This is the inside story of Elizabeth I's inner circle and the crucial human relationships which lay at the heart of her personal and political life. Using a wide range of original sources--including private letters, portraits, verse, drama, and state papers--Susan Doran provides a vivid and often dramatic account of political life in Elizabethan England and the queen at its center, offering a deeper insight into Elizabeth's emotional and political conduct--and challenging many of the popular myths that have grown up around her. It is a story replete with fascinating questions. What was the true nature of Elizabeth's relationship with her father, Henry VIII, especially after his execution of her mother? What was the influence of her step-mothers on Elizabeth's education and religious beliefs? How close was she really to her half-brother Edward VI--and were relations with her half-sister Mary really as poisonous as is popularly assumed? And what of her relationship with her Stewart cousins, most famously with Mary Queen of Scots, executed on Elizabeth's orders in 1587, but also with Mary's son James VI of Scotland, later to succeed Elizabeth as her chosen successor? Elizabeth's relations with her family were crucial, but almost as crucial were her relations with her courtiers and her councillors. Here again, the story unravels a host of interesting questions. "This is an altogether superior book and one that demonstrates scholarly instincts and a knowledge of the period of a much higher order many readers will find it a valuable addition to the scholarship on Elizabeth I's queenship."-- American Historical Review "Doran writes in a pleasingly conversational style...this is one of the good ones."--Tablet "A remarkable book about Queen Elizabeth I, one which will be of interest and is accessible to the general public and yet is also of great value to scholars in the field. Even those who are experts about the life and reign of Elizabeth will learn something new...a superb study."-- Renaissance Quarterly Susan Doran teaches at St Benet's Hall and is Senior Research Fellow at Jesus College, Oxford. She has published numerous books on Tudor history, including The Tudor Chronicles (Quercus, 2008). Her work has included consultancies for the media, and she has edited catalogues for three major exhibitions in London. She has regularly been interviewed for radio and TV programmes, and is currently planning an exhibition with the Bodleian Library on Stuart Successions. She is married with two adult children.