The End of the House of Tudor (2023) FULL DOCUMENTARY | HD

foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] for the cracking of the lips through cold or through wind anoint them with honey then strew upon the powder of pine resin and the lips swell if they do make an ointment of the juice of parsnip leaves and protoxide of lead mixed together and there with anoint the lips for you my friend who dwells with the fairies will not have problems with lips you can drink at roses and at lavender without fear of these matters but as for me as a mere Queen I must resolve these things for the stinking of the mouth comes sometimes a Corruption of the gums and of the teeth it comes of the stomach other times or of the lungs if it comes of the teeth and the gums rub the gums with your finger and see if your finger stinks if it comes from the stomach the mouth stinks while the man is fasting and all the while his mouth is open you will smell the stink if it comes out of the lungs you will smell the stink through the mouth even when it's closed but you see Mr butterfly this is all about men and it does proclaim that men do stink for you will notice there is not a woman's name given here no wonder I remain a virgin thank you [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] foreign Tudor had one of the worst hereditary claims to the throne of any English Monarch it was almost no claim at all he was the son of Edmund Tudor who was the lower born half-brother of Henry VI through Henry's mother Catherine of valwa who had married Owen Tudor a Welsh squire [Music] claim to the throne was rather tenuous Henry VI his half-brother a semi-royal bride and this was Margaret Beaufort who was a descendant of John of gaunt the third son of Edward III so close to the Lancaster and Royal house but crucially she was a Beaufort and John of gaunts Beaufort children were all born illegitimate they were born to Catherine swinford a woman who had later become his third wife but not until his second wife had died and not until their large family were already adults so the beauforts were illegitimate they were legitimized by the pope and they were legitimized by the king but there was always a question mark over whether they actually had a claim to the throne Henry IV of England and John of God's legitimate son certainly seems to take an issue with the idea that beauforts could one day succeed to the crown So Not only was his claim an illegitimate one but it also only came through his mother however with the death of Henry VI and the death of his son Edward of Lancaster the next heir to the House of Lancaster if you consider the Beaufort to be legitimate was Margaret Beauford and so it was through this very tenuous connection that Henry Tudor was able to claim the throne foreign [Music] Tudor was born in Wales and had very strong Welsh descent and he spent some of his childhood in Wales however as the potential heir to the House of Lancaster he was always going to struggle under Edward IV's yorkist regime eventually he flees with his uncle Jasper Tudor to Brittany where he spends most of his latter childhood and much of his early adult life he is an exile very few people in England actually really know who he is because he spent so much time and really it's his mother Margaret Beaufort who remains behind in England who really pushes his candidacy for the throne she is able to Ally herself with Elizabeth Woodville the Widow of Edward IV and of course the mother of the prince in the tower and she agrees with Elizabeth that if Henry marries Elizabeth's daughter Elizabeth of York the yorkist supporters will support Henry's candidacy for the throne [Music] and this is enough for Henry who has by then fled to France to gather a force of mercenaries and land in pembrokeshire in 1485 and he meets the forces of Richard III in August at the Battle of Bosworth field the odds really were stacked against Henry Tudor at the Battle of Bosworth not only did Richard III have the support of the Nobles and a much larger Army he was also a seasoned Warrior whereas Henry Tudor had much less experience difficult sometimes to know exactly what's going on during the battle but we know that it was very very Fierce fighting Richard III very much got involved in the fighting in fact at one point he kills Henry Tudor's standard Bearer with his own hands during the battle the stanleys who have their own large army have been waiting to see what the outcome of the battle is like to be they are closely related to Henry Tudor through his mother who has married Lord Stanley eventually they joined the battle on Henry's side which is the decisive moment [Music] Richard III is killed he was Elaine on the battlefield and the triumphant ascendants of Henry Tudor by the end of the day Henry Tudor has been declared King Henry VII Henry as far as we can tell never takes a mistress which is quite unusual for a king and suggests that he is content in his own wife's bed certainly they have seven children and these children are raised to be The Heirs of the Tudor dynasty Prince Arthur is their eldest and he is the future of the dynasty Henry focuses all his efforts on this child he is born at Winchester because Henry wants to place the dynasty within our Theory and Legend he wants to use ideas in the legendary King of the britons to attach to his dynasty because of course the tutors are Welsh the descendants of the britons so Arthur is named Arthur to reference King Arthur and he's raised in his own household and he's raised to become King Arthur Prince of Wales was supposed to be the heir that succeeded to Henry Tudor and much hope and expectation lay on his shoulders now there was much talk about Arthur being a frail creature well late Johnny was but when he was younger but he was tall blonde got a plantagen of blonde and forget his mother is Elizabeth of York yes there is a right to be on the throne in order to secure the realm and to have alliances with other countries he was also married to the end Fanta of Spain Catherine of