Historians have long whispered that Elizabeth "the Virgin Queen's" passionate lifelong affair with Robin Dudley, Earl of Leicester, may have led to the birth of a son, Arthur Dudley. 

In this sequel to The Secret Diary of Anne Boleyn, Robin Maxwell fashions a believable fictional account of the child switched at birth by a lady-in-waiting who foresaw the dangerous political consequences of a royal bastard. 

Set against the sweeping, meticulously rendered backdrop of court life from London to Madrid, and England's battle against the Spanish Armada, The Queen's Bastard deftly juxtaposes Elizabeth and Leicester's tumultuous relationship with the memoirs of the adventurous son lost to them—yet ultimately discovered.