Historian Ronald offers a fresh look at Elizabeth I, focusing on her uncanny instinct for financial survival and her superior intellect that propelled and sustained her rise, including her use of piracy to transform her realm into the greatest empire the world had ever seen. 16-page b&w photo insert.

"A highly colorful, swashbuckling read, one that will give you new respect for Britain's first Elizabeth." --Seattle Times

An illuminating revisionist biography about Queen Elizabeth I and her merchant-adventurers who terrorized the seas, extended the Empire, and amassed great wealth for the throne.

Extravagant, whimsical, and hot-tempered, Elizabeth was the epitome of power, both feared and admired by her enemies. Dubbed the "pirate queen" by the Vatican and Spain's Philip II, she employed a network of daring merchants, brazen adventurers, astronomer philosophers, and her stalwart Privy Council to anchor her throne--and in doing so, planted the seedlings of an empire that would ultimately cover two-fifths of the world.

In The Pirate Queen, historian Susan Ronald offers a fresh look at Elizabeth I, relying on a wealth of historical sources and thousands of the queen's personal letters to tell the thrilling story of a visionary monarch and the swashbuckling mariners who terrorized the seas to amass great wealth for themselves and the Crown.