for a taste of the pleasures to come…
YOUNG BESS
THE FIRST INSTALMENT OF MARGARET IRWIN’S MASTERFUL TRILOGY
* * *
Growing up in the shadow of her mother, the infamous Anne Boleyn, young Princess Elizabeth has learnt to be continuously on the watch for the political games played out around her. It is never certain when one might rise in, or precariously fall out of, royal favour.
When her distant father, Henry VIII, dies, the future brightens for Elizabeth. She is able to set up a home with Henry’s last wife, Katherine Parr, who now has a new husband, Tom Seymour. Tom, however, is playing a risky game. Marrying a widowed queen is one thing, flirting with the king’s daughter and second in line to the throne is another. As the adolescent Elizabeth finds herself dangerously attracted to him, tragedy looms ahead for her and the kingdom…
‘One of Britain’s most accomplished historical novelists. Her love and respect for the past shines through every page’ Sarah Dunant, author of In the Company of the Courtesan
ELIZABETH, CAPTIVE PRINCESS
THE SECOND TITLE IN MARGARET IRWIN’S COMPELLING TRILOGY
* * *
Jealous and suspicious of her younger, healthier and more beautiful sister, Mary tries to suppress Elizabeth’s growing power. But at just twenty, the imperious, high-spirited Bess fights back and begins to show the diplomacy, the baffling mood changes and the power to win men’s devotion for which she will one day become famous as Queen. As Mary’s influence fades, the country looks to the young princess for its future.
The death of her younger brother, Edward IV; the accession of Mary; the execution of Lady Jane Grey; her own imprisonment in the Tower; and the arrival of Philip of Spain to marry Queen Mary provide the powerful background against which Elizabeth struggles to achieve her life’s goal: the Crown of England.
‘I doubt if anyone could create more perfectly than Miss Irwin the illusion of a vanished age’
Observer
ELIZABETH AND THE PRINCE OF SPAIN
THE FINAL INSTALMENT OF MARGARET IRWIN’S TIMELESS TRILOGY
* * *
Philip of Spain, unwilling bridegroom of Queen Mary, has been warned about the Queen’s half-sister, the young Elizabeth, daughter of Anne Boleyn. According to all reports, she is a heretic, a rebel and a potential enemy with ‘a spirit full of enchantment’. But Philip is not deterred, and Elizabeth must advance warily towards her destiny, running the gauntlet between Bloody Mary’s jealousy and morbid outbursts of hate, and Philip’s uneasy ardour…
‘Margaret Irwin’s books have an unsurpassed colour and gusto’
The Times
Copyright
Allison & Busby Limited
12 Fitzroy Mews
London W1T 6DW
www.allisonandbusby.com
First published in Great Britain in 1941.
This ebook edition published by Allison & Busby in 2013.
Copyright © 1941 by THE ESTATE OF MARGARET IRWIN
The moral right of the author is hereby asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent buyer.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 978–0–7490–1353–0
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