Elizabeth I is renowned for the hugely successful reign that has led her to be considered one of the most celebrated monarchs in English history. But what of the trials she faced in her tumultuous early life?

Her status as a princess didn’t last long – when she was less than three years old, her mother, the infamous Anne Boleyn, was brutally beheaded and Elizabeth was relegated to the title of bastard. After losing several stepmothers, she then faced predatory attentions and illicit flirtations from her stepfather, which ultimately forced Elizabeth to leave her home.

But these were only the start of Elizabeth’s problems. Later, she became implicated in a plot to overthrow her half-sister, Mary, and faced interrogation and imprisonment in the very tower in which her mother died. Adamantly protesting her innocence, Elizabeth endured the interrogation and was eventually liberated. Her popularity as a royal increased, and she finally became Queen at the age of twenty-five.

This colourful and immensely detailed biography charts Elizabeth’s turbulent and unstable upbringing. Expert historian Nicola Tallis draws on primary sources from those closest to her and from Elizabeth’s own writing, providing an extensive and thorough study of the Virgin Queen’s perilous journey to the crown. Looking at Elizabeth as a human being rather than as a political chess piece, this book explores the dangers and tragedies that plagued her early life. Elizabeth drew strength from her various plights, becoming a famously powerful ruler by navigating one of the most thrilling paths to the throne in England’s history.