Cousin to Elizabeth I (although it's likely that they were far closer than that) and grandniece to Anne Boleyn, Lettice Knollys was destined to be a prominent figure at court. But her life would be one of dizzying highs and pitiful lows – caught in a love triangle with Robert Dudley and Elizabeth I, banished from court, embroiled in treason, losing a husband to the executioner's axe and further husbands and children to war and sickness.

At different times Countess of Essex and Countess of Leicester, Lettice lived from the reign of Henry VIII through to Charles I, her story offering an extraordinary and intimate perspective on the history of the period.