Queen Elizabeth I Lecture

all right everybody so today we're on Queen Elizabeth the first now of course I have to go back to last week to tell you what I forgot about Joan of Arc there's actually a couple of little things that I wanted to mention there was a big deal made about her wearing men's clothes but there's a and she had said that God had told her to and she didn't want to change that but there was also a practical reason for her wearing men's clothes and that was her fear of being raised in men wearing men's clothes she had more protection than if she was wearing a dress and so that was also factored into it another thing when she was on trial she had an amazing memory for details as to the questions that were being asked and so on occasion they might ask a question that they had already asked and she would reply I answered that last Tuesday and they say no way to say that's not true and then they'd go back in the court records and say yeah you already asked this question and so she had a fantastic memory for that sort of thing so Queen Elizabeth the first I want to say right off before I get started on Queen Elizabeth that I tried on a number of these lectures to keep it within the bounds that I've been allotted and rather unsuccessfully tonight I'm not going to make a pretence at that it is going to go over and please believe me I'm not offended by those of you who leave early because I know you know you had a lot at a certain time too and you have other things to do so so if you need to leave just it's perfectly all right I'm not offended so Queen Elizabeth how do you like that dress ladies it took a team of people to put that together and to dress her in that naturally that's not something that she would wear every day but for state occasions that was quite an outfit so are ours bibliography this first one is just a pretty much a children's book Becca is a moist scow Queen Elizabeth on this is something it has if this is something that you want you want to learn about Elizabeth really quickly and tonight some nice pictures throw in this is a nice little book for that mostly for kids but it's kind of fun to go through the picture books even when you're an adult I sure do like that next to mine Lisa Hilton it Elizabeth Renaissance prints this one I think more than the others I would recommend for a light summer reading it's a very good biography and it's it's entertaining to read as a whole life of Elizabeth and this next one JD neo Queen Elizabeth the first 1934 more in-depth a little more scholarly but all in all a very good read this next one I'd like to know if anybody recognizes that name Lytton Strachey very good I'm impressed so so those of you who know Lytton Strachey that he's rather infamous for writing about the Victorians a really wonderful writer Elizabeth and Essex so he's just focusing on that relationship he writes like a novelist a very enjoyable reading I thoroughly enjoy this book in particular not just because it's informative but his style is just wonderful to read next one Sarah Christie would Elizabeth and leister the lifelong love of Elizabeth and we'll talk about this in a minute was Dudley Earl of leister and this focuses on this most significant relationship in her life and then of course Alison Weir the life of Elizabeth and as you know that Alison Weir became famous for the six wives of King Henry the eighth always a good read whatever she writes is well worth reading and now to the movies Betty Davis did Queen Elizabeth twice this first one the private lives of Elizabeth and Essex I really like this movie not because it's historically accurate because it is definitely not but how can you miss with Betty Davis and Errol Flynn Betty Davis what I think she was like in her late 20s maybe 27 and she's portraying Queen Elizabeth in her 60s but this is how you would wish it would be if you could say I want it to happen this way Essex the real Essex was nothing like Errol Flynn sadly but but a really good movie and then she plays the Virgin Queen in 1955 and we have Betty Davis Richard Todd and Joan Collins again not at all historically accurate and I frankly I didn't quite like this one as much as the first either this one said it said it's mostly about her relationship with Sir Walter Raleigh and not very good the next one Elizabeth Cate Blanchet wonderful actor I would have wished that the screenplay was better because Cate Blanchet is just a marvelous look for Elizabeth and she has a great voice for her too but again historically not very accurate and I think some some of the supporting cast we're just so-so for me anyway and again the relationships this focuses somewhat on the relationship with the role of leister and they totally mangle that not accurate at all and then again Kate Blanchet Elizabeth the Golden Age and this focuses around the 1680s and the Spanish Armada and all of that so again Kate Blanchet I really like her voice is great I could have wished for a better screenplay though and then finally we have Helen Mirren who played Elizabeth again great actor Helen Mirren and this focuses on her later years some very good scenes here all in all I would give it you know I kind of liked it it has its moments that are that are brilliant but too much of it for me again is just kind of messed up the Earl of Essex played by forget what which one of these guys is Essex but I didn't like him at all he's not he didn't come off as a character who inspires the kind of following that Essex really had I came off to me is kind of pathetic but that's me so moving on background we all know King Henry the eighth reigned from 1509 to 1564 at the sixth who is the son of Jane Seymour I he came King when Henry died but of course sadly Edward was not a very healthy young man himself he was nine years old when he came to the throne he died at fifteen probably up tuberculosis but yeah he was he was not a very healthy young man and so when he died Mary the daughter of Catherine of Aragon became Queen and and she reigned for about five years and she also died of cancer around about the age of 42 so here we have King Henry then you have Edward and then Mary and during this time as you know a lot of turmoil in Europe over the battles between the the Catholics and the Protestants and England was going through a lot of turmoil deciding whether to go Catholic or Protestant Henry of course was the first to break away created the Church of England his son at the age of nine he had his Regents who were Protestants and they were continuing the Protestant church Mary was Catholic and she that's why she later became a Bloody Mary and because she was persecuting the Protestants something like 283 were burned at the stake during her reign and so as she was not well beloved and and she had married a Catholic prince philip ii of spain and she the very tragic life i think all in all during her reign being married to Phillip the second she wanted desperately to have an heir to keep the Catholic faith in England she had two false pregnancies she was so desperate that she really believed twice that she was pregnant and both times she was disappointed and so she died of cancer and Elizabeth who's whose life was hanging by a thread during some of