Aragon what Henry of England wanted was recognition a new Dynasty arriving on the throne to be accepted by Spain was a huge deal he also wanted the money he was parsimonious I think Henry VII was actually a great Monarch in terms of stability in terms of setting things right organizing this that and he said he was going to end the war with the roses and he did but tragically their marriage was to be a short-lived one for Arthur contracted the sweating sickness and died suddenly in 1502. unfortunately Arthur died [Music] this is devastating both for Henry and for Elizabeth so Henry is left with just one surviving son young Henry VIII and also two daughters Margaret who becomes Queen of Scots and Mary who will briefly become queen of France during the reign of her brother all of Henry's energies then focus on young Henry and he seems to have been a very overprotective father with good reason of course because he's seen his eldest son die he keeps young Henry cloistered away like a young Maiden [Music] Henry's life changed dramatically upon the death of his brother Arthur from having been the spare he was now the heir and all of England's hopes rested upon his shoulders Henry VII was never a popular King most of his court feared him so on his death there is a sense of Celebration you know of joy that England is now going to get this young and charismatic King when Henry VII ascended to the throne one of his first acts was to ask his brother's widow Catherine of Aragon for her hand in marriage this was incredibly expedient it meant that England could retain a good relationship with Spain but in order to do so Henry had to petition the pope for a license essentially a dispensation to marry his dead brother's wife this actually places the couple within the prohibited degrees of affinity according to church law so basically it means that they are as related as far as a church is concerned as though they were brother and sister so they cannot legally marry to get round this point Catherine's parents obtain a dispensation for her to marry Henry which is a very common way of Permitting a marriage between closely related people so the pope had to give his permission for Henry and Catherine to marry which indeed he did Grant [Music] then one day the winter King was dead and standing there was Henry VII the summer King Henry VII very much resembled his grandfather Edward IV who'd been very very popular and there is a real sense of hope for the future he's seen as a true Renaissance Prince he's Highly Educated he's incredibly good looking the young Henry VIII was described as so beautiful he'd make a pretty woman he is a king of which England can be proud and there is very much celebration at his accession to the throne in 1509. [Music] younger than her he danced with her at her wedding Feast to Arthur when he was 10. there he was big and beautiful and golden Auntie walls don't think he's just an old man throwing chicken legs he was a spectacularly beautiful fit young man and they were happy and a jewel recently found proves the admiration and love Catherine in many ways was an ideal Queen consort Catherine rarely puts a foot Rod of England she was supportive of Henry and his many campaigns abroad but she was also happy to be subservient to him she knew that one of her Chief responsibilities was to secure the succession and she was certainly happy to be supportive of Henry in every aspect of his duties it was one dead child after another for them [Music] one after the following year next year next year one a boy lived for 52 days some say 50. and then he was dead bonfires have been lit in celebration it was too late 1513 while Henry was away she got on a horse when she was part pregnant in a wonderful hat that was armor brass like this like a summer we think of it like a summer straw hat but around the brim here was a crown come come she said troops for James of Scotland had raided England while Henry was away at laying a city under siege so up she goes there on a horse come come raise them up raise them up she'd been allowed by Henry to raise money and command the troops he must have admired her enormously her great intellect and so what happened the battle Flom an England one and she made a speech some say that Elizabeth based Her speech on which in the end she was rejected Henry VII was actually quite slow in its advances towards and Berlin who joined his court in 1522. he actually had a relationship with uh and Sister Mary Berlin in the interim years before he turned his attentions towards her but we know for certain by 1526 that Henry VIII was falling head over heels in love for Anne Berlin it's clear that Henry was deep in love with Anne we can see it in his love letters we can see it in his conduct the fact that he was prepared to break England away from the pope and to annul a marriage to the aunt to the Holy Roman Emperor whose most powerful man in Europe [Music] the only real way that Henry was going to be able to marry Anne was if the pope would annul his marriage to Catherine of Aragon Henry wanted to annul his marriage to Catherine of Aragon on the basis that she had been his brother's wife so they're related to within the first degree of affinity they are as far as the church is concerned brother and sister and his argument is that you cannot dispense such a marriage and indeed when you look at Leviticus in the Bible which is what he depended with all these Scholars looking everywhere for an excuse to get out of the captain of argument and there it is there's a finger pointing from a clouds marginalium she's worth seeing and it says Thou shalt uncover thy Brothers wives nakedness or Thou shalt not bear fruit what is quite ironic is that when he first sends to the pope to request his annulment his messenger also has a second request for a dispensation to allow him to marry a woman within the first degree of affinity to him and this is because his sexual relationship with Mary Berlin has created the same relationship between him and Anne that exists between him and