Queen Elizabeth the First
The most powerful queen in English history
Elizabeth the First may well be the most powerful queen in English history, because she held actual political power in a way that most later queens of England did not. Victoria and Elizabeth the Second had their power limited by the British Constitution to a degree that Elizabeth the First did not. All of them had to contend with Parliament, it is true; but the monarchy still had real power in the years that we today call the "Elizabethan Era." This power was all the greater when the state religion was still under royal control. Just years before this, you see, the church had actually been under the control of the Vatican in faraway Rome. But her father's divorce from his Catholic wife had brought him the ire of the Catholic Church, and led to England's conversion to the new Protestant faith - a faith led by the monarch personally during the lifetime of Elizabeth.
King Henry the Eighth, Elizabeth's father
David Starkey, historian and presenter
The qualifications of the filmmaker, and the importance of the topic
The noted historian David Starkey was an expert on her father King Henry the Eighth, having done his dissertation about him. Thus, he knew quite a bit about the king's famous daughter when he set out to make this film about her - possibly one of the better films I've seen about English history. King Henry the Eighth is a major character in this, of course, since the soap opera of his life had a major effect on the world that Elizabeth grew up in. Nonetheless, this is definitely a woman's story - and an interesting one at that.
The young King Henry the Eighth, before he fathered Elizabeth
Catherine of Aragon, Henry the Eighth's first wife
The soap opera of her father's life (and how it affected her)
Because her father's personal life was so important for Elizabeth's own, some general comments about it would seem to be warranted here, which may help to serve as background for this discussion. In brief, Henry the Eighth started out life (somewhat ironically) as a Roman Catholic, and married an equally Catholic wife named Catherine of Aragon. The two of them had a famous daughter named Mary; but in the sexist world of the sixteenth century, they didn't care for female monarchs, and had never before allowed one to actually inherit the throne. Thus, Henry wanted a male "heir to the throne" instead; and was angry at his unlucky first wife for "failing" to provide him one. Catherine was unable to give birth to any additional children at this point (being long beyond childbearing age by this time), and so he divorced her to marry a woman named Anne Boleyn - the woman who would later give birth to Elizabeth. This, of course, incurred the displeasure of the church (since the Catholic Church was staunchly opposed to divorce); but he nonetheless declared his first marriage to Catherine of Aragon illegitimate. Thus, his famous daughter Mary became "illegitimate" as well - something that drove his first wife and first daughter even closer to Catholicism.
King Henry the Eighth, Elizabeth's father
Anne Boleyn, Elizabeth's mother
Her father's excommunication and her mother's execution
The church excommunicated Henry for this unheard-of divorce, and Henry retaliated by forming his own church (today called the "Church of England"). This made this formerly Catholic country into a staunchly Protestant one - a significant thing, when there were a number of other countries that were moving towards Protestantism at this time. (The religious conflicts of this time make this a rather turbulent era, to say the least.) But Henry now had another problem instead, which was that his second wife Anne Boleyn was proving no luckier than his first wife at producing a male heir. Instead, she bore him a certain daughter whose gender was a disappointment to him; with the daughter being none other than the future queen Elizabeth - the subject of this documentary. Thus, he quickly beheaded his second wife Anne Boleyn (Elizabeth's mother), and moved on to a third marriage with a woman named Jane Seymour - and there would be three more marriages after his third wife had died of natural causes.
Jane Seymour, Henry the Eighth's third wife (and thus Elizabeth's stepmother)
Lady Elizabeth, future queen
Her Protestant half-brother Edward was the first in line for the throne ...
You might expect that Elizabeth would be mad at her father for beheading her mother in this way, and moving on to wife number three with such enthusiasm and speed. But children have a remarkable ability to forgive their parents, and Elizabeth was always closer to her powerful kingly father than to her now-rejected mother. Thus, Elizabeth remained devoted to her father throughout her life; and even became friends with her half-brother from his third marriage. (This young boy would later became known as Edward the Sixth.) Edward was the only male heir that Henry ever produced, as it turned out; and in the sexist world of that time, Edward's gender put him first in line for the throne. You might expect that Elizabeth would mind this; and in some ways, she probably did. But when you consider that the next in line for the throne after him was actually not Elizabeth, but her Catholic half-sister Mary instead; you begin to see why she didn't mind her Protestant half-brother's advantage too much. As long as Edward was on the throne, you see, their shared Protestant religion was safe; but if anything happened to him to remove him from power once he became king, her Catholic half-sister Mary would become the new monarch, and would try to undo everything that the Protestant "Reformers" had done before her. The Protestant "reformers," after all, had caused Mary's mother to be rejected and actually removed as queen, thus making Mary "illegitimate" as an heir in the public eye. Thus it was that Mary had something of a chip on her shoulder about Protestant "Reformers"; and was unlikely to forgive their insults to her religion and honor anytime soon.
Edward the Sixth, Elizabeth's half-brother
"Bloody Mary," Elizabeth's half-sister
... while her Catholic half-sister Mary was the second in line for the throne
When Henry the Eighth eventually died, his Protestant son Edward was the first in line for the throne, and so became king as anticipated at that time - much to the relief of Protestant Elizabeth. But unfortunately for the Protestants at this time, this young king Edward was not blessed with good health, and so died six years into his reign at the age of fifteen; making their staunchly Catholic half-sister Mary the next sibling of Elizabeth's to occupy the throne. This was a disaster for Elizabeth's Protestant cause, of course, since Mary moved England back to Catholicism with a vengeance, and had 280 Protestants burned at the stake for heresy. This vile act earned her the nickname of "Bloody Mary," and this name still sticks to her to this day. For a time, it looked like Elizabeth would be one of the victims of this English version of the Inquisition; but she somehow managed to survive the bloodletting, since Mary had no desire to incur the disapproval that would follow murdering her half-sister Elizabeth (something she thus chose not to do). Thus, when "Bloody Mary" eventually died, Elizabeth was still around to succeed her, and she became the third of Henry's children to take the throne at that time.
