The Captive Queen

By Jordan Lisk

Two women of indomitable wills. One fortress.

England, 1569. Elizabeth I commands that Mary, Queen of Scots-her cousin, rival, and prisoner-be lodged under the roof of Bess of Hardwick and her husband, George Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury. What begins as a royal duty soon becomes a burden laced with peril.

Bess is no meek caretaker. A woman of uncommon ambition, she has built her fortune with shrewd calculation and unbending will. Yet Mary arrives with all the poise of royalty, cloaked in beauty and grievance, demanding treatment not as a captive but as a queen. Her presence unsettles every corridor of Hardwick Hall: servants whisper, guards waver, and the household bends under the strain of divided loyalties.

Caught between the suspicions of Elizabeth's court and the charm of the woman they are ordered to contain, Bess and George must walk a razor's edge. The command that binds them to their sovereign begins to gnaw at their marriage, threatening to undo not only their peace but their very future.

A tale of power, loyalty, and peril, The Captive Queen brings to life the clash of two indomitable women confined under one roof-and the fault lines their presence carves through a household already under the Crown's watchful eye.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0FNRQ6B26
• ISBN13: 9798262268719
• Release Date: August 2025
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 344 Pages
• Weight: 0.74 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.1" x 7.8"