Catherine of araga and of course Catherine of Aragon married to Arthur his elder brother Henry seemed to sort of forget which was a bit of a habit with him that he'd had a sexual relationship with amblyn's sister but don't let that get in the way kind of thing which is probably why Abilene was accused of Witchcraft amongst other things ironic point but I think it all it illustrates very very clearly that his reasons for annulling the marriage to Catherine were not sincere and that actually he wanted rid of her because he wanted to marry amberlyn [Music] Anne and Henry placed their hopes in Cardinal Woolsey and he was dispatched to Rome to try to bring about the annulment Woolsey ultimately fails to secure an annulment for Henry from his marriage to Catherine of Aragon where Woolsey had failed and herself held the key she was incredibly bold and placed in the king's hands a copy of William tyndale's The Obedience of the Christian man this book told Henry that there was no Pope in Rome there was no Authority in Rome and that the King was next to God this really sowed the seeds in Henry's mind that he was above the Pope that he could form his own church in England as soon as Thomas Cramer is confirmed as Archbishop of Canterbury he breaks his oath to the pope and declares the English church separate from Rome with the King as its Supreme head and this is the moment that the English church goes its own way good [Music] after Henry had annulled his marriage to Catherine of Aragon she was banished from cord [Music] foreign had moved Heaven and Earth to marry Anne Berlin and the price for crowning her was the delivery of the much longer for male Heir that Henry so desired but the child that Anne had in 1533 wasn't a son it was a daughter the future Elizabeth the first Elizabeth is just the most fascinating figure she is Born the daughter of Henry VIII and amberlin and she is a crushing disappointment because of course she isn't a boy she spends a difficult childhood and a difficult early adulthood really trying to find her place in the line of succession and in the royal family now some historians have suggested that Henry was furious at Anne for the delivery of a daughter and indeed that this was the beginning of the end of their relationship but actually we have good evidence that Henry consoled Anne and suggested that the delivery of a healthy daughter was a good sign for the sons that would follow and was under enormous pressure at this point she had almost absorbed all of the pressure that had been on Catherine of arrogant shoulders onto her own start of 1536 and was pregnant news then came that Catherine of Aragon had died and Henry and Anne celebrated by wearing yellow at court and this must have felt like a high point for amberlynn it had been a difficult previous year however on the day of Catherine of Aragon's funeral she miscarried and it was obvious to people at the court that this had been a son [Music] Henry told Anne that he could see that he would have no more boys by her which was particularly ominous and I think this is the beginning of the end of Anne's life Henry by this stage was involved with Anne's lady and waiting Jane Seymour who had herself declared that she would not become the king's mistress he seems to have promised to marry Jane before and Stanford [Music] yeah very dramatically on the 2nd of May 1536 and is arrested at the palace of Greenwich and is taken to the Tower of London in truth there was absolutely no foundation for any of the charges held against Anne the simple fact of the matter is that Henry wanted out of his marriage to Anne and he knew that Anne would not go quietly on the 19th of May Anne was led from her apartments at the Tower of London at 8am to a scaffold that had been erected on Tower green everything that was to happen to Anne on that day had been carefully planned by her husband Henry [Music] Henry is clearly the driving force behind the decision to rid himself a van and take a new wife and as she mounted the scaffold steps it was noted by observers that she looked calm and some even said that she had never looked so beautiful [Music] thank you foreign [Music] [Music] ordered that a cannon was fired at the moment that am was executed and this was his cue to move on indeed he proposed to Jane Seymour the next day and they were married only two weeks later [Music] it is a marriage that he hopes will bear sons and he's hopeful that Jane will prove a very different wife to Amber Lynn [Music] yeah compared to Henry's first two queens Jane Seymour was rather less complicated she was rather Meek and slightly milder than Catherine and Anne and was certainly happy to be more pliant to Henry's will finally at the start of 1537 Jane realizes she's pregnant and when she feels the baby quickened so she feels the baby move the whole country erupts into celebration in 1537 after many years of Heartache Jane Seymour finally gave Henry the Sun and Heir that he so desperately craved when Jane goes into labor in October 1537 the whole country hold their breath and it's a very long very arduous labor finally after two days Jane gives birth and it is a healthy print and everybody celebrates Henry was elated there was much celebration throughout the kingdom and lavish feasts and jousts were prepared this is the moment that Henry has been waiting for for nearly 30 years and he is absolutely thrilled but tragically all was not well in the birthing chamber for in less than two weeks his beloved Queen Jane was dead oh [Music] [Music] most Kings in a period chose their wives for diplomatic reasons they wanted to make a grand foreign Alliance which would bring friendship between the countries Emery's kingdom was rather less secure than it should be because of his newly founded Church of England therefore cromwell's proposal was to create an alliance with a Protestant country and he looked abroad to Cleves as a potential match for this Alliance would mean that England was no longer isolated in a threat of War he dispatched the king's painter Hans