Prologue -- Introduction -- Part one : 1533-46 -- 1. 'A fair lady' -- 2. 'Princess of England' -- 3. 'Declared bastard' -- 4. 'The late princess, Lady Elizabeth' -- 5. 'She will be an honour to womanhood' -- 6. 'Elizabeth, her humble daugher' -- Part two : 1547-54 -- 7. 'My lady was evil spoken of' -- 8. 'Truly I was replete with sorrow' -- 9. 'She is guilty' -- 10. 'A very great lady' -- 11. 'Being illegitimate and not lawfully begotten' -- 12. 'The Lady Elizabeth is greatly to be feared' -- 13. 'She has been the cause of all the trouble' -- Part three : 1554-8 -- 14. 'False traitor' -- 15. 'What shall be done with her?' -- 16. 'Worse case than the worst prisoner in Newgate' -- 17. 'Think me to be your true subject' -- 18. 'Of a prisoner made a princess' -- Epilogue -- Appendix 1 : Elizabeth's health -- Appendix 2 : Following in Elizabeth's footsteps

Queen Elizabeth I is renowned for her hugely successful reign that makes her, perhaps, the most celebrated monarch in English history. But what of the trials she faced in her challenging early life? Her status as a princess didn't last long--when she was less than three years old, her mother--the infamous Anne Boleyn--was brutally beheaded and Elizabeth was relegated to the title of bastard. After losing several stepmothers, she then faced predatory attentions and illicit flirtations from her stepfather, Thomas Seymour, which ultimately forced Elizabeth to leave her home. But these were only the beginning of Elizabeth's problems. Later, she became implicated in a plot to overthrow her half-sister, Mary, and faced interrogation and imprisonment in the very tower in which her mother died. Adamantly protesting her innocence, Elizabeth endured the interrogation and was eventually released. Her popularity as a royal increased from that point on, and she finally became queen at the age of twenty-five. Expert historian Nicola Tallis draws on a variety of primary sources--from the queen herself as well as those closest to her--to provide an extensive and thorough study of the Virgin Queen's perilous journey to the crown. Looking at Elizabeth as a human being rather than a political chess piece, her narrative explores the dangers and tragedies that plagued Elizabeth's early life, revealing the queen to be a young women who drew strength from her various plights as she navigated one of the most thrilling paths to the throne in the history of the monarchy