From princess and heir-apparent to bastardized and disinherited royal, accused traitor to head of the princely household, Elizabeth experienced every vicissitude of fortune and extreme of condition - and rose above it all to reign during a watershed moment in history. David Starkey's brilliant new biography concentrates on Elizabeth's formative years - from her birth in 1533 to her accession in 1558 - and shows how the experiences of danger and adventure formed her remarkable character and shaped her opinions and beliefs. An abused child, yet confident of her destiny to reign, a woman in a man's world, passionately sexual - though, as she maintained, a virgin - Elizabeth I is famed as England's most successful ruler. In this spirited United Kingdom bestseller, Starkey presents a brilliant examination of the formative years of the "Virgin Queen, " recreating a host of extravagant characters, mad-cap schemes, and tragic plots, while using original documents to depict the princess's tumultuous life before her accession to the throne in 1588.
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