hauled by the younger to create a likeness of Anne of Cleves who was a princess there and upon return Henry VII was rather pleased with this painting it showed a rather young and beautiful young woman and Henry on the receipt of Anne's portrait was Keen to go ahead the marriage contract was signed in September 1539 and Anne then made her way towards England Henry VII's first meeting with Anne of Cleves couldn't have gone worse Anne was supposed to Voyage to court to meet Henry but like a lovesick boy Henry can't wait to meet her and decides to visit her in disguise and when Henry VII burst into her chamber she was completely unimpressed with this man that stood before her and I think actually in that moment Henry VIII saw perhaps for the first time in his life a genuine reaction to how unattractive he had become and hadn't recognized him as this all-powerful Majestic person she'd simply seen an obese and slightly aging man before her [Music] their relationship thereafter was something of a disaster Henry would exit that chamber claiming I like her not and suggesting that she was nothing like the portrait that had been presented to her he couldn't risk offending the Duke of cleaves and the schmal khoudek league as well so he had to go through the wedding he had to put his neck in the Yoke as he said on his wedding day he and Anne married and he attempted to make the best of the situation they tried to consummate the marriage and but Henry again he just his mind was closer and he just couldn't do it [Music] and of Cleve certainly wasn't afforded a coronation for six months later Henry VIII had their marriage annulled [Music] Anne of Cleves was gifted a lavish portfolio of properties a great income and was gifted a new title The King's sister foreign having served Henry loyally for many years Thomas Cromwell was now seen by the king as the architect of this incredibly awkward marriage between Anne of Cleves and himself and he really blamed Cromwell [Music] noticing how vulnerable Cromwell now was waiting in the wings was the Duke of Norfolk who had never been fond of Cromwell and he had a niece who was in Anne of Cleve's employee Catherine Howard he saw this as an opportunity not only to place his young niece in the king's bed but also to bring down Cromwell Cromwell has been sent to the Tower of London in disgrace and he isn't even afforded a trial he is actually condemned to death by an act of attainder in his last letter to King Henry VIII he writes a PostScript at the end of the letter begging three times for Mercy Mercy Mercy but no mercy came and Thomas Cromwell was taken to the public scaffold site on Tower Hill and beheaded on the very day that the King married Catherine Howard foreign [Music] Howard is really Henry Yates midlife crisis she'd been a lady in waiting to Anna please she's a teenager [Music] Henry VII is absolutely besotted by Catherine he lavishes gifts upon her jewelry and clothes but soon rumors start a court that all is not well with Catherine's past she was a woman with a past or a girl with a past really and she'd had two previous lovers one of which had been consummated and the Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas cranber leaves a letter for the king to find which details some troubling facts about Catherine's past at first Henry VIII is entirely dismissive of these claims but he does order that Thomas cranmer investigate but then things take a turn for the worse a letter is discovered in the possession of Thomas Culpepper one of Henry VIII's favorites at court this is a romantic letter it talks of Catherine longing to see him and this sends Henry into an absolute rage he is blinded by this rage and suggests that he is going to kill Catherine with his own sword she is confined to her apartments and then is imprisoned at Scion Abbey but rather unlike Anne who is dispatched within 19 days of her arrest Catherine languishes in prison Henry can't quite believe what has happened it is reported at this time that there is no more room in the Tower of London for it is so full of Howard relatives and eventually Catherine is taken herself to the Tower of London she is taken to the Queen's apartment and he's afforded a private execution on Tower green [Music] Henry VIII's Sixth and final Queen was Catherine Parr Catherine was a relatively young woman when Henry first took notice of her but actually she had already been twice widowed she was very very reluctant to marry Henry and actually seems to have been quite horrified when he declared his interest Henry however would not be refused there are claims that Catherine actually said it was better to be his mistress and his wife but if that was the case he ignored her and insisted on marriage I think at this point in his life Henry is looking for peace and stability and looks to Catherine Parr to rehabilitate his family life to bring his children together and to bring Harmony once more to the Royal Family [Music] Catherine Parr is an incredibly intelligent woman she is very well read and has very radical religious ideas too she's also the first queen to ever publish a book and the first woman to publish a book in England under her own name and in English [Music] Henry VII had been ill on and off for the latter part of 1546 and just before Christmas he leaves the queen and his daughter Mary and goes to Westminster [Music] and it's clear very quickly that he's dying he spends his last few weeks cloistered away with his Council and particularly his secretary William Padgett who is very close to Edward Seymour Henry's brother-in-law the brother of Queen Jane and the uncle of the heir to the throne [Music] during this period Henry asks that a new will is drawn up he previously made a will in the early days for his marriage to Catherine Parr and he seems to have named her as Regent in the event of his death but this new world completely overturned that instead of naming anyone as region Henry in fact established a council of equal ranking Executives so all of these men have an equal role to