Part 1: Ill-gotten thrones, 1485-1488. 'This pretty lad' ; The Field of Stirling -- Part 2: The road to Flodden Field, 1488-1513. Uneasy crowns ; The impostor ; A summer wedding ; Brothers in arms -- Part 3: Half a Tudor, 1513-1542. Queen and country ; The young King ; Uncle and nephew ; Solway Moss -- Part 4: 'The most perfect child', 1542-1568. 'Rough wooings' and Reformation ; Daughter of France ; The return of the Queen ; Downfall.
Summary
Evaluates the rivalry between the fertile Stewarts and barren Tudors as critical to the sixteenth-century British Isles, tracing three generations of feuding that led to the violent competition for the throne between Elizabeth I and Mary, Queen of Scots.