Bess: Anna Beer

Walter Raleigh symbolises the Elizabethan world, but what of his wife, Bess? She had her own remarkable story. She played for high political stakes in a dangerous and violent world - and successive monarchs, threatened by her ability, sought to destroy her and those she loved. She lost her husband and two of her three children and herself was imprisoned, interrogated, banished and made destitute. Yet each time she came back, taking on her enemies with a resilience and courage remarkable for her time. Portrait on dustjacket © National Gallery of Ireland.