The Virgin's Bastard

Epic in scope and scale, The Virgin’s Bastard features a large cast of characters to tell the dramatic story of the first two tumultuous years of the reign of Elizabeth I. Sir William Cecil, England’s leading statesman, guides his brilliant but inexperienced young Queen in her struggle to secure her throne against looming threats at home and abroad. Elizabeth inherits a broken realm from her incompetent half-sister, Bloody Mary—an England impoverished, religiously divided, weak and all but defenseless. To Catholics everywhere, she is an illegitimate ruler: Anne Boleyn’s royal bastard, and a heretic threatening their beliefs. Elizabeth relies on Cecil, her trusted chief advisor, in navigating England’s perilous situation as they confront political rivalries at court, diplomatic meddling, and international intrigue—especially treacherous French plans to invade and conquer England, to overthrow Elizabeth in favor of her cousin, Mary Queen of Scots.

As war threatens, her subjects expect Queen Elizabeth to marry a foreign prince for reasons of state. But her heart belongs to her favorite courtier, Lord Robert Dudley—an ambitious nobleman who loves her, and who covets a kingship, but who is married already. How will Cecil outwit France, their greatest adversary in Europe? Will Elizabeth surrender to her forbidden desires? And will Lord Robert conspire to be rid of his estranged wife Amy, so he can marry the Queen himself? Discover the surprising answers in The Virgin’s Bastard.