Following the tremendous success of her first novel,
Innocent Traitor, which recounted the riveting tale of the
doomed Lady Jane Grey, acclaimed historian and New York
Times bestselling author Alison Weir turns her masterly
storytelling skills to the early life of young Elizabeth
Tudor, who would grow up to become England’s most intriguing
and powerful queen.
Even at age two, Elizabeth 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.” Before she is three,
she learns of the tragic fate that has befallen her mother,
the enigmatic and seductive Anne Boleyn, and that she
herself has been declared illegitimate, an injustice that
will haunt her.
What comes next is a succession of
stepmothers, bringing with them glimpses of love, fleeting
security, tempestuous conflict, and tragedy. The death of
her father puts the teenage Elizabeth in greater peril,
leaving her at the mercy of ambitious and unscrupulous men.
Like her mother two decades earlier she is imprisoned in the
Tower of London–and fears she will also 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, all cement
Elizabeth’s resolve in matters of statecraft and love, and
set the stage for her transformation into the iconic Virgin
Queen.
Alison Weir uses her deft talents as
historian and novelist to exquisitely and suspensefully play
out the conflicts between family, politics, religion, and
conscience that came to define an age. Sweeping in scope,
The Lady Elizabeth is a fascinating portrayal of a woman far
ahead of her time–an orphaned girl haunted by the shadow of
the axe, an independent spirit who must use her cunning and
wits for her very survival, and a future queen whose
dangerous and dramatic path to the throne shapes her future
greatness.
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