this time because she was suspected of wanting to follow her father in the Protestant faith during Mary's reign and was sent to the tower for a few months anyway born September 7 1533 daughter of anvil in as you know who lost her head to Henry as she was declared illegitimate at that point although later on in her earlier in her years she was declared legitimate so that she could become queen but she was given an excellent education and being a highly intelligent person she took it in like a sponge spoke French Flemish Italian Spanish Latin Greek some German Welsh Scottish Cornish and Irish and she could take it all in like you said she was a marvelous intellect and here's Elizabeth at the age of 12 and so as she's growing up as I say she was sent to the tower for a few months on suspicion of treason and treason being wanting to bring England back to the Protestant faith and as Mary was dying and she knew she was dying she pleaded with Elizabeth to keep the Catholic faith and Elizabeth would not make any commitments to her to her credit she she was not going to lie so Mary died Elizabeth is crowned January 15th 15:59 and there she is her coronation portraits she's 25 and I do not get that caller at all that seems very awkward even by the standards of the day it looks awkward so she becomes Queen I'm gonna go over some of the foundational information for you she has she was very fortunate not only that she had good counselors but that she knew that she had good counselors one of her talents was to spot Talent and she kept some of the best and we're talking not just the men who were good at their jobs in England as you know some of them are very recognizable names world famous for their intellect so we have William Cecil Lord Buerkle that her main counselor throughout her reign until 1519 anyways very faithful very smart guy knew his job very loyal to a lisp Francis Walsingham who was Elizabeth's spy master a very sharp guy who uncovered a lot of plots against Elizabeth as we'll talk about a little bit Robert Cecil who was Williams son he became later on in the 1590s he became a very prominent member of the Privy Council again very an intelligent and wise man and of course Francis Bacon that everybody's everybody knows that name he became Elizabeth's legal counsel later on again this is the 1590s Elizabeth at first didn't like him much for something about his personality she didn't care for at all but she began to recognize despite the fact she didn't like him that there was a mind that was well worth listening to so here we have some of her lead counselors william francis robert francis again now elizabeth at the age of 25 in 1559 comes to the throne and immediately she had she's bombarded with who are you going to marry not are you going to marry who are you going to marry soon who are you going to marry and there is no lack of suitors for her so Elizabeth as we know from an early age did not like the idea of getting married even as a teenager she had said several times to her friends that she probably didn't thinks that she would get married she just didn't like the idea and once she became queen she's liking it even less because she figured she would have to give up her sovereignty as Queen on the other hand make no mistake about it Elizabeth loved man she loved tall handsome men and she practically had a harem of them around her throughout her reign she enjoyed it tremendously she would say over and over again to such individuals that I just cannot do without you more than one man and of course there was the the need to produce an heir to the throne this made a lot of people very nervous as you well know if you do not have an heir to the throne and the king or queen dies you usually have a war in which many people die and the whole nation is in chaos so it's very important you must have an heir or if not an heir a successor who is named and everybody recognizes Elizabeth had neither so as the years went on a few years later and she's not yet married you look it into her marriage suitors in shortly but by 1566 Parliament is very nervous and they have been for a few years now why are you not married this is very scary this is the day when life could be very cheap you could drop dead at any moment of some disease or an accident and the whole nation would be in chaos so Elizabeth is needing some money she has to call Parliament in order to get it so she calls Parliament asks for money and they immediately say you must name a successor you don't have an heir you don't even have a husband you must name a successor Elizabeth was very nervous about that she didn't want to name a successor first secondly she claimed pretty much this is my business and not yours she was totally outraged at Parliament because she believed that this was entirely up to her and nobody should question her on this so her quote was I have promised to marry and I will keep my word and she would not name a successor she actually yes who she named a successor had changed it later oh yeah yeah the problem though there was a a real problem for her in Namie's naming a successor because as soon as she did that person has a has a real motive to kill her and and she had good reason to be fearful because that kind of thing happened all the time in in European history so she she scold in them very severely and said I'm not going to name a successor but I promise I am going to get married so that should be enough for you and so they gave her two thirds of what she asked and basically said that's going to be enough for you so getting to the the man who was the most stable of the lovers that she had in her life the longest lasting relationship Robert Dudley they were at least acquaintances in youth if not friends we're not really sure I put friends in youth that's probably too strong a word we don't know that they were they were at least acquaintances he was imprisoned in the tower at the same time Elizabeth was we don't know if they had any communication at that point but they were in the tower at the same time for the same reasons he was suspected of being a Protestant and and he spent a lot more time in the tower probably about a year and a half whereas she was only there for two or three months but as soon as she became Queen one of the first things she did was give him the title of master of the horse which meant that he could go riding with her as often as she went riding and she loved going riding and loved spending time with Roberts although at this time when she first became Queen Robert was a married man his wife was rather sickly he didn't much care for his wife but he was a handsome tall charming man and Elizabeth loved him dearly and so he spent a lot of time with Elizabeth they were seen as a romantic couple and and then his wife dies 1560 and under somewhat suspicious circumstances she fell down some stairs and broke her neck but the stair she fell down were only like two or three steps so yeah it's a bit suspicious and so some people will say that because it was so suspicious Elizabeth couldn't couldn't afford to suddenly marry him at that point if she was inclined to do so because it would just look too bad but she would string him along she did love him she loved his attentions