Historian Mandell Creighton's biography of Queen Elizabeth follows her life from her youth through the problems of her reign; her relationship with Mary Stuart; her excommunication; the Alencon marriage; and her later years. A vivid portrait of a complex person, Creighton states this to be a "sketch of the life of Elizabeth as plainly as possible. I have endeavored to illustrate a character rather than to write the history of a time."