Elizabeth I: Gloriana (Episode 4)

in 1588 Elizabeth Navy defeated the Spanish Armada is the greatest English victory since Agincourt the celebrations were long and magnificent the procession to the Thanksgiving service at some Paul's Cathedral was the grandest since it is was coronation the captured Spanish banners were hung up as trophies and a commemorative medal was struck with the inscription God's winds blew and they were scattered and the English really thought that God had fought on their side they were the new chosen race God's own Protestant people England stood proud and Elizabeth and her reign were their Zenith it was the golden age if it is a besom England the Great Houses Elizabeth courtiers built are a visible tangible expression of their confidence exuberance and wealth unlike her father King Henry the eighth Elizabeth built no palaces nothing she no need to because her quarters and favorites built for her sacristy fur happened the Lord Chancellor already had a great house at Holden Lee but he told Elizabeth he would build another one nearby it Kirby that will be dedicated to her as a shrine to a Holy Saint Elizabeth had ceased to be and their queen and she become instead Gloriana England's national icon she was painted again and again always dazzling always glorious always triumphant even in her late 50s she has the face eternal youth but Elizabeth the woman was aging the goddess had feet of clay literature flourished as never before Shakespeare wrote his first plays some of them commissioned by the Queen but new theater brought new and dangerous ideas one of Shakespeare's plays would soon be used in an attempt to overthrow her she had ruled for 30 years loved by her subjects loyally served by her courtiers but she aged new generation was growing restless she would have to fight as never before to hang on to power it is September 1588 Queen Elizabeth has been locked inside her chamber for some days all attempts to contact her have failed the court is in panic despite fears to the country the Queen is alive but she is not well I most humbly beseech Your Majesty to pardon your old servant to be thus bold in sending to know how my gracious lady death for my own case I continued still your medicine and it amends much better than any other thing that has been given me with the continuance of my wanted prayer for your Majesty's most happy preservation I humbly kiss your foot Your Majesty is most faithful and obedient servant our Leicester Elizabeth would never receive another of his letters Robert Dudley Earl of Leicester favorite of the Queen a friend and counselor for the last 30 years the nearest thing she'd ever had to a lover was dead in the next two years a succession of court notables followed Robert Dudley to the grave Sir Francis Walsingham Secretary of State and spymaster extraordinary sakra staffer Hatton Lord Chancellor builder of Kirby Hall ambras Dudley Earl of Warwick brother of Robert at the old guard only William Cecil Lord Burleigh remained the gaps in Courtin council would have to be filled but the Queen had always hated change and instead of bringing in new blood she replaced father's with their sons Robert Devereux Earl of Essex was Robert Douglas stepson he was 21 vey high-spirited impatient and brilliant with a fondness for dueling he was much admired at court and was viewed by all as a man destined for greatness he aspired to his stepfathers role of a great noble and a military leader Robert Cecil was the second son of Lord Burleigh he was 25 careful the Stute and coming with a fondness for corresponding encode he was mocked mostly behind his back his short stature his hunched shoulders but his mind was razor sharp he aspired to his father's role of statesmen and political leader Robert Cecil and the Earl of Essex were the new generation the new generation at different ideas from the old so Robert Cecil for example made a much sharper distinction between the service of the state and the service of the Queen than his father William whatever have done and the Earl of Essex and much more grandiose ideas about the power and the independence of the nobility than his stepfather Lester they were both young men in a hurry waiting impatiently for the aged Queen to get out of the way and she knew it Essex charm the Queen and she was flattered by his youthful attentions but she was 55 and he was 21 if she loved him it was partly as her gigolo partly as her son he was gifted but he could also be immature and unruly like a strict parent Elizabeth resisted his demands at a military command Robert Cecil was already an MP Elizabeth called him her elf or Lester his liking her pygmy she respected his political instincts but she was wary of and was never able to trust him but she had his father she made him a privy counsellor but she stopped short of giving him his father's old job the new generation would have to wait it's turn she continued to rely instead on the man who'd served her since the start of her reign whom she trusted above all others robert Cecil's father Lord Burleigh I do entreat heaven daily for your longer life else will my people and myself stand in need of cordial too you are in all things to me Alpha and Omega you she wouldn't let him retire even when he was in his late seventies gouty death and visibly shrunk with age but in the summer of 1598 Birla fell dangerously ill Elizabeth sent him medicines letters on one occasion she even fed him soup with a spoon with her own hand to no avail in september 1598 Burleigh died for 40 years Burley had carried the heavy