For 400 years, biographers have overlooked the extraordinary life of Sir Thomas Gresham. His importance to Queen Elizabeth I and the Tudor era was so essential that his portrait is placed next to hers -- with that of her renowned secretary William Cecil, Baron Burghley -- in London's National Portrait Gallery. History's neglect has now been redressed by this splendid popular narrative. The financial advisor to all of the Tudor monarchs, Gresham twice saved England from bankruptcy -- often through feats of considerable daring -- while staying just barely a step ahead of the executioner's axe. Serving as diplomat, spy, royal smuggler, financial wizard, and founder of the Royal Exchange, he was indispensable to the survival of England against its principal wealthy rival Spain and other continental powers. With Elizabeth and Burghley, he served as a member of the triumvirate which secured prosperity and power for England, helping make peace profitable and the disastrous cost of war more apparent. And as a merchant adventurer, whose House of Gresham's emblem was a golden grasshopper, he also amassed what was arguably the greatest fortune in England at that time. The authors have crafted this biography in the form of a novel, filled with fascinating characters from the courts of England, France and Spain, canny merchants and moneylenders from the Continent, palace intrigues, and a captivating love affair. Meticulously researched for more than 30 years by the late Perry Gresham, this book will stand as a definitive biography of one of history's most remarkable figures. Those who love history on a grand scale, biographies of great men of commerce, or simply a wonderful story set in a splendid era, will treasure this book. - Jacket flap.