Few relationships fire our imagination like that of Elizabeth I and the Earl of Leicester, Robert Dudleythe love affair immortalized in Philippa Gregory's The Virgin's Loverbut nearly fifty years have passed since a book has been dedicated solely to their lifelong love.

Soon after Elizabeth became queen she scandalized the royal court with her passionate obsession with the married Robert Dudley. When Dudley's wife mysteriously died two years later, there was rampant speculation that Elizabeth and Dudley would marry. Instead, over the next decades they formed a working partnership and an intimate bond of mutual dependence. Robert advised Elizabeth, serving as her counselor, unofficial consort, and army commander. He guarded her sickbed and represented her on state occasions. But despite her devotion, Elizabeth humiliated him, made him act as a go-between with her other suitors, and tried to imprison him when he finally remarried. Fueled by scandal and intrigue, this royal relationship was never dull.

Elizabeth and Leicester is an intimate, startling portrait of two people who transformed their age. For those who adore reading about the royals and the many fans of the Emmy Award- winning miniseries Elizabeth I and feature film Elizabeth, this is a story of enduring love that continues to speak to us today.

"What was the exact nature of the relationship between Elizabeth Tudor and her favorite, Robert Dudley, earl of Leicester? And how did this relationship affect Elizabeth's actions as monarch? Gristwood (Arbella: England's Lost Queen) rightly revises the image of Leicester from the queen's preening and clownish lapdog to a fiercely ambitious political animal, warrior, landowner, philanthropist and patriot with clear policies of his own. Gristwood shows us a fierce champion of Protestantism, theater, medicine and exploration, and a major force at Oxford, where he was chancellor. Leicester wielded considerable influence over Elizabeth, who shared his hardheaded practicality and reverence for tradition; they also shared the gruesome fact that they each had a parent beheaded for treason. Gristwood ponders whether Elizabeth ordered the murder of Leicester's gravely ill wife. And she questions whether Elizabeth was only technically a virgin, whether she and Leicester practiced a form of chaste courtly love or whether Arthur Dudley, accused by Spain of espionage in 1587, was really the pair's illegitimate son. This vigorous, valuable and richly detailed study sheds welcome light on the psyche of a great stateswoman whose bending of traditional gender roles continues to tantalize. Illus." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

"One of the most enthralling history books I've ever read. You must read this!"

Alison Weir, author of The Life of Elizabeth I

Fueled by scandal and intrigue, the royal relationship between Elizabeth I and Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, is a story of enduring love. This is an intimate, startling portrait of two people who transformed their age.

A gripping account of one of history’ s most fascinating of alliances– the love affair between Queen Elizabeth I and her political advisor and confident, Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester.

No one knows quite when and where their relationship began — though Leicester once said he’ d known Elizabeth since she was eight years old. They shared an important commonality of experience — both with a parent dead on the headsman’ s block, both imprisoned in the Tower just yards away.

Within days of the death of her sister, Mary, he was at her side and within months, openly spoken of as her lover, even her future husband. Her relationship with her “ bonnie sweet Robin” was one of the most important in the life of Elizabeth. For thirty years he loved her, advised her, understood her, sat by her bed in sickness, and represented her on state occasions. Yet, much of the fascination in their relationship comes from what is not on display: the sudden death — some said murder — of Leicester’ s wife, which damaged his reputation irretrievably; and Elizabeth’ s persistent refusal for ever afterwards to marry anybody at all.

Not a conventional biography, Elizabeth & Leicester is, rather, an intimate portrait of an affair between two people at a crucial moment in history.

Sarah Gristwood attended Oxford and then worked as a journalist specializing in the arts and women's issues. She has contributed to The Times, Guardian, Independent, and Evening Standard.