administrative burden of running the day-to-day government of England it wasn't as risky as the essentially noble role of the Queen's military leftenant which have been fulfilled by Birla's old sparring partner the Earl of Leicester but nor was it as prestigious which is why in death the bureaucrat burly where's the third robes and the gilded Armour that symbolized the role of the nobleman a role that he'd shunned in life I have this vision of Elizabeth coming to visit him when he was dying there's it a woman's stamping along the passage with her wig askew with her pockmarked face disguised with horrendous white LED makeup huge diamonds bad-tempered and upset and getting to his bedroom and there's his poor old man breathing very heavily hardly conscious she must have been torn between the agony of losing a good advisor and the agony of losing a very close friend it's like losing one's parents however old one is it's still the most ghastly shock and for her he was the closest thing to a parent he'd kept a guiding wise hand on her shoulder all the way through her rather tempestuous youth and middle age and suddenly that guiding hand was being removed and you know she must have been very bereft in 1596 England once again face the threat of invasion Spain remain the most powerful country in Europe and King Philip was still determined for destroy is above and her island nation in March his army at captured Calais now he had troops within 20 miles of England and a great fleet was gathering at Cadiz in Spain to transport them confronted with this new danger Elizabethan England galvanized itself into action the Queen set aside her doubts about military action and her courtiers their divisions and it was decided to send an expedition to Cadiz to destroy the new Armada import before it had even set sail the strategist and commander of the expedition was the Earl of Essex but the man who financed it and organized it was Robert Cecil Essex had finally got the military command he craved and on the day he put to sea Robert Cecil was at last confirmed as Elizabeth's chief secretary the new generation had arrived in the early hours of Sunday the 20th of June 120 English and Dutch ships attacked Cadiz the Spanish were taken off guard that invasion fleet was destroyed the town was captured and plundered for booty Spain had again been humbled England and Essex had triumphed you have made me famous dreadful and renowned not more for your victory than for your courage I care not so much for being queen as that I am sovereign of such subjects Essex was now a popular hero and the burning of Cadiz was built up into something to rival the defeat of the Spanish Armada itself but the Armada only had a single heroine Elizabeth Cadiz though was Essex his victory and at the service of Thanksgiving in some Paul's Cathedral the congregation burst into spontaneous applause when the preacher sang Essex his praises to the skies Phillipa 'the it was a novel and disturbing development her previous favorite Lester Essex his stepfather had actually been hated now a man whom she had created was her rival in popular affection but popularity was the basis of Elizabeth monarchy it could not be shared with a subject as a first step all further popular celebrations of cádiz were banned but London continued to glorify their new hero some preachers even compared him to julius caesar the greatest of the romans the city that had adored the queen since the beginning of her reign had found new idol a wiser man that Essex would have modified the queen by keeping a low profile but Essex was not wise and ambition and Fallot II got the better of him he commissioned an engraving of himself in the style of a Roman Emperor direct challenge to the Queen's royal authority he threw his weight around a court objecting whenever Elizabeth honored another culture and when the Queen turned down his plea to launch another attack on Spain he courted public support behind her back Elizabeth who's furious the conflict came to a head when Essex and Elizabeth disagreed about who was to be Lord deputy of arm the Queen contemptuously dismissed the Earl's arguments the Earl turned his back on the Queen and the Queen irritated boxed the Earl's ears this point the Earl half drew his sword on the Queen now to strike somebody within the precincts of the court was punished by the amputation of the right hand to strike the Queen was treason but before the unthinkable could happen the Lord Admiral interposed himself between Essex and the Queen Oh then withdrew to his country house whilst Elizabeth was left to ponder the monster that she created Elizabeth loved the theater but some plays are as much about politics as entertainment most dangerous was Shakespeare's Richard ii which dealt with the making and the unmaking the king I give this Heavyweight from off my head with my own hands I give away my crown with my own tongue deny my sacred state all pomp and Majesty I do force where my acts decrees and statutes I deny God save King Henry unkilled Richard says and send him many years of sunshine days the play tells a story of the deposition of the rightful anointed king richard ii by henry bolingbroke his cousin and the military hero elizabeth identified herself passionately with the deposed king i am richard ii knew he not that she's supposed to have said she also thought that there were many potential Bolingbroke's around Robert Cecil and the Earl of Essex told her to her face that they worshipped her behind her back they were looking to the future after her death and Elizabeth