ELIZABETH'S ADMIRAL - the Political Career of Charles Howard Earl of Nottingham 1536-1624 by Kenny, Robert W,

The Johns Hopkins Press, BALTIMORE, 1970. US first edition, hard bound in dust jacket, 5 1/2 x 8 1/2, VG/VG condition ( dj price clipped), xi, 354 pages, portrait, index.--------------------------------------------Lord admiral for thirty years and commander of the fleet against the Spanish Armada, successful politician, high-born, rich, powerful, working bureaucrat, corrupt, loyal servant of two monarchs, preeminently a man of his times—Charles Howard was all of these. His career as a courtier-politician—spanning most of the reigns of Queen Elizabeth and James I—reveals more about the government and mores of Tudor and Stuart England than do the lives of such contemporaries as Hawkins, Drake, Frobisher, and Elizabeth herself.---------------------------------------------In addition to commanding the navy in the most notable victories of the Elizabethan age, Howard presided over both the consolidation of naval strength under Elizabeth and the dissipation of that strength under James I. In fact, his career reflects the qualitative change in the administrations of the two rulers. Although he was never hesitant to use his office to enrich himself, he was a devoted servant to Elizabeth, at least until her declining years: Under James he was an indolent administrator and even resisted efforts to revitalize the navy.A member of the Privy Council throughout the years of the Spanish crisis, Howard was identified with the earl of Leicester's party, which urged a more vigorous prosecution of the war, but when Leicester died, he easily took a more conservative position. In the later years of Elizabeth's reign, he was allied with Robert Cecil.