Queen Elizabeth (1533-1603) ruled England for 45 turbulent years and her reign has come to be seen as a golden age. She exercised supreme authority in a man's world, while remaining intensely feminine. This volume has been published to commemorate the 400th anniversary of her death in 1603. It illustrates in colour and (where possible) actual size, a selection of 60 manuscripts - either by Elizabeth or to her - from the British Library, Public Record Office, Hatfield House and other great libraries. Each is accompanied by a commentary, explaining the document and placing it in its historical context. Elizabeth was a girl of extraordinary precocity and a brilliant linguist. Her early letters, written in a beautiful italic, are to her forbidding father, Henry VIII, and to her brother and sister, Edward VI and Mary. Also included in the book are highly dramatic letters exchanged with Mary Queen of Scots; declarations of love from the Earl of Essex, followed a few pages on by her signed warrant for his execution; and a letter from Tsar Ivan the Terrible, who rounds on her in a blind fury after she refuses to marry him.