Major figures like Elizabeth I of England are usually discussed only for their political interventions in her career. Her female relatives receive merely a brief mention, while her attendants are dismissed as minor characters of no importance, a sort of Greek chorus watching in the background as she travelled from early promise to final tragedy. In this fascinating book, Rosalind K. Marshall redresses the balance, examining Mary's life from an entirely new perspective, discovering the extent to which she was influenced by the women she knew.