David Scott Gehring's meticulously researched book makes a valuable contribution to our understanding of Elizabethan foreign policy and the role of religion in diplomatic decision-making. His study charts the development of Anglo-German relations during the late Tudor period, bringing attention to a wealth of under-utilised material in archives such as Munich, Stuttgart, Dresden, Hanover, Marburg, Wolfenbüttel, Berlin-Dahlem and Copenhagen, as well as many others in Britain and the United States. Although Elizabeth was renowned for political evasiveness (always preferring a non-committal policy until pushed into action) and her own religious proclivities remain an open question (Patrick Collinson famously called her an ‘odd sort of Protestant’, while Susan Doran preferred to see her as an ‘old sort of Protestant’), Gehring argues that there was an underlying consistency behind English policy towards the Protestants of the Empire throughout her reign. Since confessional solidarity was inextricably linked to military defence in the face of looming Catholic intervention, Elizabeth and her councillors saw the Protestant princes of Germany and Denmark as essential allies in a dangerous world. Yet the staggering complexity of political and religious affiliations within the Empire made diplomatic overtures difficult: even among those German Princes opposed to Rome, theological disputes often flared up between Lutherans, Melanchthonians and the German Reformed, a situation only partially resolved by the Formula of Concord in 1577. Gehring shows that the English recognised this heterogeneity of opinion and collected enormous amounts of intelligence on the inner workings of each corner of the Empire in order to tailor their diplomatic approaches accordingly. Ambassadors like Robert Beale quickly identified England's most important allies within this complex web of interests, including the Electors of Saxony (who had considerable influence in the region) and the Palatinate (because of their proximity to France and the Netherlands), while the Protestant rulers of Hesse and Denmark could be trusted to report on developments in Catholic parts of the Empire. Gehring argues that the period 1558 to 1592 represented ‘the closest contact and collaboration between England and Germany for several hundred years’. A brief overview of the trajectory of Anglo-German relations before Elizabeth's reign may have served to highlight the significance of this argument. Moreover, while German involvement in the wars of religion may have tapered off in the early 1590s, it would have been interesting to learn how Elizabeth worked to keep her old allies on side following Henri's dramatic conversion to Catholicism in 1593. Nevertheless, Gehring's study reinforces the role of religion in Elizabethan foreign policy, which elsewhere seemed dominated by commercial rather than ideological interests. Above all, this work reconfirms the importance of examining English history in the context of its relations with lands far beyond its borders.