The Virgin Queen

A genius, a beauty, a leader, and a manipulator, Elizabeth I has fascinated and enthralled her public for centuries. The era that bears her name was the most exciting and dazzling in England's history. Witty, cruel, brave, and cantankerous, Elizabeth fascinated and exasperated her intimates, and when she died in 1603 at the age of seventy, she was at the height of her public popularity. Christopher Hibbert's masterful biography introduces a new generation of readers, aware of the challenges women face in wielding power, to perhaps history's greatest monarch. He has given readers today a reason to appreciate and marvel at one of the most remarkable women who has ever lived. "[Hibbert] never writes a dull or an incomprehensible page...the details of [this book] are often brilliantly illuminating." (Antonia Fraser)