In his own way Leicester was as mysterious a person as the Queen. His influence on her, from the beginning of her reign until his death in 1588, was constant and incalculable ¿ greater than that of anyone else save Burleigh ¿ though he was generally unpopular among his fellow courtiers, detested by the populace as a whole, and lampooned by the writers of the day. Leicester¿s complex character, his lavish entertaining, his encouragement of the arts, his day-by-day activities ¿ as courtier, Master of the Queen¿s Horse, Chancellor of Oxford, leader of the English forces in the war of the Netherlands against Spain ¿ are all brought vividly to life. First published in 1961.