sometimes feared they were plotting to depose her just like Richard ii when Shakespeare's play was printed the following year the deposition scene had been cut from the text we can guess that the author and his publisher were given hints that they'd been wise enough to take a new tragedy bloodier than anything in Shakespeare was now unfolding in Ireland in August 15 98 at yellow Ford in Ulster Irish rebels ambushed a column of English soldiers and cut them to pieces 1,200 men lay dead or dying was the worst military defeat of Elizabeth's reign the Catholic Irish have long resented the occupation of their country by Protestant England there had been rebellions before but this one was much more dangerous it had the support of Spain king philip ii was dead but his son had inherited his father's zeal the avenge of the defeats of Cadiz and the Armada he planned to land troops in Ireland and to threaten England across the Irish Sea the Queen would have to act in spring of $15.99 the largest English army Elizabeth's reign landed on the east coast of Ireland in command was her half disgraced favorite the Earl of Essex who had pestered the Queen until she gave him the post he wished to rehabilitate himself in the Queen's favour he also wanted to show that he was a real soldier able to draw a sword on the Queen's enemies just as eat half drawn it on the Queen herself but the first use the decimate of his sword in Ireland was to employ to use eart the Queen's kingly prerogatives by knighting in defiance of Elizabeth's explicit instructions 38 of his captains turning his sword against the Queen's enemies proved more of a challenge for months Elizabeth received little news from Ireland and she became increasingly frustrated at Essex his failure to engage the enemy if sickness in the army be the reason why was not the action undertaken when the army was in a better State if winters approached why were the summer months of July and August lost if the spring were too soon and the summer that followed otherwise spent then surely we must conclude that none of the four quarters of the year will be in season for you but essex did not meet his enemy in battle instead he and the rebel leader the Earl of Tyrone the secret rendezvous near Kara come across they talked for half an hour alone and out of earshot of their officers and they parted on good terms after six months in Ireland Essex had spent three hundred thousand pounds and lost twelve thousand men to disease and desertion that was incompetence now he had made a secret deal with the rebel leader the sworn enemy of the Queen that was close to treason her reservations about her young courtiers began to look justified they could not be trusted Robert Cecil began a secret correspondence with James the sixth of Scotland he have taken it upon himself to pave the way for James's accession to the English throne thereby ensuring his own continuance in office at first sight it seems an extraordinary idea in London Scotland were old enemies and Elizabeth had executed James's mother Mary Stewart but James was the obvious heir he was Elizabeth closest male relative he was an experienced ruler he was a Protestant he already had two sons sessile told James if he accepted his advice and guidance he could expect a peaceful accession to Elizabeth's throne but Cecil had to proceed with care the Queen had never named a successor and a band all talk of the matter at court the secret must be carefully kept he must have worried about security in London but I imagined that he would have been much more worried about security in Edinburgh James the first was of England and six of Scotland was notoriously indiscreet and of course he was surrounded by some fairly loose mais people so it was important I think for him to use code and trustworthy messengers he would never know whether the Queen if she did find out officially wouldn't blame her top and sacked him and secondly of course it was a splendid opportunity for his enemies to accuse him of treason and treating with the foreign power at ten o'clock on the 28th of September an exhausted mud spattered rider arrived Nonsuch palace he rushed up the ground stairs through the garden presence chambers pushing his way past startled gentlemen ashes and outraged ladies and waiting and burst unannounced into the Queen's bedchamber there he found Elizabeth newly risen and still in her nightgown without her wig her makeup and her ruff it was a sight that no man had seen in 30 years Elizabeth the woman without the trappings of Gloriana the queen and the man who had thus violated the image of Elizabeth monarchy was Robert Devereux Earl of Essex it was an extraordinary affront to the Queen's honor Essex had returned in panic convinced that Cecil was engineering his downfall and desperate to plead his case he was exhausted ill scarcely in his right mind that the Queen was in no mood for forgiveness Elizabeth had stayed remarkably calm when Essex burst into her bedchamber later that afternoon the Earl was summoned for private audience with the Queen which quickly turned into an interrogation why Elizabeth wanted to know had he left Ireland without permission why had he made so many knights in defiance of his express instructions why above all had he made a truce with that rebel and traitor Tyrone the Earl answered as best he could and then Elizabeth was left to learn to ponder what she should do towards 10 o'clock at night she gave orders that the Earl was to be put on the form of house arrest the fall of the favorite had begun s-six was summoned before