From the dust jacket:
WHEN Queen Bess was a child she was a possible, but not likely, heir to the English throne; for Henry VIII's passion for her mother, Anne Boleyn, had ended with his executing her and bastardizing their daughter.
He dominates the scene and young Bess regards him with mingled horror and fascination. Three stepmothers have been rapidly disposed of, but the fourth, Catherine Parr, manages to out-live Henry and marries Bess's step-uncle, Tom Seymour, whose eldest brother becomes Lord Protector to the boy, King Edward VI.
There follows a furious struggle for power between the Seymour brothers, complicated by the dangerous mutual attraction between Tom Seymour and the "odd difficult girl," Bess. The Protector claps his brother into the Tower on charges of poisoning his wife and seducing the young princess in order to marry her and seize the throne.
This struggle reveals the future greatness of Elizabeth. Practically imprisoned, friendless and alone, this girl of fifteen fights not only for her reputation but for her life, until she forces her enemies to establish her innocence. The book ends with the death of her young brother King Edward; and Bess, while still in her teens, is again at the vortex of a fight for sovereign power. But the new danger revives all her hope and belief in the great destiny that awaits her.
Already in the period this book covers she shows her genius for statecraft, as well as unexpected flashes of a curiously moving simplicity, also of deep capacity for passion, and for poetry.
With this brilliant new novel, Margaret Irwin's exceptional ability to make authentic history come alive is once more affirmed. Here again are all the zest and color of historical figures woven into rich, imaginative literature.
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