Elizabeth’s Rival: The Tumultuous Tale of Lettice Knollys, Countess of Leicester by Nicola Tallis

Michael O’Mara, 448 pages, £9.99

Elizabeth I is often discussed in terms of the men around her, but this compelling and colourful biography looks instead at a kinswoman Elizabeth both respected and resented. Daughter to Anne Boleyn’s niece, Lettice was wife to Elizabeth’s first favourite, the Earl of Leicester, and mother to the queen’s last, the Earl of Essex. But Tallis’s achievement is to show how clearly the vibrant Lettice deserves to be known in her own right.

There were scurrilous stories about her complicity in the murder of her first husband. Her second, secret marriage to Leicester saw her exiled from court. Her son’s rebellion ended in his execution and that of Lettice’s third husband Christopher Blount – yet she survived and even thrived. Born in the reign of Henry VIII, she died in that of Charles I, and Tallis’s book, beautifully researched and authoritatively written, does full justice to her extraordinary story.