"By the time Elizabeth I became Queen, she had already endured more tumult than many monarchs experienced in a lifetime. Even before her third birthday, Elizabeth had been both a princess and then a bastard, following the brutal execution of her mother, Anne Boleyn. After losing several stepmothers and then her father, the teenaged Elizabeth was confronted with the predatory attentions of Sir Thomas Seymour. The result was devastating, causing a heartbreaking rift with her beloved stepmother Katherine Parr. Elizabeth was placed in further jeopardy when she was implicated in the Wyatt Rebellion of 1554 – a plot to topple her half-sister, Mary, from her throne. Imprisoned in the Tower of London where her mother had lost her life, under intense pressure and interrogation Elizabeth adamantly protested her innocence. Though she was eventually liberated, she spent the remainder of Mary’s reign under a dark cloud. On 17 November 1558, however, the uncertainty of Elizabeth’s future came to an end when she succeeded to the throne at the age of twenty-five. This vivid and immensely detailed biography charts Elizabeth’s turbulent and unstable upbringing, exploring the dangers and tragedies that plagued her early life. Drawing on Elizabeth's own words and of those who knew her, Nicola Tallis provides an extensive and thorough study of an exceptionally resilient young woman whose early life would shape the queen she later became. The story of Elizabeth’s youth as she steered her way through perilous waters towards England’s throne is one of the most sensational of its time."-- Taken from dustjacket.