play and they it was hoped that they would guide Edward through his minority into his adult reign [Music] symptoms [Music] Edward VI was the last Tudor King and obviously he came to the throne as a child he's nine years old he's a shy uncertain boy at succession Edward VI was a highly intelligent young man he was well versed in most subjects and he was also a radical religious thinker this was certainly encouraged by his uncles who shared the Protestant faith in fact he was something of a religious zealot and unlike his father who remained a traditional catholic Edward imposed a fully Protestant Reformation on England for the first time [Music] he matures as a ruler in his six years there are just signs there are just hints of the Monarch that he could have become Edward is a boy king and a fiercely Protestant one too and his Heir at the time is his elder sister Mary who is a devout Catholic and a Roman Catholic too this causes enormous tensions between the two their differences are so great that Edward cannot conceive of his sister Mary succeeding to the throne and undoing the protestant's Reformation that he has enacted upon the country and he goes to Great Lengths in order to disinherit his sister from the line of succession he unfortunately dies at the age of 15. but his legacy certainly the Protestant Reformation because it is under Edward that protestantism becomes established in England when we think about Edward we often think of him as a boy King as a footnote to the reign of his father but actually the Protestant Reformation really should set his Reign apart and we should look more closely at just what Edward achieved foreign 's death Lady Jane gray is suddenly proclaimed Queen and is taken to the Tower of London which is usually at the center of political power at the point of a coronation but Jane is only to Reign for a mere nine days for Mary has the support of the kingdom and also of the Nobles [Music] Mary proclaims herself Queen at family and castle and she writes to the nobility to ask for their support and support them they do Mary rides triumphantly into London and rather than occupying the palace apartments at the Tower of London Lady Jane gray becomes a prisoner she will only leave the Tower of London for her trial later on and sadly the 16 year old lady Jane gray is beheaded foreign one of her first actions was to finally marry and she chose for her husband King Philip II of Spain and it's a really good match for Mary he is the son of the Holy Roman Emperor so one of the most powerful princes in Europe and Mary has always been very close to her Spanish relatives and so she is very very excited by her marriage to Philip Mary was desperate to beget a sun and heir to secure her own succession unfortunately it is an incredibly unpopular marriage in England because in the 16th century the husband of a queen is a king so whoever Mary marries will become king of England and nobody wants a Spanish King early in 1554 there is a Great Rebellion against Mary it is led by Sir Thomas Wyatt and it begins in Kent Thomas Wyatt rebels in favor of Princess Elizabeth ascending to the throne what marches his troops up to London and actually it's really it's a very very dangerous situation for Mary and she has urged to flee her Capital by her advisors she refuses and that she makes a speech at the Guild Hall in London and it's absolutely the speech of her life and we can see Elizabeth modeling later speeches on this Mary talks about being married to her country and it really rallies the people of London in her support so that when Wyatt's troops cross the river into London they are met with a substantial Army and they are defeated that day Mary believes that Elizabeth is part of this conspiracy and arrests her sister imprisoning her in the Tower of London indeed it is likely she is held in the very same rooms that her mother was once held in this must have been terrifying for Elizabeth however Mary ultimately knew that Elizabeth was her only Heir there was no one else to succeed her so therefore she had no choice but to let Elizabeth go thank you Mary believed that she came to the throne with God's favor that God had supported her so she sees her queenship as divinely inspired so it seems only natural that she will give birth to a Catholic heir to the throne to keep her half-sister away from the crown Mary was determined to have a southern Heir and at one point she believed very much that she was pregnant it's all the symptoms of pregnancy the doctors agree very very excited and so she waits and then she waits and she waits some more and nothing happens tragically this was a phantom pregnancy and no children ever came from her marriage to Philip only a matter of time before Elizabeth takes a throne Mary is not going to have a child and her health is declining Mary has gone down in history as Bloody Mary which I think is particularly unkind she was England's first queen regnant who reigned in her own right so I think it's uniquely unfair and even misogynistic to land Mary with this really unfortunate title towards the end of the summer people start flocking towards Elizabeth at Hatfield and it's almost a court in Waiting even the Spanish Ambassador goes to see her and reports back to Philip of her confidence that she will soon become Queen in November Mary Falls ill and she dies in an influenza outbreak in London foreign and having provided no air Mary died in 1558 leaving her throne begrudging me to her Protestant sister Elizabeth is a isn't proclaimed Queen and she is told at Hatfield while she is sitting reading under an oak tree given the fact that it's November and it's very very cold this looks very much like a stage scene that she is waiting to be told that she is now Queen she said to William Cecil he was already very senior in a household when she was declared Queen on the 27th of November 1558 under an oak tree bar Tradition at Hatfield you must tell me what I don't want to hear them how clever was that [Music] and there aren't really any other candidates