According to Castor, Elizabeth’s insecurity did not cripple her—it shaped her governance. It made her cautious, calculating, and adaptable. She surrounded herself with capable advisors like William Cecil and Francis Walsingham, whom she used but never fully trusted. She delayed decisions, played factions against one another, and resisted war un

One of the central themes in Castor’s study is the way Elizabeth crafted her image meticulously to survive and rule. As a woman in a patriarchal society, Elizabeth’s legitimacy and authority were constantly under threat. Unlike a king, whose right to command was taken as natural and ordained, a queen had to justify every decision and perform he

A Historical Exploration of Power, Image, and Fear in Tudor England When one thinks of Queen Elizabeth I, the iconic “Virgin Queen,” ruler of the golden age of England, the image that often emerges is that of a confident, imperious monarch, poised in glittering gowns, ruling with wisdom and power over an age of exploration, poetry, and naval

A few months before Able Archer, on September 26, 1983, another near-catastrophe occurred. A Soviet early-warning system detected what it believed were five incoming U.S. nuclear missiles. The officer on duty, Lieutenant Colonel Stanislav Petrov, had seconds to decide whether to report the alert to Soviet command, which would likely have triggered