"Newly widowed and the father of an infant son, Henry VIII realizes he must marry again to ensure the royal succession. Forty-six, overweight, and suffering from gout, Henry is soundly rejected by some of Europe's most eligible princesses. Anna of Kleve, from a small German duchy, is twenty-four, and has a secret she is desperate to keep hidden. Henry commissions her portrait from his court painter, who depicts her from the most flattering perspective....

Nearing thirty, Eleanor of Aquitaine's dozen years as consort to the pious King Louis VII have brought her only unhappiness. Then the young, dynamic Henry of Anjou arrives at the French court, and both know that theirs is a passion that could ignite the world. Eleanor has her marriage annulled and sends for Henry to come and marry her - marking the creation of a vast empire, the birth of the Plantagenet dynasty, and the beginning of a fiery downward...

Much has been written about "the virgin Queen," but little attention has been paid to her tumultuous early life, when her path to the throne and her very survival were at risk. In this gripping, historically authentic novel, bestselling historian Alison Weir paints a vivid portrait of Elizabeth I. From the deaths of her parents, Anne Boleyn and Henry VIII, to the fanaticism of her sister, Mary I, Weir traces one of the most fascinating periods in...