Legends surround Elizabeth I like the jewels on her coronation crown. Her awe-inspiring air of command, her mastery of political theater, and her immensely successful policies piloted England into a golden age. Her reign introduced Shakespeare, thrashed the Spanish Armada, and brought calm and unity to a divided, shaken kingdom.

          But she was also the most unlikely of monarchs. The younger daughter of one of Henry VIII’s many wives, she was only three when her mother was executed. Her Catholic sister Mary imprisoned her for treason, bringing her to the edge of her own death.

          In Elizabeth, historian David Starkey captures this and much more, depicting the princess’s tumultuous life from her birth in 1533 to her accession to the throne in 1558. He recreates the extravagant characters, madcap schemes, and tragic plots that overshadowed those years, even as he describes the age’s religious turmoil and political chaos with clarity and authority. Starkey’s work is a masterpiece of biography, offering a new and vivid portrait of the vicissitudes of fortune that shaped England’s greatest queen.