In the early sixteen-hundreds, two star-crossed assassins, nineteen-year-old Toby and seventeen-year-old Kit, go undercover as actors in a Shakespeare play in a plot to kill Queen Elizabeth.

A biography of Mary Queen of Scots captures the essence of the impulsive and beautiful Scottish queen who lost a throne for love and whose power struggle with Elizabeth I of England ended with her beheading.

"In 1583, young Christopher Marlowe--student, brawler, rakehell, and would-be playwright--has had a dreadful evening. The first performance of his play in the corner of a very disreputable Cambridge bar is a humiliating flop, and then he's attacked on the streets while in the company of Thomas Kyd. So when Francis Walsingham, Queen Elizabeth's spymaster, sends for him, Marlowe is only too happy to go. The assignment is go to Holland, where England's...

July, 1585. Desperate to pursue his chosen career as a professional playwright, the young Christopher Marlowe abandons his Cambridge studies to join Lord Stranges men, a group of travelling players. En route to perform at Oxford, the players are rehearsing amongst the famous Rollright Stones on the Warwickshire border when they are rudely interrupted by the discovery of the corpse of actor-manager Ned Sledd. Is it an act of witchcraft, a human sacrifice...

After receiving a threatening letter from the Countess of Norhumberland, Ursula Blanchard, special aide to Queen Elizabeth I, witnesses a series of strange events in her household and is soon accused of being a witch.

April, 1590. Ursula Stannard, the queen's half-sister and occasional secret agent, has just left Sir Francis Walsingham's funeral when she is summoned back to her childhood home, Faldene House, by her aunt. Uncle Herbert has died suddenly from natural causes, but Ursula's arrival in the Sussex Downs triggers a shocking sequence of death and devastation. Through her service to the queen, Ursula has made dangerous enemies. The formidable Mercer brothers...

1566. William Harley, Clarenceux King of Arms, lives with his family in London, with a document that could destroy England. Lady Percy, Countess of Northumberland, has not given up trying to find it. Nor has she forgotten how he betrayed her. When his wife and his daughter go missing, Clarenceux finds himself on the run with his other young daughter. He knows he must finally destroy the document, even if it should cost him his life - but how can he,...

Queen Elizabeth I is renowned for her hugely successful reign that makes her, perhaps, the most celebrated monarch in English history. But what of the trials she faced in her challenging early life? Her status as a princess didn't last long -- when she was less than three years old, her mother -- the infamous Anne Boleyn -- was brutally beheaded and Elizabeth was relegated to the title of bastard. After losing several stepmothers, she then faced predatory...