An abused child, yet confident of her destiny to reign, a woman in a man`s world, passionately sexual--though, as she maintained, a virgin - Elizabeth I is famed as England`s most successful ruler. David Starkey`s brilliant new biography concentrates on Elizabeth`s formative years - from her birth in 1533 to her accession in 1558 - and shows how the experiences of danger and adventure formed her remarkable character and shaped her opinions and beliefs. From princess and heir-apparent to bastardized and disinherited royal, accused traitor to head of the princely household, Elizabeth experienced every vicissitude of fortune and extreme of condition - and rose above it all to reign during a watershed moment in history. A uniquely absorbing tale of one young woman`s turbulent, courageous, and seemingly impossible journey toward the throne, "Elizabeth" is the exhilarating story of the making of a queen.