Elizabeth Stuart, Queen of Hearts by Nadine Akkerman

Akkerman's biography reveals the impact Elizabeth Stuart had on both England and Europe, demonstrating that she was more than just the grandmother of George I. In the research for her upcoming book, Elizabeth Stuart: Queen of Hearts, author and academic Nadine Akkerman stumbled upon a little-known portrait of Elizabeth Stuart, Queen of Bohemia and grandmother of King George I, which she believes would have been considered treasonous at the time it was painted. On returning to England in 1661, Elizabeth Stuart found a country whose people still considered her their 'Queen of Hearts'. On returning to England in 1661, Elizabeth Stuart found a country whose people still considered her their Queen of Hearts. 300.00 Hardcover Published: 06 October 2015 840 Pages 10 illus. Through deep immersion in the archives and masterful detective work, Akkerman overturns the received view of Elizabeth Stuart, showing her to be a patron of the arts and canny stateswoman with a sharp wit and a long memory. Following her husband's death in 1632, Elizabeth fostered a cult of widowhood, dressing herself and her apartments in black, and conducted a long and fierce political campaign to regain her children's birthright - by force, if possible - wielding her pen with the same deft precision with which she once speared boars from horseback.

Elizabeth then found herself at the epicentre of the Thirty Years' War and the Civil Wars, political and military struggles that defined seventeenth-century Europe. The couple were crowned King and Queen of Bohemia in 1619, only to be deposed and exiled to the Dutch Republic in 1620. Elizabeth Stuart, daughter of James VI and I, was married to Frederick V, Elector Palatine in 1613.

Nadine Akkerman's biography reveals an altogether different woman, painting a vivid picture of a queen forged in the white heat of European conflict. Labelled a spendthrift more interested in the theatre and her pet monkeys than politics or her children, and long pitied as 'The Winter Queen', the direct ancestor of Elizabeth II was widely misunderstood. The dazzling new biography of one of history's most misunderstood queens Elizabeth Stuart is one the most misrepresented - and underestimated - figures of the seventeenth century.

Elizabeth Stuart, Queen of Hearts by Nadine Akkerman