she loved his flattery and everybody knew if you wanted to get in good with Elizabeth you would flatter her and she ate it like candy she loved being flattered by handsome men but after a while and this is this actually periodically throughout his life in their relationship they were the highs and lows there were the ins and outs and they were just as as many couples are and probably a lot more than most his very tumultuous relationship at one point he was getting tired of being strung along and he was flirting with another woman Elizabeth didn't like that so she started flirting with another man and this this man happened to be another married man and so they have this big fight he's complaining to her that you shoved me aside and she says you know what I rose I raised you and I can lower you and debase you as I choose and so he went off and salt for a few days away from her of course they they made up in and then end 1565 he was really thinking that they were getting together they seemed very close and so he said will you marry me and she said yep at the time it was December and there was a lot of festivities coming up for Christmas and she put him off I will tell you let's wait till after Christmas and all of the festivities and then I will give you an answer so he waited so all done he comes back and again she put him off I can't make a decision right now and eventually he got the message that he/she was not going to make a commitment one way or another so so this went on years and years eventually he got married to Matisse no Lise who was Elizabeth's cousin I'll let that one go Elizabeth was outraged that he would marry and by the way this happened several times with her boyfriends that she strings along for a period of time and then they secretly get married to somebody else and she's outraged one of the reasons she had she felt she had the right to be outraged is not only that she's losing someone who you know she loved being flattered by but by law anyone in court was supposed to have her permission to get married and some of the time the the person that the the man was marrying was one of the ladies-in-waiting and so that's a double no-no that you'd be messing with one of her ladies-in-waiting so anyway again there's a big fight they separate for some time and so but they get back together because as I said she loved Dudley very much despite all the ups and downs and so she invited him back to court and to spend time with her and she totally shunned her cousin she didn't like her at all and let her know in no uncertain terms so here we have Robert Dudley Earl of leister standing next to Queen Elizabeth and this is of course two different portraits next to each other that outfit that she's wearing or the portrait is called the the rainbow portrait of the rainbow dress I think despite the fact that it's all orange but another marvelous dress don't you think how hot kiss yeah I do you like that he's all blue yeah so there were many royal marriage prospects I'm only going to name a few of them King Philip of Spain who is now a widower because Mary had died he was married to Elizabeth's sister now is thinking well I'm no longer connected with England but I can get another connection if I can get married are Elizabeth to marry me and so once again she strung him along but she had better reason to string him along because she is now promoting subtly the Protestant faith she's allowing the the clergy of the Protestants to take charge again she's not trying to do it overtly because she doesn't want to be invaded by the Catholic powers but she is doing it and she thought you know if I can string Philip along for a while as long as he's interested in me as a marriage prospect he's not going to invade so it worked for a little while King Eric of Sweden another suitor these first two by the way actually the first three she would never meet face to face but there is a long series of letters and the ambassador's would come and present their case to her for for a number of them she would say in one way to hold them off was to say I haven't seen him face to face so I'm certainly not going to marry someone I've never seen and so they would say well are you going to invite them here well no I can't do that I can't invite them here it would be unseemly of me to invite them so how are we going to meet them that was a conundrum that she didn't want solved but she could hold it up as a delaying tactic so King Charles the ninth of France who was 14 when that when that marriage was first proposed she's 32 and but that didn't matter what that what mattered was here we have a connection with France if you don't want a connection was with Spain how about France a very powerful country France and they are Catholic you don't want France invading either so why not so again she would drag it lead them on make them think that this was possible and this actually twice his name came up at first when he was 14 and then it was dropped for a while a few years later I think he was 19 or so they brought it up again and again she would lead them on for some time before they finally figured it out the most colorful of them though Frances Duke of Anjou he was 17 and this is by the way the younger brother of Charles the ninth first at 17 then at 24 the Duke of Anjou was a potential for Elizabeth and so again she's saying look I haven't seen him I'm sure he's very charming and all that but I'm not going to marry somebody that I haven't seen and I can't invite him either so she's talking to the ambassador of France and it just so happened that the Ambassador was also a very handsome charming man and when he came and presented his suits of Duke of Anjou Elizabeth was really taken with him and people were thinking wow is she in love with the Ambassador now and as I said Elizabeth loved handsome charming men and she would spend time with him and she gave them nicknames to this guy that the ambassador was her little monkey and she would spend time with him and people would look and they say what is going on she just loves these men and so the Duke of Anjou being a little more forward than the rest and with a lot less dignity decided he was going to meet Elizabeth so he came secretly to England so here are the four men that I've been talking about the Duke of Anjou here's this cute little button right here and as it happens the Duke of Anjou was a really colorful character and he we believed that he was bisexual and that he was a transvestite he loved dressing up in women's clothes so so anyway you know let's stay right here - yeah so he came to England and supposedly secretly he came to England he met Elizabeth and Elizabeth really liked him again he was a charming sort of guy loved to flatter women and told Elizabeth how deeply in love he was with her and how wonderfully beautiful she was and so they spent time together and again people started thinking wow this this could be it he's he's not the Ambassador this guy is royalty he's the younger brother of the King of France and she would get again lead him on and historians are somewhat divided on when Elizabeth was simply just leading someone on and when she was serious if at all as I say many times even in her youth she would say that