Janet Wertman's Nothing Proved offers a new look at the future Elizabeth I

Everyone familiar with the Tudors knows that Elizabeth I became queen after the death of her older half-sister, Mary I, giving her name to the era considered England’s Golden Age.

Though it may seem to have been a natural choice, Janet Wertman’s latest novel makes plain that Elizabeth’s succession to the throne was never a sure thing until just before it happened. Nothing Proved explores an extraordinary coming-of-age story, one fraught with uncertainty and minefields galore, as navigated by a sharp yet vulnerable young woman.

Following a prologue featuring Elizabeth, her royal relatives, and other noble children in the schoolroom, chatting about issues that will shape their fates, the plot spans just over a decade: from fourteen-year-old Elizabeth’s unwitting participation in a scandal involving her stepmother’s husband through the shining moment she and her allies sometimes doubted would ever arrive.

In between, she must face up to her supposed illegitimacy while giving no cause for anyone to remember the (again, supposed) shameful behavior that her mother, Anne Boleyn, had engaged in. Elizabeth must hold fast to her determination never to marry even as major political players push her into it, either to make alliances for their benefit or to force her out of the picture.

During Mary I’s troubled reign, Elizabeth also acts as her sister’s most loyal subject and appears to practice Catholicism so convincingly that her devotion could never be doubted… all the while weighing who’s worthy of her trust. She does this so well that by the time she ascends the throne, she knows who her true friends are, which is depicted movingly as a silent moment of triumph. In addition to her loyal women, among them are William Cecil, whose own path of survival unfolds alongside Elizabeth’s, and her good childhood friend Robert Dudley.

The title of the book comes from the time Elizabeth spends as Mary’s prisoner (“Much suspected by me, nothing proved can be,” she wrote), and Wertman illustrates Elizabeth’s strength of will, refusing to admit wrongdoing despite immense pressure to implicate herself. Her story unfolds in a sequential collection of scenes, with the dates signaled up front. While this feels episodic in the beginning, the narrative does hit the key moments in Elizabeth’s younger life.

Her character emerges through her self-reflections and her interactions with others. Particularly notable in this vein are Elizabeth’s deliberately calm, wise responses to Bishop Stephen Gardiner’s attempts to break her, and the witty conversations between her and her sister’s husband, Philip of Spain, as they size up one another during their walks at court.

Her story is well worth reading, even for those who've read earlier novels about Elizabeth I.

Nothing Proved was published in May; my thanks to the author for the eARC.