I do not remember when I discovered how my mother died, it seems to be something I always knew, a horror I absorbed through my skin. Determined, passionate and headstrong, Elizabeth I shaped the destiny of a kingdom. Her mother; Anne Boleyn, was executed by her father Henry VIII. From that moment on, Elizabeth competed with her two half-siblings for love and for Britain's throne. In the gilded corridors of the royal palace, enemies she couldn't see--as well as those bound to her by blood--plotted to destroy her. Using her courage to survive and her wits to confound those who despised her, this young woman became one of the greatest monarchs the world has ever seen. Even though she was just a girl, she had already lived a lifetime.