thanks to the effect of that she never would want to get married but then the pressures of being Queen she may have changed her mind and several times she would say to some of these suitors that you are definitely the one and I'm planning this would this should be it now there were other problems though England is a Protestant nation France is a Catholic nation the Duke of Anjou is not going to give up his his faith to become a Protestant so the negotiations starting what can we do about this problem if the Duke is going to be in England is he going to need a priest and he's he going to perform his rites openly that is not something that the English people going to stand for Parliament will not stand for it so the negotiations went on and on and finally it was broken off because the duke of anjou the proposal was look you can keep your faith if you have your priest in private and you can perform you can have the Eucharist and all of that and and say your prayers and give do confession but only in private not publicly and that was the sticking point he would not go for that or at least the nation of France who is also involved would not go for that so ultimately that failed as well and we have some other love interests I'm not going to name them all because after all I only have a few hours here there's Christopher Hatton in 1571 he became her favorite and he stayed single he did not get married for the sake of Elizabeth now the reason I have this guy up here even though he's a name that is not well-known at all there is a letter that he received from a friend in reply to a letter that he had sent to this friend that we don't have the big question about Elizabeth or one of the big questions is did she die a virgin and we don't know of course but there are hints that she may not have been of course that the rumors were constantly going around and the ambassadors the various ambassadors of Europe were always questioning always asking and they would bribe her ladies-in-waiting is she having sex with anybody and they would always reply first of all elizabeth is almost never alone she almost always has her ladies-in-waiting and even when she has some a long time the ladies-in-waiting are not far away they know what's going on and so they would always reply that no we have no knowledge of her actually having sex with anybody and they even asked well does she have her monthly period and the ladies-in-waiting would tell yes every month regularly she is having her period for money yes they would and as and as I said a number of them got married against her will and faced her wrath because of that there was more than one that went to the tower because she betrayed Elizabeth so Christopher Hatton the reason I bring up him is he received a letter that was in reply to a letter that he sent to a friend and it was a letter of anguish that he had sent to his friend he's so frustrated with Elizabeth that now Elizabeth at this point seems to be turning away from him not giving the attentions that she once did and the reply was the reason that the probably the reason that she has lost interest in you is that you satisfied her and no now she's done with you that was the suggestion and that's like the hint that we have that maybe possibly they had intercourse that's just a hint we do not know for sure then we have Sir Walter Raleigh comes along in 1581 one of the most brilliant of the bunch of course he's very arrogant as well but what was he he was an explorer a soldier inventor scientist historian philosopher poet orator politician and and he was another one who married one of the ladies-in-waiting and was sent to the tower forums I there is a particular poem that he wrote that I find absolutely wonderful that has nothing to do with Elizabeth but is one of my favorites there is a poem I'm not going to read though I'm not going to read it but it was a reply to a famous poem by Christopher Marlowe abashed the passionate Shepherd to his love is anybody familiar with that one wonderful poem and I'm just going to read the first stanza come live with me and be my love and we will all the pleasures prove that valleys groves hills and fields woods or steepy Mountain yields wonderful beautiful pastoral poem and then Raleigh writes the nymphs reply to the shepherd if all the world and love were young and truth in every Shepherds tongue these pretty pleasures might me move to live with thee and be thy love and he follows line by line through the whole poem and it's it's hilarious and beautiful at the same time and so we have there's Patton and Raleigh and there is a famous anecdote that that is probably not true about Raleigh that you probably have seen in the movies or at least have heard of where Elizabeth is coming along there's a puddle he takes his coat off puts it over the puddle and she walks by and a wonderful scene that probably didn't happen that that story came about probably like 50 years after they were both dead somebody had written about that so it sounds nice anyway so Elizabeth on religion she was not a fanatic in any sense of the word she was a Protestant and she believed that she was right in that but she wanted to steer a middle way she knew very well that the the growing power of the Puritans was not a good thing in England the fanaticism is really what she didn't like and so here's a quote there is only one Jesus Christ the rest is a dispute over trifles that's probably a more extreme version of her beliefs but I think what she was reacting against was the violence on both sides she wanted stability she didn't want anybody to be killed for their religion she did persecute Catholics to a point but she did not execute anyone for being a Catholic if you were a Catholic who was threatening her in some way then yes you will be arrested you could be executed the other thing is she did not burn anyone at the stake at least any Catholics for some reason she felt that Anabaptists deserved to be burnt at the stake but even then there is four of them who were during her reign who were burned at the stake the rest anyone else would be beheaded or hanged and she did support the Dutch Protestants who were fighting King Philip in the Netherlands she didn't like them much but she felt that they were the lesser of the two evils on the continent and so she did support them and sent money and troops a number of times to help them fight King Philip and then we come to Mary Queen of Scots there is recently a movie that came out about Elizabeth and Mary Queen of Scots as anyone seen naps that's what I was afraid of Terral I was I was I was tempted to rent it I was not tempted to go their movies I was tempted to rent it just so I could say how awful it is but but I haven't there's there's a big scene in this movie I understand where the two of them meet Elizabeth and Mary get together and try to hash out their differences they never met okay they did plan on meeting they wanted to it just never happened so one of the main things in the movie just did not happen last year which they did very right yeah and that that was that was her case she's Illin illegitimate and she's a bastard and so Mary was the legitimate heir to the throne and she held that belief throughout her life so a Mary