Told for the very first time, this is the shocking and extraordinary story of the most-conniving and manipulative Tudor family you've never heard of . . .'A tour-de-force of Tudor history. Remarkable' DAN JONES 'Exciting and immersive. An immensely entertaining history' SUNDAY TIMES 'This is riveting stuff: death, desire, power and scandal' SPECTATOR 'A twist on the Tudors . . . Enormously entertaining - a sheer joy to read' THE TIMESWas the House of Dudley out to steal the throne? This was the question on the mind of Elizabeth I's courtiers when a forbidden book accused generations of the Dudley family of poisonings, plottings, murders, treason, incitement and other 'evil stratagems.'For decades, the Dudleys had been close to the throne, rising from nobodies to the land's highest offices.Under Henrys VII and VIII, Edward VI, Mary I and, finally, Elizabeth, they risked execution and imprisonment as they audaciously stole, murdered and swindled in the name of the monarch.But were they loyally protecting the crown, or did they secretly covet it for themselves?