a public tribunal he spent 11 hours on his knees whilst a list of his delinquencies was read out in front of an invited audience but even now the Queen could not bring herself the destroy had his graced favorite completely instead she sent him into a sort of limbo she ordered him not to attend the Privy Council she banned him from her presence and she refused to renew his lucrative monopoly on sweet wines which threatened him with bankruptcy Essex was released to his London residence Essex house he was down but he wasn't quite finished yet he would make one final desperate bid for power he would rebel the scheme was quickly hatched the Earl would capture the City of London and the tower the Queen will be forced to summon a parliament and to impeach Robert Cecil an Essex will be declared Lord Protector of England it was a harebrained scheme but he might just work the Earl's military followers would provide the backbone of an army and Essex was so popular with the people of London but he was confident that they would rise in his support Essex wrote to James seeking his support for the rising the Scots King was too careful to commit himself but send Essex a reply encode dispatched - envoy's to meet him Essex had already done his deal with the rebel Tyrone would back the earl's rising it was said in exchange for power over Arlen and he have the support but one of the London sheriff's as well as five other disaffected Nobles to call the people of London to arms Essex his henchmen bribed Shakespeare's company to stage a performance of the globe Essex chose the play it was Richard the second this scepter dial this earth of majesty this seat of Mars this precious stone set in the silver sea is now bound in with shame within key blots and rotten parchment bonds that England that was wont to conquer others have made a shameful conquest of itself John of Gaunt is lamenting nostalgically for a lost England a great country fallen into ruin the stage is set for the deposition of a corrupt and overweening monarch by a once favored and faithful nobleman the audience were a mixed lot adventurers x ol Jers Papists malcolm tense but they shared a common resentment for Elizabeth and her England or was it Robert sessle's England and they had a common loyalty to the only conceivable alternative Robert Devereux Earl of Essex early the following morning Elizabeth received a report that Essex had left his house at the head of a private army they were marching up Fleet Street calling the people of the city to arms for the first time Elizabeth was in personal danger in her own capital the rebels were just two miles from the court she acted quickly ordering her forces to block the route to the palace by building a barricade near Charing Cross she sent royal heralds through the city proclaiming Essex a traitor the sight of government troops and the heralds cry of treason made Londoners think twice they stayed behind closed doors Essex's force was confronted by troops belonging to the Bishop of London Essex's page and two others were killed by nightfall the rebels were in retreat hands or cloaks covering their faces to try to avoid recognition Essex himself panicked and fled back towards Essex House he barricaded himself in and set about destroying incriminating evidence including James's coded letter blast outside the Queen's forces trained cannon on the house 10:00 p.m. he surrendered he was arrested along with 85 of his co-conspirators including the Earl of Southampton Shakespeare's patron when she received the news Elizabeth retired to bed Essex was tried within a few days of the rebellion the verdict was a foregone conclusion guilty of high treason and condemned to a traitor's death only the Queen could confirm the sentence it brought echoes of her past she had agonized for months before authorizing the execution of her cousin the Duke of Norfolk she had hesitated for years before finally confirming the death sentence on her fellow Queen Mary Stuart she told the French ambassador that she would willingly reprieve the life of her disgraced favorite and that she was partly to blame for lowington to grow so bold but it was clear she said that the danger from him was so great that he would have to die Essex was the only man to challenge Elizabeth publicly and to her face and he was the only one of her subjects to try to rival her in popularity curiously enough it was Essex himself who got to the heart of the matter under interrogation the Earl said that the state was not big enough for them both Essex was executed on Ash Wednesday the 25th of February 1601 he was 34 it took 3 blows of the axe to remove his head the change came over the Queen for most of her life should enjoyed what seemed like eternal youth now at 68 he seems suddenly old mind and body all the fabric of my reign little by little is beginning to fail with his rival dead Robert Cecil was now unquestionably the most powerful man in the country and behind the scenes his plan for James to succeed Elizabeth was maturing the king writing in code told Cecil that he could look forward to greater favor whilst he had the crown than he already enjoyed under Elizabeth the future looked bright for sessile but the present was troubled he'd never been popular now the public really hated him for killing their hero Essex the regime was seen as stale and corrupt and Cecil became the focus of blame for the country's many ills the harvest had failed the war in Ireland dragged on taxes were heavy and the Queen's own popularity was also at an all-time low for yours she had rewarded