was the granddaughter of Margaret Tudor or he was she's the great great granddaughter of Henry the seventh she was the granddaughter of Margaret Tudor Henry the eighth's sister so she's the daughter of James the fifth who is the king of Scotland she was born in 1542 and at five years old they sent her to France to be raised and so she married Francis the second who became the King of France and then quickly died so there's Mary Queen of Scots probably the better education better atmosphere Scotland and back in those days was a very barbaric place very violent up there so it was a good move really much better education she could get so married she became queen of France she was married I believe at 16 then the King died and she became queen at 17 and then she was widowed at 18 and and then quickly sit back to Scotland so she went back to Scotland where she could be Queen and she married Henry Stuart Lord Darnley she fell madly in love with him because he was a flatterer a handsome guy very charming and he turned out to be a truly awful horrible man she had a son though James in 1556 and not long afterwards Darnley was murdered he was not just a terrible person to marry he was a really awful person all the way around and there's so many factions in Scotland at the time your life was almost always in danger if you made a stand in any direction and so Lord Darnley was the house in which he resided was blown up he escaped and went he got out of the house then they murdered him and not long after that she married the girl of Bothwell if anything and even worse human being one of one of the men who was involved in the murder of her first husband all right I said grab their second husband Lord Darnley now there is some debate yes it's possible no way you know I could be wrong in there yeah that thank you that's right thank you one of my I better fix that right now there we go I am prone to those typos thank you very much okay getting back on track here so she had married Earl of Bothwell now there is some debate historically speaking as to whether she was forced into this marriage or not some will say that she went willingly he did kidnap her and took her to a place to get married we don't know whether who's willing or not on the one side historians will say we really believe that he kidnapped her and raped her thus convincing her that she had no option but to marry him which is possible he truly was an awful human being it is also possible that he convinced her of his love for her and she was choose a rather gullible person if you're looking for a hero and this is one of the things I read an article about that movie and how they were trying to portray Elizabeth and Mary as these great feminist icons as both of them were presented in the movie Elizabeth is a very good person to look up to Mary is not Mary had her virtues but she was rather in many ways just a pathetic person she had very poor judgment as we see in her marriage she was an emotional wreck very often she [Music] we might we might call her bipolar today where she was very excited very energetic and then she was in the depths of despair where she could laugh the lay around for days totally depressed so anyway so she married Earl of Bothwell oh and it just says a sight fun sort of fact at this time elizabeth is wanting to know about Mary and the Ambassador from Scotland comes to Elizabeth and Elizabeth's asking questions so how tall is Mary I hear she's kind of tall and she is she was either 511 or 6-foot tall so that was pleasing to Elizabeth she obviously gangly looking woman who's not very attractive that's way too tall how is she at music can she play and the ambassador said tolerably well and so in a series of questions like that and so Elizabeth would make sure that this ambassador witnessed her own dancing and her own play to show him that the English Queen is a far more talented person than Mary and so at one point he was brought to a room to to accidentally see her playing and and so she would be surprised oh I didn't notice you were here and and what did you think and of course he would say marvelously well how's my dancing it's excellent superb and she would say make some comments like you know my knees obviously are higher than hers as I dance the Queen of England dance much more elegantly than the Queen of Scotland now there's one of the historians will say that that whole thing was made up just to impress him and she really wasn't as vain as all that most historians will tell you Elizabeth had many virtues modesty was not among them she could be very vain anyway so here are the these two rogues who are totally very abusive towards Mary so Bothwell being a truly awful person that the noble says they said a lot of turmoil in Scotland at this time and so Mary being the the power representing the power they went after her and Bothwell and wanted and these these were Puritans by the way they did not want the Catholic Queen they had accepted her for a number of years and decided they needed to get rid of her and they have the opportunity with all the turmoil that was going on so they chased both of them out Bothwell went to Denmark and was immediately imprisoned for the rest of his life Mary went into England and expect it to get Asylum there so this is 1568 Elizabeth was very torn on how to deal with this she was not going to allow Mary in her presence because she was the Catholic power and there's there's a lot of rules that she would need to follow and allegiances she would need to state whose side is she on so she kept her at Barry's palaces it's not under house arrest or anything like that but she definitely would keep tabs on her and she would know where she is at all time and so there was as this saying I really like this quote a great tension under a veneer of friendliness Mary immediately is thinking of plotting to overthrow Elizabeth she knew that a list that first of all Elizabeth was a Protestant which was a terrible thing for the Catholics and she knew that she had support of the Catholic powers and the Pope that if they would rise up and send an army Elizabeth would be overthrown and that she would take the place of Elizabeth and be the Queen of England that was the hope that she had now if not that she was hoping at least that Elizabeth would help her regain her own throne in Scotland and Elizabeth just wasn't going to do that but anyway she was constantly in communication with various Catholic powers and the Pope and a lot of very strange associations and plotting and planning trying to figure out what to do with Mary many men now now that Bothwell was in prison in Denmark she could get an annulment and be now a single woman which meant that she was a very eligible single woman and many men were vying for her hand Elizabeth wanting to have her own say in this encouraged Dudley her very close friend and and somewhat lover said that maybe he could marry her and that way we would have a Protestant King in Scotland and a connection to England as far-fetched as that seemed it was bantered about a little bit marry at first was terribly offended that such a man who wasn't even royalty would be offered to her but she did consider it anyway nothing ever came of it of course but