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Stephen Alford

Biography

Stephen Alford

Stephen Alford is a fellow in history at King's College, Cambridge, and the author of the acclaimed BURGHLEY: WILLIAM CECIL AT THE COURT OF ELIZABETH I,   THE EARLY ELIZABETHAN POLITY: WILLIAM CECIL AND THE BRITISH SUCCESSION CRISIS, 1558-1569, and KINGSHIP AND POLITICS IN THE REIGN OF EDWARD VI. He writes for the Times Literary Supplement and other periodicals.

Stephen Alford

Books by Stephen Alford

London's Triumph: Merchants, Adventurers, and Money in Shakespeare's City
by Stephen Alford - English, History, Nonfiction

For most, England in the 16th century was the era of the Tudors, from Henry VII and VIII to Elizabeth I. But as their dramas played out at court, England was being transformed economically by the astonishing discoveries of the New World and of direct sea routes to Asia. At the start of the century, England was hardly involved in the wider world and London remained a gloomy, introverted medieval city. But as the century progressed something extraordinary happened, which placed London at the center of the world stage forever.

The Watchers: A Secret History of the Reign of Elizabeth I
by Stephen Alford - History, Nonfiction, World History

Elizabeth I came to the throne of England in a Europe aflame with wars of religion and dynastic conflicts. To the great Catholic powers of France and Spain, England was a heretic pariah state, a canker to be cut away for the health of the greater body of Christendom. Elizabeth's government, defending God's true Church of England and its leader, the queen, could stop at nothing to defend itself. Stephen Alford offers a groundbreaking, chillingly vivid depiction of Elizabethan espionage.