Alison Margaret Chichele Plowden (18 December 1931 – 17 August 2007) was an English historian and biographer well known for her popular non-fiction about the Tudor period.

Biography

She was born at

Quetta Quetta is the capital and largest city of the Pakistani province of Balochistan. It is the ninth largest city in Pakistan, with an estimated population of over 1.6 million in 2024. It is situated in the south-west of the country, lying in a ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

, a descendant of

Edmund Plowden Edmund Plowden (1519/20 – 6 February 1585) was an English lawyer, legal scholar and theorist during the late Tudor period. Early life Plowden was born at Plowden Hall, Lydbury North, Shropshire. He was the son of Humphrey Plowden (1490� ...

and, collaterally, of

Henry Chichele Henry Chichele ( ; also Checheley; – 12 April 1443) was Archbishop of Canterbury (1414–1443) and founded All Souls College, Oxford. Early life Chichele was born at Higham Ferrers, Northamptonshire, in 1363 or 1364; Chichele told Pope Eu ...

. Privately educated, she worked for the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

as a script editor. She wrote the script for the

television Television (TV) is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. Additionally, the term can refer to a physical television set rather than the medium of transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...

series ''Mistress of Hardwick'' (about

Bess of Hardwick Elizabeth Cavendish, later Elizabeth Talbot, Countess of Shrewsbury ( Hardwick; 13 February 1608), known as Bess of Hardwick, of Hardwick Hall, Derbyshire, was a notable figure of Elizabethan English society. By a series of well-made marri ...

), which won her a Writers' Guild Award for the best educational television series, and several television plays, including ''Sweet England's Pride'' and ''The Case of Eliza Armstrong''. She later recalled: "A secretary writing scripts was a little like a performing monkey at the BBC - there was a sort of 'Fancy, what a clever little girl' attitude." In 1970 she decided to leave the BBC to go freelance. Her first book, ''The Young Elizabeth''(1972), was followed by ''Danger to Elizabeth'' (1973), ''Marriage With My Kingdom'' (1977), about Elizabeth's courtships, and ''Elizabeth Regina'' (1980), which presented the Queen at the height of her powers. Collectively these books became known as Alison Plowden's "Elizabethan Quartet". While working on this series she also published ''Tudor Women'' (1979). After the quartet she wrote ''Elizabethan England: Life in an Age of Adventure'' (1982). In addition she wrote many drama and other scripts for BBC radio between 1963 and 1988. Later she turned her attention to the 19th century with ''The Young Victoria'' (1983) and ''Caroline and Charlotte'' (1989), then the Civil War period with ''The Stuart Princesses'' (1996), about the six princesses of the House of Stuart who lived through the violent upheavals of the 17th century. This was followed by ''Women All on Fire'' (1998), about the activities of women on both sides of the Civil War. One of these women was Queen

Henrietta Maria Henrietta Maria of France (French language, French: ''Henriette Marie''; 25 November 1609 – 10 September 1669) was List of English royal consorts, Queen of England, List of Scottish royal consorts, Scotland and Ireland from her marriage to K ...

, of whom she published a biography in 2001. She continued with ''In a Free Republic: Life in Cromwell's England'' (2006) and the last of her 25 books, ''The Winter Queen'' (about Elizabeth Stuart, wife of

Frederick V, Elector Palatine Frederick may refer to: People * Frederick (given name), the name Given name Nobility = Anhalt-Harzgerode = * Frederick, Prince of Anhalt-Harzgerode (1613–1670) = Austria = * Frederick I, Duke of Austria (Babenberg), Duke of Austria fro ...

who accepted the crown of Bohemia), published posthumously in 2008. Plowden was devoted to animal welfare, and shared her home with two cats. She was unmarried.

Works

*''Young Elizabeth'' (1971) *''Mistress of Hardwick'' (1972: television series and tie-in book) *''Danger to Elizabeth'' (1973) *''The Case of Eliza Armstrong'' (1974) *''The House of Tudor'' (1976) *''Marriage with My Kingdom: The Courtships of Queen Elizabeth I'' (1977) *''Tudor Women - Queens and Commoners'' (1979) *''Elizabeth Regina'' (1980) *''Young Victoria'' (1983) *''Two Queens in One Isle: The Deadly Relationship of Elizabeth I and Mary Queen of Scots'' (1984) *''Lady Jane Grey: Nine Days Queen'' (1985) *''Caroline and Charlotte'' (1989) *''The Elizabethan Secret Service'' (1991) *''The Stuart Princesses'' (1996) *''Women All on Fire: Women of the English Civil War'' (1998) *''Henrietta Maria: Charles I's Indomitable Queen'' (2001) *''In a Free Republic'' (2006)

Sources

Obituary in ''The Times''Obituary in the ''Daily Telegraph''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Plowden, Alison 1931 births 2007 deaths English historians English women biographers English women television writers People from Quetta 20th-century English biographers 20th-century English women writers 20th-century English screenwriters