the whole time as I said Mary is plotting Mary is planning she's in communication with the Catholic powers the one way out of this for her she believed was to the throne of England so now two walls in him that diet mentioned early one of her brilliant counselors he was the spymaster he had a whole spy network that knew what was going on and he set up a very close communication route for Mary to follow she would sneak messages in casks of beer or wine in a container inside the barrels and it was laws ahem who set that whole thing up with a double agent who was playing both sides and so he could read it was in cipher but of course he knew he could figure that out and he read the messages back and forth and when he came across a very well developed plot to overthrow Elizabeth and put Mary on the throne he finally let Mary know there was going to be the Spanish invasion this is now the 1680s as we know Spain was planning to invade they were going to release Mary and replace her place Elizabeth with Mary so she was tried and condemned and beheaded in 1587 now in the movies they will portray this as well that is the reason that is why the Spanish Armada in 1688 came over because they were so outraged that Mary would be beheaded and that was actually something that Elizabeth was fearful up to but philip ii was already planning the ships were already being made it was going to happen as a matter of fact it would have happened in 1587 except for francis drake came down and burned a whole bunch of his ships and he had to put it off for another year so that was not the reason so here's the execution of Mary there's a there's a side story about this that's really pretty interesting about it that reveals a lot about Elizabeth Elizabeth had no problem executing several of the people who were involved in this plot as a matter of fact the four of the ringleaders were going to be partially hung cut down before they died and then disemboweled while they were still living that was the plan the first guy they did that - they hung him for just a short time cut him down cut him open while he was still alive but he actually started the crowd that he was watching this spectacle was horrified adds to their credit and so the rest of them the other three were just hung until they were dead so but anyway even though it was obvious that married was involved in this plot and that she had been involved in many communications that were treasonous Elizabeth was very reluctant to sign the order for her execution and her counselors were imploring her you must do this if she lives there will be more plots you know there will and so finally very reluctantly she signed the order of execution and then when she handed it to the guy who was supposed to deliver it she said okay hold on I don't want you to deliver it yet here's the order it is signed don't deliver it she was kind of playing both ways and and again she was very torn inside not just that Mary would be executed but that she would be responsible for Mary being executed she actually had hinted to some of her counselors maybe Mary might commit suicide or she might die of some accident you never know and but her counselors to their credit said no that is not the way it's done and so Elizabeth was very torn as I said and so she delivers the order of execution where she hands it to the guy and says don't deliver it yet wait till I tell you to he delivers it anyway guys and and this is the rest of the counselors are saying look we have to do this and we have to do it now so they did it and she was executed they say it took to wax to get her head off but she was executed and she went gracefully and one of the more brave things that she did was to face it bravely and of course she would consider herself a martyr to the cause of the Catholic faith and so she was executed when Elizabeth found out she was outraged she was in a fury she was going to the man that she gave the order of execution to sent him immediately to the tower and she wanted to hang him you disobeyed my orders and she knew that her other counselors were involved in that and she she banished them all from court I don't want to see any of your faces in here again and so she the witnesses will tell you she was terribly distraught weeping upset crying and for days she ate very little and slept very little it was several months before she finally came around to the fact that that was a good thing that she did and she I think it was like four or five months before she allowed her counselors back into her presence so it kind of gives you a reason that she was well Mary was an anointed Queen okay that is a chosen by God person that was another idea that you know many people had in their head this is something that you don't do you go back to the Bible David would not kill Saul because he was the anointed of the Lord and they would look to passages like that says doesn't matter what the king or queen does you are not supposed to do this and that was weighing very heavily on Elizabeth and of course she was fearful of Spain and France saying you know this is good now going to be a crusade that they are going to beyond to get me because I've done this so there are a number of things that she was very cognizant of and just for fun I wanted to show you the Tower of London so often you hear of this someone was sent to the tower and there it is it was actually a palace is not just a prison that was only one small part of it not one of the nicer palaces but it was a palace nevertheless it was also an armory and yes they were treated in the prison of the tower not the palace part so there's different parts of the palace right right if you are sick that the term sent to the tower does not mean you get to stay at my palace it means you're going to prison it was the most famous prison of London so yeah it was also used as a palace but you don't it's never used that way when you say sent to the tower and so we come to the Spanish Armada of 1688 the plan was for philip ii and by the way philip ii and spanish yes thank you well I'm messing up today okay 1588 okay so the plan philip ii of spain gets together this armada a hundred thirty ships he is going to first hook up with the Duke of Parma in the Netherlands he has a large army there sixteen thousand troops and then they're going to cross the channel and invade England that was the plan the defense we have Sir Francis Drake the great hero who has raided the Spanish shores many times he is going to harass and disorganize the fleet if not destroy them and they were mainly counting on his ability to disorganize rather than destroy so and then there you have the Dutch Protestants to interfere with the troops on land and so the Armada the 'martha comes through Sir Francis Drake does not accomplish what he intended the first day they make it through there at Gravelines which is near Calais and they're planning on hooking up with the Duke of Parma getting these transport ships get these 16,000 troops loaded on and then crossing the channel during the night somebody had the bright idea to send fire ships only about seven or eight of them across to scare the sailors in their ships at Gravelines and it worked beautifully one of the greatest fears that