in France Mary Queen of Scots declares herself Queen of England but actually almost everyone Catholic or Protestant throws their support in England behind Elizabeth there was something of a sigh of relief in the country who had been exposed to quite radical measures in order to enact The Counter Reformation to return the country back to the Catholic faith and they hoped that the young Elizabeth would provide more stability more peace and harmony [Music] but she's met by cheering crowd she is Henry VII's daughter and in fact her coronation portrait is very much reminiscent of her father she's displaying herself as Henry VII's daughter [Music] foreign [Music] thank you [Music] as I am surrounded by the greatest Minds this nation can give who will protect all I'm going to have the scotch Queen for one moment take you away from me Tudor women had very few rights they were expected to marry and they would then become effectively the property of their husbands and they had no legal personhood so they can't even own any property everything they own passes their husband and it's broadly similar for a queen although a reigning Queen does retain some Authority their husband will become king and will be deferred to and become the dominant party and we can see this with Mary the first who marries Philip of Spain and he becomes king of England we can see this in Scotland where Mary Queen of Scots marries Henry Lord darnley and he becomes King Henry of Scots so Elizabeth is expected to marry and give England the king I think Elizabeth chose not to marry for a number of different reasons I think it began at an early age I think she knew from the example set by firstly her mother and then her stepmother Catherine Howard how vulnerable Queen could be at the hands of a king I think this left a psychological imprint on Elizabeth's mind I think the thought of marrying terrified her quite frankly Elizabeth actually receives a deputy and she takes it in very good Grace but she says some you know since I've been a child I have decided that I'm going to remain unmarried and I'm going to be a virgin I'm going to reign as a Virgin Queen and it doesn't really cause any stir which is surprising but it really is because just nobody believed her and it was a ridiculous suggestion that this young girl of 25 would hope to reign as Queen of course she had to marry of course she had giving than the king her role was to produce heirs to continue the dynasty she was not going to get married I will be mastering mistress in my own kingdom and on top of that she made sure then she could batter with all these other countries for their hand but also Elizabeth was determined perhaps for the first time in her life to have control over herself and of her kingdom she had been left incredibly vulnerable by the downfall of her mother and she had been delegitimized she had been removed from the succession and I think in a way Elizabeth wanted to rule without a husband [Music] she took a Time she didn't snatch at things like her father did and she ruled us for nearly 45 years against all the odds in many ways for ruling on her own but actually when you look at a privy Council there's nothing alone about it foreign [Music] she did fall in love with Robert Dudley there's no question and she did fall in love with his son Essex [Music] Elizabeth and Robert Dudley had an incredibly close relationship indeed she gave him the nickname my eyes she also moved his Apartments Incredibly Close to her own which may suggest indeed that there was an intimacy that went beyond friendship between them but I don't believe that Elizabeth I don't believe Elizabeth went to bed with his men it makes us more comfortable oh it must have happened well where's the evidence I think she was going to be absolutely in control she was never going to be blackmailed she was going to make sure she knew what was what thank you Cecily I find you in my company yet again that you may moan about my beloved Robert Dudley are you doubting that I cannot make choices for myself do you really think that I will allow any to climb upon my shoulders I will not I am Virgo intactor and I intend to stay that way she might well have desired them was she not Lusty was she not her father's daughter she was and that's the point but she was the best of him whether education and her femininity I will argue helped with that [Music] it's incredibly difficult to know what happened behind closed doors and whether or not she did remain a virgin is almost beside the point Elizabeth wanted to project herself as the Virgin Queen and was incredibly successful in doing so [Music] Mary Queen of Scots is undoubtedly Elizabeth's rival they are two parallel Queens two queens in one Isle Mary was born in 1542 and when she was six days old she became reigning Queen of Scotland foreign [Music] she had a very troubled upbringing before being sent to France where she was engaged to the French doe fan the heir to the French throne she becomes queen of France very briefly but then when her husband dies she returns to Scotland as an independent ruler Mary is undoubtedly the biggest threat to Elizabeth and this is because of her place in the English succession Henry VIII of course had three children none of them have any heirs he has no surviving brothers so his next heirs are his sisters Margaret the elder sister and Mary the younger Margaret the elder sister is the grandmother of Mary Queen of Scots so Mary is effectively her Heir she is the next hereditary heir to the throne and this really matters to Elizabeth because Elizabeth is still legally illegitimate so legally she has no title to the throne other than by acts of Parliament and by her father's will when Mary Tudor Mary the first dies Mary Queen of Scots actually declares herself Queen of England Because by the laws of hereditary she is next heir to the throne although she later abandons those claims Elizabeth of course is well aware of Mary's position and succession and she is incredibly dangerous to Elizabeth's wall Mary Queen