I Claudius is right up there as one of my all time favorites. Livia prepared me for Hillary and Company. It is pretty funny to watch the library copy and note the action then and now. Political intrigue and brutality have not changed over the centuries.
I Claudius was good, agreed. But the two volumes I read before the t.v. series give a deeper insight into how Claudius managed to survive. He stuttered, was clumsy and everyone thought him the idiot - a useful idiot, so they weren't worried about him.
In the many books on Elizabeth I, she didn't come across as promiscous. Her life had been on the line her entire life. She wasn't about to share her power. When the pressure became too great, she "took to her bed."
She loved her people, and she let them know it.