A terrible dread took hold in my belly. The only bed left to me was my deathbed and I was not ready for that - not yet.

Elizabeth is a survivor. The unwanted daughter of an executed queen, she endured the perils of her childhood to take the throne as Queen of England. Just a girl at coronation, Elizabeth has now ruled for over four decades, withstanding political upheavals, war and plots against her life.

But as her life draws to an end, she weighs up all that she has relinquished - love, marriage, family of any kind - for power. She was not just a queen, but a flesh-and-blood woman. Will her last moments be ones of regret?

Here is the final chapter in the life of a woman who grasped her destiny with both hands and made herself one of the greats of history.