This collection brings together provocative essays examining various facets of Elizabethan foreign affairs, encompassing England and The British Isles, continental Europe, and the Islamic world. As an entirely domestic queen who never physically left her realm, Elizabeth I cast an inordinately large shadow internationally. The essays in this volume collectively reveal a ruler and her kingdom more connected and integrated into the wider world than is usually acknowledged in conventional studies of Elizabethan foreign affairs.
As an associate professor of history at the University of North Carolina, Pembroke, I am totally dedicated to fashioning a literate, thinking, critical society, and devoted to the pursuit of social justice, peace, and harmony. As a writer, I have been fascinated with British Monarchy, and the Tudor dynasty in particular, since I was a kid. My first book, The Lioness Roared (2006) examines the history of female rule in England from the twelfth to the 20th centuries. As I remain intrigued by the possibilities of looking at the 'big picture" of royal history, my second book, the edited volume, The Royal Minorities of Medieval and Early Modern England (2008) examines the history of boy kings from the 13th to the 16th centuries. I am also the co-editor (with Carole Levin) of the book series "Queenship and Power" for Palgrave Macmillan, and recently finished an edited volume for the series, The Foreign Relations of Elizabeth I," which will be out in April 2011. I also served as a consulting editor for the March 2011 edition of Calliope magazine, which features essays on Henry VIIII of England. I am currently working on a new monograph, The Pastimes of George Ferrers: The Life and Times of a Tudor Renaissance Gentleman, and a novel, The Empress, about the 12th century Empress Matilda, which is serialized on my website, www.tudorhistorian.com
