Watch the Lady

by Elizabeth Fremantle Book 3 in the The Tudor Trilogy series.

First published 2015

Amazon

4.1(445)

Penelope Devereux enters Elizabeth I’s court as a celebrated beauty and becomes the inspiration for Philip Sidney’s sonnet sequence, yet poetry offers little protection from an arranged and unhappy marriage. Determined to secure affection and influence on her own terms, she forms a lasting relationship outside that marriage and develops the political judgement needed to defend the interests of the Devereux family.

As her brother Robert, Earl of Essex, rises in the queen’s favour and then challenges the authority of Robert Cecil, Penelope is drawn into the struggle over patronage, Ireland and the succession. Her efforts to preserve the family bring her close to treason as Essex’s ambitions end in rebellion and the ageing queen’s death approaches. The novel presents Penelope as an active political operator in the final decades of Elizabeth’s reign rather than merely Sidney’s muse or Essex’s sister.

Historical Periods

English Renaissance1485–1603 CE Essex Rebellion1601 CE

Genres

Biographical Fiction Court & Political Fiction Dynastic & Royal Fiction Historical Thriller Romance

Historical people

Elizabeth I1533–1603 Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex1565–1601 Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury1563–1612 Philip Sidney1554–1586 James VI and I1566–1625