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The Stolen Crown
by Tracy Borman
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Elizabeth I refused to name an heir, leaving the English succession uncertain as her health declined. The strongest claimants included James VI of Scotland, Arbella Stuart and descendants of the Grey and Hastings families, while ministers tried to prevent the issue from provoking rebellion or foreign intervention. Tracy Borman reconstructs the manoeuvring around the queen’s final years and the carefully managed accession of James in 1603.
At the centre of the book is William Camden’s account of Elizabeth’s deathbed, later used to suggest that she had endorsed James. Revisions to Camden’s manuscript raise questions about whether that endorsement was political invention rather than witnessed fact. The succession is therefore presented not as an inevitable transfer, but as a contested operation whose propaganda and unresolved tensions shaped the early Stuart monarchy.
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