‘Virgin Queen’ is the name for which the powerful and fearless daughter of Henry the Eighth and Anne Boleyn is best remembered and may explain why Elizabeth was the last of the Tudor monarchs. But how appropriate is that reputation? Were Elizabeth’s suitors and favourites really just innocent intrigues? Or were they much more than that?

Was Elizabeth really a woman driven by her passions, who had affairs with several men, including Thomas Seymour, while he was still the husband of her guardian Catherine Parr, and Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester-a man adjudged to have been the great love of her life? Are the rumors of Elizabeth’s illegitimate children true?