of Scots was Elizabeth's first cousin and she had something of a tempestuous rule in Scotland indeed she was forced to abdicate her throne because of her actions and of course she was being questioned about the death of her second husband darnley who was a really horrible Man actually that doesn't mean he's entitled to be murdered or wanted to talk to murder him rather but what it does mean is that she had some answers to do because she was very very close to the English throne in succession and he was no doubt about it murdered many people believed she was colluded with her third husband Bothwell foreign was forced to flee to England and to seek Refuge with her cousin Elizabeth but Elizabeth knew that Mary as a Catholic would become a figurehead for those who opposed Elizabeth's rule indeed people already thought that Mary had a more legitimate claim to the English throne [Music] after she realized she couldn't stay in Scotland any longer Mary fled to England and it was the absolute worst decision she could have taken because Elizabeth was the one person who could never allow Mary to have her freedom because Mary is such a threat to her rule so when Mary came here on the 2nd of February 1569 she was told and this Castle was absolutely vast and full of streets and crowded horses moving around all these things going on she was told she was now a prisoner when Elizabeth hears that Mary has landed in the north of England she orders that she replaced under house arrest and Mary remains imprisoned by Elizabeth for 20 years [Music] so when she arrived here there were these murders and death associated with her and on top of that she'd been locked up in Scotland she'd escaped had been the Battle of langside and she had escaped into him so there's that she left behind her son James who she'd signed over to for the Regency of her bastard half-brother Murray he'd been after it for a long time and she'd lost her son her kingdom and her dignity it must have been absolutely terrifying for her to come home and be told us in fact it was so terrifying that she vomited black blood sign of an ulcer collapsed across the neck of the horse was held down they made a walk in here all this had happened which wasn't even 27. so you can see why some of the Courts of Europe mine had been a bit concerned about the choices that she'd made and in fact she historically you know we had much record of her saying my heart is my own well it isn't she's not a shepherdess running through a field her heart and her womb belong to her people and the decision she makes should be for the purposes of trade and peace for the nation's sake and of course Elizabeth was going to be a master and mistress in her own kingdom wasn't she that's the famous quote of hers and Elizabeth had a looked up for nearly 19 years so she was here four times in total the last time for 11 months and then the babington plot happened and she went from here [Music] and all of these things meant that this is a woman who was constantly confronted by betrayal [Music] Mary is desperate to come to court to plead her case with Elizabeth but Elizabeth will not see her instead Mary slowly begins to lose hope and she starts plotting against Elizabeth and there are several plots at least that her name is mentioned in all that she seems to have had Direct involvement in lastly of course she is involved in the babington plot where she gives her consent to murder Elizabeth [Music] thank you in many respects this is a really sensible policy for Mary because actually where Elizabeth to die at any point during Mary's imprisonment it's really likely that Mary would be declared Queen of England she knows that there's just one heartbeat between her and the English succession foreign [Music] had perhaps been astute when imprisoning her cousin Mary for indeed Mary did conspire to overthrow Elizabeth and to place herself on the English throne no that always known she didn't know that one of her closest Associates was a double agent [Music] Elizabeth reluctantly signed her cousin's death warrant and this was a really difficult move on Elizabeth's part she knew that the execution of anointed Queen could set a precedent so we can perhaps understand Elizabeth's reluctance at making this move of course it was a tremendous glamorous tragic figure in in our history [Music] Mary was executed at fathering hay castle and her execution sent shock waves throughout Europe not least in Spain [Music] thank you [Music] [Music] Mary's execution was a shocking event she was an anointed Queen a monarch in her own right it shocked Europe while Mary's son James who's had his eye very much on the English Throne was prepared to forgive and forget in his relations with Elizabeth Catholic Europe were outraged at the execution Philip of Spain England's former King who had been on hostile terms with Elizabeth for several years was equally outraged he very much saw himself as a defender of Catholicism and he took up Mary's cause and it's really Mary's execution that Lit the spark of war with Spain and ultimately leads to the Spanish Armada [Music] thank you the English were expecting Invasion from Spain and Philip built a great Fleet the Spanish Armada and it's not intended to be a naval Thief it's intended to carry troops to England for a land-based invasion foreign ERS Lord Howard of Effingham and Francis Drake are able to scatter the Spanish speaks partly by Aid of a Protestant wind that blows in the English favor foreign [Music] they send fire ships into the Spanish Fleet which burn the ships Elizabeth really showed her metal at a speech that she gave at Tilbury and this is where the mythology of Elizabeth really starts the truth of the matter is that it was more the weather than anything that Elizabeth had done that was the downfall of the Armada their mother is entirely scattered and in fact the ships that remain have to sail all the way around Scotland and Ireland to get home to Spain because they just cannot go back down the English Channel it is a Triumph of Elizabeth's