The mystery surrounding Joan’s story remains as mesmerizing today as it was when she first made her appearance some six centuries ago.

No more compelling figure has ever emerged from the pages of history than Joan of Arc, the brave peasant girl who heard the voices of angels and restored the dauphin to his rightful place on the throne of France. The Maid and the Queen: The Secret History of Joan of Arc

Her father’s terrible betrayal of this commitment would ruin “The Winter Queen,” as Elizabeth would forever be known, imperil the lives of those she loved, and launch a war that would last for thirty years. When her father married Elizabeth at sixteen to Frederick V, elector of the Palatinate, a German count far below her rank, it was with the understanding that James would help her husband achieve the kingship of Bohemia. From a life of genteel poverty in unruly Scotland, vivacious Elizabeth, graceful, tall and slender, the image of her grandmother Mary right down to the tumbling auburn curls, was suddenly thrust into the fairy tale existence of a princess of illustrious England, surrounded by wealth and splendor.

Assailed by danger, scandal, and intrigue, pursued by powerful enemies, this pivotal family of spirited, passionate women, by steadfastly refusing to surrender to adversity, survived to change the course of history.Įlizabeth Stuart’s life was transformed at the age of six when her godmother, the storied Queen Elizabeth I, died and her father, James Stuart, ascended to the throne of England. Daughters of the Winter Queen: Four Remarkable Sisters, the Crown of Bohemia, and the Enduring Legacy of Mary, Queen of Scotsįrom the great courts, glittering palaces, and war-ravaged battlefields of seventeenth-century Europe comes the riveting story of four unforgettable sisters and their glamorous mother, Elizabeth Stuart, granddaughter of the martyred Mary, queen of Scots.

The Lady Queen by Nancy Goldstone