Elizabeth: The Struggle for the Throne

An abused child, yet confident of her destiny to reign, a woman in a man's world, passionately sexual-though, as she maintained, a virgin-Elizabeth I is famed as England's most successful ruler. David Starkey's brilliant new biography concentrates on Elizabeth's formative years-from her birth in 1533 to her accession in 1558-and shows how the experiences of danger and adventure formed her remarkable character and shaped her opinions and beliefs.

From princess and heir-apparent to bastardized...