Bestselling historian Alison Weir brings Elizabeth I to vivid life in a novel of intrigue, sex, plots, mysteries and tragedies, amid all the colour and pageantry of the Tudor court. ''[Weir] gets right inside the head of the Virgin Queen. The reader has a blissful sense of seeing history as it happens''. (Kate Saunders, The Times). The formidable young Queen Elizabeth is regarded by most of Christendom as a bastard, a heretic and a usurper, yet many princes covet Tudor England and seek her hand in marriage. Under mounting pressure to take a husband, Elizabeth encourages their advances without ever committing; a delicate, politically-fraught balancing act which becomes known as 'The Marriage Game'. But treading this dangerous line with her dashing but married Master of Horse, Lord Robert Dudley, the son and grandson of traitors, could cost her the throne...Played out amidst the splendour of the Tudor court and the most famous events of a great age, The Marriage Game is a dramatic and deeply poignant tale of intrigue, love and loss. At its heart is our greatest Queen and the emotional truth of one of history's most extraordinary love affairs.


[Weir] gets right inside the head of the Virgin Queen. The reader has a blissful sense of seeing history as it happens.' - Kate Saunders, The Times

It was an affair that shocked the world.

Elizabeth I is the most sought-after bride in Europe. But though she is formidably intelligent, brave and tempestuous, she is desperately insecure. The tragic events in her past mean she cannot give herself to any man, and yet she relishes the thrill of the chase, the lure of forbidden fruit.

And so, using sex and high-powered diplomacy, she plays what becomes known as the 'Marriage Game', dangling suitors to keep them friendly to her kingdom, while holding them off indefinitely.
But playing this tantalising game with the married Robert Dudley, the son and grandson of traitors, could cost her the throne...