NATIONAL BESTSELLER • “A gripping fictional portrait” (Salon) of young Elizabeth Tudor, who would become England’s most intriguing and powerful queen, from the renowned author hailed as “the finest historian of English monarchical succession writing” (The Boston Globe)

“Engrossing . . . [Alison] Weir marries conjecture with what is known about the life of Elizabeth I from childhood to coronation, and it makes for ripping good reading.”—Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Even as a very young child, Elizabeth Tudor is keenly aware that people in the court of her father, King Henry VIII, have stopped referring to her as “Lady Princess” and now call her “the Lady Elizabeth.” She soon learns why, as her sister, Mary, tells her of the tragic fate that has befallen Elizabeth’s mother, the enigmatic and seductive Anne Boleyn, and that both girls have been declared illegitimate. The death of their father ten years later puts the orphaned Elizabeth in even greater peril: Like her mother two decades earlier, she is imprisoned in the Tower of London—and she fears she will meet her mother’s grisly end.

Power-driven politics, private scandal and public gossip, a disputed succession, and the grievous example of her sister, “Bloody” Queen Mary, cement Elizabeth’s resolve in matters of statecraft and love, and set the stage for her transformation into the iconic Virgin Queen—a woman far ahead of her time, an independent spirit who must use cunning and wits for her very survival.