The Virgin's Lover

by Philippa Gregory

Paperback in good condition, published 2004. 

Philippa Gregory is one of the big names when it comes to historical fiction, weaving together great stories on a background of historical events.  This one is set in 1558 when Queen Elizabeth I comes to the throne. Church bells across England ring out the joyous news that Elizabeth I is the new queen, yet one woman hears the tidings with utter dread. She is Amy Dudley, wife of Sir Robert, and she knows that Elizabeth's ambitious leap to the throne will draw her husband back to the center of the glamorous Tudor court, where he was born to be. Elizabeth's excited triumph is short-lived. She has inherited a bankrupt country where treason is rampant and foreign war a certainty. Her faithful advisors warns her that she will survive only if she marries a strong prince to govern the rebellious country, but the one man Elizabeth desires is her childhood friend, the ambitious Robert Dudley.