Queen, temptress, martyr, witch: the Essex Girl has left her mark on history. For centuries, society allocated women a role of service and obedience; an invisible woman, circumscribed by home and family, was a righteous woman. The Essex Girl, however, was a rebel. She has been the most powerful of landowners, the most loyal of wives, the most devout and the most debauched of nuns. Courageous and spirited, she has fought for her country, sacrificed herself for peace, swum rivers for love, and crossed oceans for her beliefs. She has known wealth and adoration, and suffered persecution and banishment; but, whether saint or seductress, victim or wanton, she has always refused to be invisible. This book tells her story.