A stunning account of Elizabeth I that focuses on her role in the Wars on Religion—the battle between Protestantism and Catholicism that tore sixteenth-century Europe apart Elizabeths 1558 coronation procession was met with an extravagant outpouring of love. Only twenty-five years old, the young queen saw herself as their Protestant savior, aiming to provide the nation with new hope, prosperity, and independence from the foreign influence that had plagued her sister Marys reign. Given the scars of the Reformation, Elizabeth would need all of the powers of diplomacy and tact she could summon. Extravagant, witty, and hot-tempered, Elizabeth was the ultimate tyrant. Yet at the outset, in religious matters, she was unfathomably tolerant for her day. Heretic Queen is the highly personal, untold story of how Queen Elizabeth I secured the future of England as a world power.