sailors have is fire on these ships none of the ships of the Spanish Armada caught fire but it did the work because as soon as they saw these Flyers ships coming everybody panicked they cut their cables they did not pull up the anchors they cut the cables and got the heck out of there as quickly and individually as they could so the fleet was completely scattered and disorganized and and they kept going towards the east and not across the channel and so and then of course there is a storm that made it even worse and so they had to give up the whole thing one of the other problems that the Spanish had with the Dutch Protestants interfered with the transports they could not get their 16,000 troops loaded onto the ships because it was just too dangerous the waters were being patrolled by these by the Dutch and these transports boats are very easily sunk so they didn't get any of the soldiers and so they sailed back around all north of Scotland back down around England and around Ireland the ones who made it many of the ships were shipwrecked somewhere along the way and many of them were butchered by the Irish when they crashed on the shores so here's the fire ships and it's at this point right after this happened Elizabeth gave a very moving speech to the troops the danger was not over in the movies she gives this speech ahead of time because that's in our minds it's the Spanish Armada that is the danger and so she gives this speech before the young walk just before the Armada comes she actually gave it right after they left because the danger was still there the 16,000 troops people were still afraid that they might come across the channel so anyway Elizabeth has inspire kids were so good you jump ship and and another thing that they did was they kept some of the cannons on there and explosives to blow up so you make sure that you have the right wind the ships are going in the right direction and when these fire ships are seen on the horizon coming towards these sailors they panicked in a hurry so yeah terribly fearful because they knew if those fire ships reached this glut of ships altogether it could it could wreak havoc and destroy almost all of them so yeah very effective so I was searching for a for someone to give this speech it's do and to tell you the truth I couldn't find anyone any actor who portrayed this speech as well as I imagined it to happen so I've settled on this one and I don't even know who this is but so this is the speech [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] we know that you already deserve a water birth and we can assure you in the world of prints they shall be plain to you take me to why not an attacker but not played seven kilometer Boulevard on notice off Tennessee by your feet instead [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] so that's kind of an excerpt of first speech one of I considered one of her greatest speeches at a very moving time of course very sadly for Elizabeth right after this just a few days her the love of her life the longest-standing love of her life Dudley Earl of leister died of cancer stomach cancer 1588 and she was terribly distraught locked herself in her room for days until someone had to beat the door down because she would not leave and so yeah very distraught for some time because of that because of the depth of her love and she kept the last letter he ever wrote to her she kept at her bedside the rest of her life on the other hand his widow her cousin she made sure that all the debts that leister incurred from Elizabeth were paid and she sold off some of her property to get it she had no love for that woman and we come to the greatest rogue of the bunch Robert Devereux Earl of Essex this is actually the stepson of the Earl of Lyster another it was the son of Latisse the stepson of Lyster born in 1565 I hope I'm getting these I'm not getting paranoid these years right so he was very charming charismatic affable impetuous and unlike many of the other loves of Elizabeth he was beloved of the people as well most people did not like leister many did not like some of the others Sir Walter Raleigh was a rather fun popular character as well Essex was loved by the people that's kind of why I liked the the portrayal of now the names escaping me what's his name yes thank you Errol Flynn because he is the type of guy who portrays Essex as that charismatic really likable guy that everybody wants to be around so at the death even even before leister died he was becoming the favorite of Elizabeth and she would spend a lot of time with him because he was just so charming they could play cards all night long and enjoy each other's company and once once leister Dudley died he moved into leister's old apartments right next door to Elizabeth mariya is the Earl of leister time through mrs. Elizabeth is 55 Essex is 22 at this point Elizabeth is very possessive of him does not want him to endanger himself he wants to be a war hero she does not want him to endanger himself what would she do without him Essex went on a an expedition with Sir Francis Drake against her strict orders and she wanted to punish not just Essex but the captain of the ship as well and anybody else who may have been involved so she was extremely angry but she forgave him after a time because well she really loved him and then he goes off like many of the others and gets married because after all he's 22 she's 55 they're not going to get married and again she throws a fit you didn't have my permission he may have said where he should have said if he would stand up to her that you wouldn't have given it which she wouldn't have but eventually they were forgiven and she did allow him to have some military ventures he went across the channel fought in the Civil War of France did not turn out well for him or anybody else but he came back alive he went on raid and Cadiz 1596 mostly due to Sir Walter Raleigh the raid was successful but Essex got the credit Essex made sure that he got the credits another raid on the Azores Raleigh obviously upstaged Essex which made him even less popular but essex is now showing an independence that elizabeth is finding troublesome essex being the favorite felt that he could do things that others could not he would grant knighthoods to his soldiers despite the fact that elizabeth told him don't do that and he would do it over and over again he'd come back from an expedition and now we have 30 new nights in England because Essex knighted them then we have a in Ireland always a very tumultuous Island always troublesome in many ways England it's a very sad and awful history between England and Ireland but at one point there's they need to appoint a new Lord deputy of Ireland and there's a big argument in council over who that should be Essex wanted his personal friend and not himself and Elizabeth and the councillors wanted somebody else and they're arguing so Essex stands up and turns his back to Elizabeth you don't turn your back on the Queen Elizabeth approaches him it boxes his ears he turns around and pulls his sword and everybody's stunned I can't believe he did that but he did and he said he said to her face I will not tolerate that from anyone I wouldn't take that from your father of course