reign but this is where Elizabeth the powerful Virgin Queen really comes into prominence it is at this point that the mythology of Elizabeth begins foreign Elizabeth's Reign there is a burgeoning field of theater and of entertainment and of course this is the age of Shakespeare who produces an enormous body of works we know that Elizabeth enjoys Shakespeare's plays at court though it is questionable whether she actually met him or not not only can plays be used to rewrite history in favor of Elizabeth but also they can be used for political Advantage too these plays are consumed by the masses so this in a way is a great propaganda tool too and we know Elizabeth was a great propagandist and she was determined to use this to create capital on a European stage and one way that she did this is actually through iconography we've got the Armada portrait which is commissioned and it shows Elizabeth in her absolute prime you know her dress is absolutely enormous her hair is Big she's looking powerful behind her you can see the Spanish Armada being defeated and it shows Elizabeth as a monarch that she wants to present to the world she is a warrior Queen she is at the absolute height of her powers Elizabeth built on the Henry VII's reputation as a shipbuilder and as an Explorer and she gave license to people like Sir Francis Drake to go and explore and also to acquire shall we say funds from foreign battleships and then these sea captains appear when I'm a nation we have Drake faced like a pug in a high wind but he was gifted he gave her the equivalent of 4.6 million the Sir Walter Raleigh when he arrives at court with his cloak beautiful young man who were you sir oy Bean water so she called him my water and from then on he signed his letters with a bucket you can see this bucket on the bottom of letters but I think we can also see that this sense of exploration and license to do so on Elizabeth's part was really the foundation of the British Empire this is where the British Empire starts in earnest [Music] been a great Victory but not much talked about the following year was the counter Armada we did badly at that trying to relieve Portugal from Spain's attentions [Music] foreign but in the golden years of Elizabeth we saw great peace that we weren't used to [Music] Elizabeth was destined to be the last of her Dynasty and of course she knew this she had no children she had no nephews and nieces there was no one else to carry on to your life so in part of course her Legacy is dynastic change and the fact that the king of Scots became the king of England and United the two kingdoms but her Legacy is so much more than this although she's not the first English reigning queen or the first reigning Queen in the island of Britain she was undoubtedly the woman that proved that women could reign in England she reigned for over 40 years and she reigned independently she didn't have a king and she was very much in control of her kingdom [Music] more of the Roses had ripped the guts out of us and with the whole world wondered at this extraordinary woman and they were right to she had loved us genuinely loved us and as she said later on in life in her golden speech you are the greatest Jewel in my crown meaning the people he was right and I think that's her greatest Legacy really it is her contribution to English friendship all subsequent reigning Queens have to some extent model themselves on Elizabeth we see this with Queen Anne in the 18th century for example who when she becomes Queen she actually takes as her motto semper Edom always the same and this was the motto of Elizabeth the first and so this is her Legacy she is the first truly great reigning Queen on the island of Britain and very much this is a legacy that she passed on to subsequent Generations [Music] actually I think one of Elizabeth's greatest legacies was demonstrating that a queen could rule in her own right without a man she was a queen who did not need a king [Music] Elizabeth died childless and at the end of her Reign came the end of the Tudor dynasty I think Elizabeth's greatest Legacy was bringing a sense of national identity to England once more the state is an era of such big characters we have Henry VII we have amberlin we have Elizabeth the first but we also have non-royals we have Thomas Cromwell we have William Cecil we have Robert Dudley trying to marry the queen I think we all still so obsessed with the Tudors because of how unrealistic it all is if this had been the work of fiction we would think it was pushing credulity [Music] these individuals are so interesting in themselves and it's also an age of big events it's where the Reformation happens it's the age of William Shakespeare so we have the stage we have the first permanent theaters [Music] it's the Age of Exploration we have some water rally attempting to plant his first European colony in the New World there are big events and there are big personalities and they're also surprising things like The Six Wives of Henry VII which really draws people's attention because it was unprecedented it was seen as bizarre even crazy that the king had Six Wives back in the 16th century and today it still holds our interests I mean this is a family who killed one another this is the this is a family who had a king with six Queens who killed two of them this is a family with feuding siblings it has everything for us to enjoy and we can't get enough of it there was no Dynasty like the Tudor dynasty for drama [Music] laughs [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music]

Channel: Royalty TV

Views: 70,209

Keywords: trailer, royal trailer, documentary, full documentary, hd documentary, full documentary hd, the end of the house of tudor, house of tudor, henry viii, king henry viii, royal documentary, royal doc, royal docs, full docs, full doc, royal, royals, royal family, royal wedding, royal marriage, royalty, tudors, tudor, tudor documentary

Id: 9c8Dm9D0b44

Length: 77min 34sec (4654 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 19 2023