This clearly written and commanding account of Elizabeth`s struggle to maintain and uphold Protestantism is enlivened by portraits of some of the most fascinating people of the Elizabethan age: Edmund Campion, William Cecil, Thomas Howard, Francis Walsingham, Philip II of Spain, and Mary Queen of Scots. With its rebellions, spies, international intrigue and final victory for the Protestant succession in the defeat of the Spanish Armada, this was a colorful era. Alison Plowden succeeds brilliantly in explaining the legacy of religious and political problems which Elizabeth I inherited and shows how she managed to create stability at home and defend the country from foreign threat.