女王エリザベス

A surprisingly mostly-accurate biography

I was surprised how closely the events of this manga adhered to real historical events, to the origins and rise of Queen Elizabeth I. Events may be sped up a bit, and/or time compressed quite a bit to make sure the whole thing can fit in 200 pages, and a certain amount of dramatization was added for story flair, but the base seems solid.

Two plot points in particular were the only ones that stood out to me as being suspect:

• The first is that a certain named maid was called on to testify against Elizabeth's mother Anne Boleyn. I don't know for a fact that that maid (whatever her name was) was called to testify in the historical record, though it doesn't seem like a stretch to say so.
• The second is much more egregious, and was most likely invented purely for dramatic purposes: Robert Dudley is implicated in a plot against Elizabeth's life.

I wouldn't really recommend this for anyone interested in learning anything about the time period, but it's a cute read if you're just looking for entertainment. It really attests to how well Elizabeth's story fits being a story by how little the authors had to change anything.

Language-wise this felt pretty difficult for a manga. No furigana, lots of words referring to political positions and 16th century-specific stuff. My personal copy is smaller than the average manga, making the text smaller and more difficult to read in general. I don't remember grammar being all that difficult; no higher than N2, probably, if that.