I, Elizabeth

Publicly declared a bastard at the age of three, daughter of a disgraced and executed mother, last in the line of succession to the throne of England, Elizabeth I inherited an England ravaged by bloody religious conflict, at war with Spain and France, and badly in debt. When she died in 1603, after a forty-five year reign, her empire spanned two continents and was united under one church, victories in war, and blessed with an overflowing treasury. What's more, her favorites - William Shakespeare, Sir Francis Drake, and Sir Walter Raleigh - mad made the Elizabethan era a Golden Age still…