Book description
Elizabeth I is perhaps England's most famous monarch. Born in 1533,
the product of the doomed marriage of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn,
Elizabeth was heir to her father's title, then disinherited and
finally imprisoned her half sister Mary. But in 1558, on Mary's death,
she ascended the throne and reigned for forty-five years. Respected by
her subjects and idolised by future generations, Gloriana's fierce
devotion to her country and its people truly make her England's
fairest queen and icon. In the wake of the Reformation Europe lay
deeply divided by religion. This, the second volume of Alison
Plowden's acclaimed Elizabethan quartet, charts the dramatic and
multi-faceted struggle between Elizabeth and the Catholics of England
and the rest of Europe who, denouncing the queen as a heretic, a
bastard and a usurper, threatened to overthrow her and re-establish
the supremacy of Rome in all Christendom.
