The Marriage Game by Alison Weir

Alison Weir will speak as the National Archives' Writer of the Month on The Marriage Game.

Their affair was the scandal of Europe. From the time of her accession in 1558, the young Elizabeth I - already reinventing herself as the Virgin Queen - and her dashing but married Master of Horse, Lord Robert Dudley, cast caution to the winds in pursuing their passion for each other. Many believed them to be lovers in the fullest sense, and there were scurrilous rumours that Elizabeth is no virgin at all.

Alison Weir will give a richly illustrated presentation and discuss her novel about Elizabeth's marriage game, a dramatic, complex, often funny, and deeply poignant tale of intrigue, love and loss, tracing the highs and lows of one of history's most extraordinary and controversial royal love affairs.