favorite courtiers with grants called monopolies taxes on everything from playing cards to soap the policy aroused deep resentment in the impoverished population we're familiar with this kind of combination of casual corruption and a government that's been in power too long we call it sleaze and the rot went right to the top Elizabeth herself had been around longer than everybody else at first her motto semper eadem always the same and made her seem a rock of stability in a changeable world now she was merely an obstacle to necessary reform the unpopular Queen and her despised Minister suffered a disaster they lost control of Parliament MPs were determined to break the hated monopoly system the aging Queen was forced to address Parliament in person to try to rescue the situation if my kingly bounties have been abused and if any in authority under me have neglected or perverted what I have committed to them I hope God will not lay their offenses in my charge for I do assure you there is no prince that loves his subjects better there is no jewel be it or never so rich a price which I place before this jewel I mean your love and though you may have many mightier and wiser Prince's sitting in this seat yet you never had nor shall have any that will love you better and became known as the golden speech it was Elizabeth's last great public address and it was a consummate piece of politics it is worth one the MPs over not only by her unexpected announcement that she was going to suspend and investigate monopolies but also by her language and sentiment the MPS show their gratitude by voting unprecedented ly heavy parliamentary taxation other good news followed quickly as well there was victory in Ireland a truce in the war with Spain trade improved and at last there was a good harvest Elizabeth too seemed to rejuvenate in August she rode for 10 miles and then went hunting she was aged almost six to nine and yet she boasted she was in better health than she'd been for ten years it was an Indian summer glorious but brief it could not last for God's sake let us sit upon the ground and tell sad stories of the death of kings let's talk of graves of worms and epitaphs make dust up paper and with rainy eyes write sorrow on the bosom of the earth by March 1603 Elizabeth was in serious decline she was suffering from ulcers in the throat fever and lack of appetite against all advice she refused to go to bed Nestle unwisely insisted that she must little man the word must is not to be used to Prince's but he know that I must die and that makes these soup presumptuous if you were in the habit of seeing such things in your bed as I do when in mind you would not persuade me to go there you after two weeks on the floor in the same clothes Elizabeth asked her attendants to get her to her feet but still she did not go to bed instead she remains standing in total silence for the next 15 hours she appeared already in a manner insensible holding her finger continually in her mouth with her eyes open and fixed to the ground as Elizabeth's death approached a young man was pacing the courtyards of the palace he was Robert Carey the Queen's cousin and he'd resolved to make his fortune in the new reign by being the first to let James know that Elizabeth was dead that he was king of England he informed James of his intention and told him not to leave Edinburgh then he returned to the palace to watch and to wait with the rest Elizabeth was preparing herself for the end the archbishop kneeled down beside her and examined her first of her faith and she so punctually answered all his questions by lifting up her eyes and holding up her hand as it was a comfort to all the beholders then the good man told her plainly what she was and what she was come to though she had been long a great Queen here upon earth yet shortly she was to yield an account of her stewardship to the King of Kings at 10 o'clock at night on the 23rd of March 1603 Elizabeth falls into a deep sleep she never woke up three days later James the sixth was proclaimed as Elizabeth's successor at Holyrood palace in Edinburgh England and Scotland were joined under one mark Elizabeth's body was brought by water from Richmond to Whitehall there it lay for five weeks watched over day and night by her ladies-in-waiting then it was taken to Westminster Abbey for burial the funeral effigy on top of the coffin was so lifelike that from the great crowds lining the route nothing was heard but a general sighing groaning and a weeping Elizabeth the woman was dead but the achievement of Gloriana the great Queen of England lived on when Elizabeth came to the throne England was an insignificant country when she died it was a major European power she had begun her reign by promising to avoid the mistakes of her sister Mary by a large she succeeded Elizabeth had founded a national church and she inspired a national literature her father Henry the eighth's had reinvented the idea of England Elizabeth became its living embodiment few monix have been better loved by their subjects none has exercised a more powerful whole over the imagination of succeeding generations the myth started with a few years of her death when the preface to the King James Bible hails her as that bright Occidental star Queen Elizabeth a famous memory and the star still burns bright Oh

Channel: MrsTudor1

Views: 435,073

Keywords: Elizabeth I Of England (Monarch), David Starkey (Author), Tudor Dynasty (Royal Line)

Id: Pqq3obA6GpA

Length: 49min 24sec (2964 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 24 2014