The Watchers

Elizabeth I was a ruler who radiated a sense of power and purpose, and her long and successful reign was the apotheosis of the Tudor dynasty. Yet to much of Europe she was 'Jezebel', the bastard offspring of Henry VIII's illegal second marriage, a woman (unimaginable as a ruler in most European states) and a Protestant heretic. The pope proclaimed that it would not be a sin to murder her and the most powerful rulers of Europe conspired to destroy her, their plans most fully realized by the Spanish Armada. If Elizabeth's reign was a golden age, then it was a precarious one and one that required constant, anxious surveillance against sometimes overwhelming threats.

The Watchers is a beautifully written, surprising and gripping account of the constant battle by spies, codebreakers, ambassadors and confidence-men to protect the queen. Drawing on extraordinary secret files, Stephen Alford brings to life a shadowy world in which nobody could be trusted, and a reign that required endless watchfulness.