Elizabeth herself (in coronation robes)
"Mary, Queen of Scots" - Elizabeth's cousin
When Elizabeth became queen, she had a rivalry with her cousin Mary, Queen of Scots
But the battles between the royal women were not over, as it turned out, because Elizabeth had a cousin who was as Catholic as her half-sister, and who also happened to be a queen herself in a neighboring country. She was "Mary, Queen of Scots," the queen of Scotland - England's great rival to the north. Not to be confused with "Bloody Mary"; Mary, Queen of Scots was an interesting person who had many good qualities. But she ran into some political problems at home, which forced her to flee the country for Elizabeth's England. With the family ties between them, Elizabeth had little choice but to take her in. Nonetheless, the presence of a Catholic relative in England was a constant danger to Elizabeth; since there were a number of Catholics in England that didn't care much for the Protestant Elizabeth, and would have liked to install "Mary, Queen of Scots" as a replacement queen. With a good Catholic like Mary having any kind of claim to the throne at all, an assassination of Elizabeth would have moved England back to Catholicism; and there were a number of Catholics who would have jumped at this chance. But Elizabeth had her cousin Mary imprisoned to avert this danger, and this situation thus went on for years despite both parties hating it - Mary hating to be imprisoned, of course, and Elizabeth hating to have a Catholic rival nearby who could "do her in."
Elizabeth herself
Mary, Queen of Scots (Elizabeth's cousin), during her imprisonment
Elizabeth had her Catholic cousin executed
In the tense years of Mary's imprisonment, Mary was tricked into thinking that her letters were actually secret; and thus sent an incriminating letter to some fellow Catholics. The letter implicated her in a plot to assassinate Elizabeth and take over the throne. Unfortunately for her, the letter was intercepted by Elizabeth's security people; and so the English Queen Elizabeth had the Scottish Queen Mary executed for conspiracy to assassinate - one of a number of interesting episodes that this documentary relates.
Elizabeth herself
Robert Dudley, Elizabeth's sometime boyfriend
Elizabeth had a complicated personal life
Elizabeth is often known as the "Virgin Queen," because of the lack of Protestant suitors among the royal families of Europe. This made her options for marriage somewhat limited, as you might imagine. What it amounted to is that she either had to marry a Catholic or remain a celibate; and dutiful Protestant that she was, she chose (at least ostensibly) to remain a celibate. She did have a Protestant boyfriend named Robert Dudley, though; but the fact that Mr. Dudley was married to someone else made this relationship somewhat unsuitable. Moreover, his wife's suspicious death from falling down the stairs had seemed a little too convenient to be accidental - something which caused him to be under a cloud for some time after this incident. Thus, Elizabeth never married; although she received plenty of attention from various male suitors, and was even targeted during childhood by her own stepfather Thomas Seymour - a brazen attempt at incest on his part. He was the brother of her father's late third wife Jane Seymour, and husband of his widowed sixth wife Katherine Parr. The sexual advances of her stepfather must have had a devastating effect on the future queen's romantic life; although they were fortunately stopped when the authorities discovered his atrocious behavior, and had him executed for treason. Thus they averted the sexual abuse that could well have happened to her at this early age, if these advances had been allowed to go further.
Thomas Seymour, Elizabeth's abusive stepfather
Katherine Parr, Elizabeth's stepmother (and her father's widow)
Conclusion: Elizabeth was a great queen despite her complicated legacy
I won't go into the queen's personal life further, but this documentary gives it plenty of coverage for all that are interested; and it covers all the other stuff here as well. Elizabeth has a complicated legacy, as you may have seen here, but she's still one of the best rulers that England has ever enjoyed. You'd be hard-pressed not to find her interesting after you've watched this documentary. If you're interested in Queen Elizabeth, this is the place to go for her story; and who better than an expert like David Starkey to tell it for television.
"I know I have the body of a weak, feeble woman; but I have the heart and stomach of a king, and of a king of England too, and think foul scorn that Parma or Spain, or any prince of Europe, should dare to invade the borders of my realm; to which rather than any dishonour shall grow by me, I myself will take up arms, I myself will be your general, judge, and rewarder of every one of your virtues in the field."
- Queen Elizabeth, in her "Speech to the Troops at Tilbury" (August 1588)
DVD at Amazon (sold via the History Channel in America)
Also available as part of the David Starkey Collection (European-format DVD)
Disclosure: I am an Amazon affiliate marketer, and can sometimes make money when you buy the product using the link(s) above.
If you liked this post, you might also like:
A review of Robert Bartlett's "The Plantagenets" (BBC)
A review of PBS's "Martin Luther" (PBS Empires)
A review of David Starkey's "Henry VIII: Mind of a Tyrant"
A review of David Starkey's "The Six Wives of Henry VIII"
A review of David Starkey's "Monarchy"
A review of "The Stuarts & The Stuarts in Exile" (BBC)
A review of PBS's "Marie Antoinette"
A review of PBS's "Catherine the Great"
A review of "Queen Victoria's Empire" (PBS Empires)
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Queen Elizabeth
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Queen Elizabeth
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