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Virgin to Victoria

Book 2

 

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                                          The Queen is dead. Long live the Queen

 

After the death of her sister, 'Bloody Mary', England had high hopes for Elizabeth I when she came to the throne. The 25-year-old ascended the throne as the third queen to rule in her own right and she attended her first council exuding an air of quiet confidence, even though she was inheriting a bankrupt nation torn apart by religious discord. It was chaotic.

 

Despite her amazing legacy and despite what her father, Henry VIII, had desired above all else, Elizabeth failed England in one vital point. She never married and did not leave an heir to the Tudor dynasty. By making that one fateful decision, she left the path open for the arrogant Stuarts in Scotland to take over and life would never be the same.

 

'Virgin to Victoria' travels in time through Elizabeth's amazing life, through the confusion of the Stuart dynasty, through the devastation of a Civil War led by Oliver Cromwell, through battles for the throne and through the turbulent and discordant Hanover dynasty with its intricate family squabbles.

 

Queen Victoria did not ask to be Queen. It was thrust upon her by the accident of birth and then by a succession of accidents that removed all others who stood between her and the throne. She assumed it reluctantly and, at first, incompetently. Parliament was sure the 18-year-old could be relied upon to leave the job of running the country to the professionals.

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Couldn't she?

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