role in which his contemporaries knew him best: the courtier who could win the attention – and the heart – of Elizabeth I, while also being the ‘most hated man in England’.
Using first-hand accounts, Lyons uncovers the maze of ambition, desire and amorality in which Ralegh lived before he rose to fame – a brutal Elizabethan world riven with crime and corruption and riddled with traitors and spies.
Using first-hand accounts, Lyons uncovers the maze of ambition, desire and amorality in which Ralegh lived before he rose to fame – a brutal Elizabethan world riven with crime and corruption and riddled with traitors and spies.
Reviews
Lyons has a magical turn of phrase that compels the reader to turn the pages to find out what happens next...
Very entertaining.
Contains some excellent history-writing.
Wonderful. Elegant and intriguing - a seductive portrait of a fascinating relationship. I couldn't put it down.
A magnificent job of unpicking the machinations of Elizabeth's court and presents a fresh insight into the turbulent world of Tudor England.
A well researched and meticulously detailed biography