From the moment Elizabeth I ascended the throne of England word spread the length and breadth of the British Isles: if the Queen ever married she would choose her handsome courtier Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester.

They were inseparable, for Elizabeth had not exaggerated when she told Leicester: "I cannot live without seeing you every day." At the great occasions of state and society, they flaunted the unmistakable intimacy of lovers, whether it was Leicester wiping his brow with the Queen's handkerchief after a tennis match, Elizabeth tickling his neck as she conferred the robes of earldom, their uninhibited kiss in front of 700 startled footmen, or Leicester's visits to Her Majesty's bedchamber.

As the world watched and waited for the great announcement, the stage was being set inside the royal palace for the desperate contest between Leicester and his rivals for the most powerful throne in the world. Endangered by the rapacious claims of Elizabeth's sister Mary Queen of Scots, England would not rest until Elizabeth married and provided a direct successor to the crown. Against this demand Elizabeth had to weigh her conviction that an heir would destroy the undivided loyalty she must command to lead Britain to greatness. But a deeper conflict tore at her. Marked by sexual anxiety, she fought the prospect of total surrender even as she felt herself drawn irresistibly to the virile Leicester.

Leicester himself thrived as never before—for such a man, the difficulties and intrigues of winning a reluctant Queen only sharpened passion and intensified determination. The royal battle of love and politics had just begun.