All the Queen's Men

An immersive biography of Elizabeth I that sheds new light on her ambitions and desires of the iconic “Virgin Queen” and repositions Tudor England within the dramatic power struggles of the sixteenth-century.

The throne of England hung in the balance, and every prince in Europe wanted to claim it. When Elizabeth I was crowned in 1558 she became the most eligible woman in Europe. All saw the same prize: marry Elizabeth, rule England. Ambassadors flooded her court, armed with portraits, jewels and marriage proposals from princes, archdukes and kings. Sweden promised mountains of silver. Spain offered imperial protection. Austria pledged powerful alliances. Even Ivan the Terrible—already twice married—sent envoys bearing gifts and threats in equal measure.

For nearly five decades, Elizabeth kept them all waiting. She contrived to play each suitor against the other to her own end. A persistent Erik XIV wrote love letters for a decade, convinced he could win her hand. She strung along the charming French Duke of Alençon, exchanging rings before wriggling free with an alliance secured. Meanwhile, Robert Dudley, never far from Elizabeth's side, became the favourite who made foreign ambassadors tremble with envy.

Written with historian Sophie Shorland's unique eye, acerbic wit, and viivd prose, Shorland draws on ambassadorial dispatches, secret intelligence reports and Elizabeth's own letters. All the Queen's Men reveals how Elizabeth I turned the competition for her hand into foreign policy—using courtship as diplomacy, flirtation as statecraft, and her perpetually single status as the key to England's survival in the tangled web of world politics.