he probably would have but he openly defied Elizabeth and told Ross and she did nothing everybody stunned he he left court and he went home to his one of his house by the way being a favorite of Elizabeth is a very lucrative position you don't necessarily have any work to do other than flatter her and you are given lavish very expensive gifts houses being among them and so he went to his estate in the country and spent some weeks licking his wounds and and Elizabeth did nothing then there's more trouble in Ireland they need a commander because the Irish heir in revolt and he wants that command he wants the military glory of commanding in Ireland and at first she was not going to grant it then he pretended that he was sick and dying so she forgives him they make up and and he has given the command and one of the greatest armies is collected for his benefit to go to Ireland 16,000 infantry 13,000 cavalry travelled over to Ireland and do almost nothing of any consequence Essex is a terrible vacillating commander it's not something that he does weld at all so after spending several months in Ireland and many thousands of men dying of one thing or another diseases he comes back and he had actually negotiated a very weak sort of treaty with the man he was supposed to defeat and he comes back and he knows that he's in trouble he comes into London and he comes into the palace and he bursts into her bedroom while she was dressing pleading his case everybody's been against me I had no chance to do what I was supposed to do it's not my fault she very that composed at the time tells him we will discuss it later and dismisses him he obviously knows he's in the wrong but he's going to plead his case it's not my fault and I'll give you a hundred reasons why but he was given something of a court martial and found guilty mainly of disobeying orders deserting his command and incompetence he should have been sent to the tower Elizabeth does not punish him other than take away some of the favor that she had for him and dismissed him from some of the offices that she had given him and here's I'm just going to show a couple minutes of this Betty Davis talking to a friend he's a fool man he's a good man Wow he was hanged in World Court I am NOT to spend then yes here the dangerous man to follow dangerous he is no longer in my favor forgetting Manistee or leggings and essex are going straight to me to the tower are you still is bent don't believe me fire if you included to imprison me in the tower I'd be there now - world perhaps - shoot if honestly wish we met him it would enjoy greater favour understood I but only - four one - twice tell me so I didn't want to pursue that particular clip because he got into things who were completely not historical but so this was a Betty Davis as Elizabeth and she was talking with Francis Bacon about Essex but I just loved Betty Davis doing that scene so so Essex is removed from the favour of the Queen loses all of his offices except master of the horse and his allowance is cut off no longer is she providing money for him despite the fact he's deeply in debt so he is down in the dumps he's very depressed still thinking very highly of himself and he gathers together since I said before he was a very popular guy and he had many friends and he has this brilliant idea that he is going to force his way in to see the Queen and convince her of her errors so he gathers together a few hundred men and they are going to storm the palace 1601 they march into London and people are horrified he had thought hey I'm a really popular guy when they see me at the head of a crowd of soldiers they will join me because I'm going to say I'm coming to save the queen nobody were almost nobody joined him they were horrified when they saw what he was going to do they rushed to the palace to prevent him from storming the palace so he gets through mud gate he gets to st. Paul's and people as I say rushed to the palace to protect Elizabeth he sees that he has failed he's not going to get in to see her so he flees back to his home and is captured along at the time 85 others Elizabeth it was well noted that she kept her cool through the whole thing many around her started to panic is all of London going to rise up in favour of Essex they didn't know they weren't sure but Elizabeth kept her cool and she would give orders to the soldiers in the guard as to what they should be doing of course it was said that once it was done she kind of collapsed in relief but during the the crisis she kept her head so Essex is now on trial for treason he was very well composed during the trial smiling he pleads not guilty after all I was coming to save the queen the councillor is there against her really I miss the guy who's going to save her from those evil counselors and by the way Raleigh was wanting to assassinate me so I had every reason to do this and of course he was found guilty sentenced to death and it wasn't until he was at the block that he confesses his sins and how awful a thing that he did there's Essex at the block so now build it Elizabeth is in her late 60's and if she's still dancing she's still riding horses very for the most part that enjoyed great health throughout her life she did have an ulcer on one of her legs that did not go away and she had that for years aside from that she enjoyed great health through her life and even now she refused to name a successor even now she was afraid that as soon as she did someone would kill her and become the next sovereign so here she is at 69 years old she goes out riding for 10 miles the next day she goes out hunting and walking here's Elizabeth in her 60s the last painting of her and the death of Elizabeth she started developing sores and ulcers in her throat and the last several days she did not want to lay in her bed believing that if as soon as she laid down she would never get up again from that bed and so this is something of a superstition she would lay on the floor on pillows until finally her counselor said you really need to get in bed and her last moments on her last day she's unable to speak but the counselors are begging her is James of Scotland your successor and she motioned with her hands that yes he will be my successor and so she dies and a sapphire ring is taken from her hand and taken up to Scotland to James I say token of you are now the king of England any questions yes so James was the son of Mary who was the great granddaughter of Henry the seventh because he was as a very young boy he was taken by the Scots Nobles as they brought and raised by them not by merit so he was definitely a Protestant yeah anything else all right [Applause] so for Elizabeth Francis Bacon was like the legal counsel but he did many many other things as as a someone who studies world history you'd know him as one of the primary men who is promoting the scientific method yeah right yeah but he lived many years past Elizabeth too so

Channel: Holman's History

Views: 898

Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Keywords: Holman's History, Queen Elizabeth I, Elizabeth I, Mary Queen of Scots, Mary Tudor, Essex

Id: exNQ959BSMw

Length: 93min 30sec (5610 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 09 2019