Elizabeth was crowned queen at twenty-five, but it was only when she reached fifty and all hopes of a royal marriage were behind her that she began to wield power in her own right.

For twenty-five years she had struggled to assert her authority over advisers, who pressed her to marry and settle the succession; now, she was determined not only to reign but to rule. In this magisterial biography, John Guy introduces us to a woman who is refreshingly unfamiliar: at once powerful and vulnerable, willful and afraid.

We see her confronting challenges at home and abroad: war against France and Spain, revolt in Ireland, an economic crisis that triggers riots in the streets of London, and a conspiracy to place her cousin Mary Queen of Scots on her throne.

For a while she is smitten by a much younger man, but can she allow herself to act on that passion and still keep her throne?

Product Information:
• ISBN: 9780670786022
• Author: John Guy
• Publisher: Penguin
• Format: Hardback
• Pages: 493
• Dimensions: 24 x 16 x 4.5cm