The Lady Elizabeth - Alison Weir

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.