Original subtitles

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(Starkey) 'In January 1559 Elizabeth I was crowned Queen of England.

'She was the last of the great Tudor dynasty,

'a bright star who dazzled both the nation and the world.'

The achievement of most stars fades quickly

but Elizabeth's has lasted for nearly four centuries and it's easy to see why.

She reigned for 45 tumultuous years.

Her ships defeated the Spanish Armada and sailed round the globe.

In her time Shakespeare wrote plays and Spenser wrote poems.

English noblemen and foreign princes wooed her

but she, the Virgin Queen,

made love to that loyalest of audiences, the English people.

'Elizabeth was one of the daughters of King Henry VIII.

'But the right of women to succeed to the throne was still in doubt

'and her path there would be perilous.

'Her father would kill her mother and she would be disinherited.

'Her sister would imprison her in the Tower and threaten her with execution.

'Men would love her for her royal status, not for herself.

'She would be sexually abused by her own stepfather.

'Most monarchs are handed their crowns on a plate.

'Elizabeth got hers by cunning and courage.

'Elizabeth's sex was a disappointment to Henry.

'Astrologers had assured him

'that the baby to be born in September 1533 would be a boy.

'He already had one daughter, the 17-year-old Mary.

'What he wanted was a son and heir.

'Although Elizabeth was a girl, the magnificent christening

'planned for the longed-for prince went ahead.

'Every detail had been seen to, down to the brazier to warm the water in the font.

'She was even proclaimed "Princess", the title of the heir to the throne.'

Elizabeth, ego te baptiso in nomine patris

et filii et spiritus sancti, amen.

(Starkey) 'According to the French ambassador

'the whole occasion was so perfect that nothing was lacking.'

Actually things were far from perfect at Elizabeth's baptism

because Elizabeth was the child of a second marriage

and Henry's second marriage, like many second marriages today,

aroused very strong feelings.

For instance, the imperial ambassador refused point-blank

to attend the baptism.

He even refused to recognise Anne Boleyn, Elizabeth's mother,

as Henry's wife.

Instead he sneeringly referred to her as "the whore".

And as for little Elizabeth she was "the bastard".

Even one of the officiating clergy,

when asked if the baby was baptised in hot water or cold,

replied, "Hot, but not hot enough."

'Henry divorced his first wife, Catherine of Aragon,

'because she had not given him a son but now her replacement, Anne Boleyn,

'was having her own gynaecological problems.

'After two miscarriages, she had a baby boy but it was stillborn.'

Anne had failed in her principal duty as royal breeding machine.

Meanwhile, Henry had fallen in love with another woman - Jane Seymour.

For Anne the end came with terrifying swiftness.

She was accused of multiple adultery

with four of the gentlemen of the King's Chamber

and of incest with her own brother.

All of the accused were found guilty and Anne herself was executed

here on Tower Green on 19th May 1536.

Henry showed a single gesture of mercy

towards the woman that he'd once loved so much

and her head was removed at a single stroke with a sword

rather than being hacked off with the axe.

'Elizabeth was only three

'when her mother was executed as a traitor and a whore.

'For many children this would have been a lifelong trauma

'but Elizabeth seems to have airbrushed her mother from her memory.

'It was to be Henry who filled her world.

'Anne Boleyn's fall marked a major step down in the world for Elizabeth.'

Her parents' marriage was declared null and void.

She was now illegitimate and unable to inherit the throne.

So, instead of the Right High and Mighty Princess

the Lady Elizabeth, inheritrix of the Crown of England,

she became the Lady Elizabeth, the King's second bastard daughter.

'Elizabeth's sudden loss of status

'threw the little court where she had been brought up in into confusion.

'Even her governess, Lady Bryan, didn't know what to do

'and wrote to the King's minister Thomas Cromwell for guidance.'

How should the little girl be treated?

By the way, could she please have some more clothes?

She'd outgrown everything she had.

But above all, where should she eat?

Was she old enough to eat here in the great hall, served on the dais,

or should she continue to eat in her chamber

where it will be easier to keep her away from the rich foods

that were so bad for her teeth and her digestion?

'Whatever her status no one could forget

'that Elizabeth was Anne Boleyn's daughter

'and it was in order to marry Anne that Henry had broken away from Rome

'and made himself head of the church in England.

'It was a revolution and one of its victims was the monasteries.

'They were amongst the greatest English landowners.

'Their assets were seized and their buildings dismantled.

'One of them was Glastonbury Abbey, then the largest church in England.'

When I look out from my church, across from these ruins

I'm filled with a sense of sadness

a sense of loss a sense of disbelief to a degree

that such destruction could have taken place

in a country that was supposedly very religious and Catholic.

This abbey here was a place of pilgrimage.

The abbey contained a statue of Our Lady,

which is what Catholics call St Mary.

And people would have come from far and wide

to pay their respects, to say their prayers,

to make their offerings and ask for help.

Within nine years from the Reformation, dissolution of the monasteries

this went from being one of our grandest Catholic churches

to pretty well what we see around us today,

hardly one stone on top of another.

'The damage to the Catholic Church wasn't just physical, it was spiritual too.

'Out of these ruins would grow a new Protestant faith.

'Henry's religious revolution would divide his country and his family.'

'Henry had now embarked on his third marriage to Jane Seymour.

'In just over a year she gave him the son that he craved.

'Edward, legitimate and a boy, was now undoubted heir.'

Edwarde, quid petis ab ecclesia dei...

'Elizabeth, as his half-sister was no more than a minor royal.

'She had once been princess herself.

'Now she was an attendant at her baby brother's christening.

'She also lost her governess to Edward

'as Lady Bryan was transferred to look after the young prince.

'Her replacement was Kat Ashley,

'a well-educated and devout woman who became very close to Elizabeth.

'Her father, on the other hand scarcely saw her,

'for royal children like Elizabeth

'were brought up in the country away from the royal court.

'There, Henry communicated with her by messenger.

'In December 1539 he sent Sir Thomas Risley

'to convey his Christmas greetings.'

(Reader) "She gave humble thanks, inquiring again of His Majesty's welfare

"with as great a gravity as if she'd been 40 years old."

And we also thank you.

(Starkey) 'Children in the 16th century

'had to join the starched and corseted adult world as quickly as possible.

'They were expected to look and behave like their parents.

'Even slight misdemeanours were severely punished.

'One royal tutor advised: "Never have the rod off a boy's back

"'and the daughter especially should be handled without cherishing."

'But Elizabeth was lucky.

'Her tutors belonged to the new school

'which thought that kindness was a better teacher than the cane.

'But then the young princess was a model pupil

'and she studied languages from the age of four.

'She became fluent in French Italian, Latin and Greek.'

(Child) "C'est une chevet avec des couleurs d'un million de fleurs...

"..ho in mente ci� che io vidi...

"..quod mihi persuasum est auctoritate maiorum

"..cur ita sit, nihil tu me doces..."

'But it was how she learned languages that mattered as well.'

She was taught by the method of double translation.

This means that the little girl

had to translate a passage from Latin into English

and then back again into Latin getting it absolutely right, word for word.

For most children this would have been an absolute torment

but Elizabeth seems to have revelled in it.

She must have had the mind of a computer programmer

or an expert solver of crossword puzzles,

because she continued to do translations

for the whole of the rest of her life.

She did them for fun and for relaxation

but she also did them as a kind of mental discipline

to keep her emotions under control,

just as nowadays some people might practise yoga or meditation.

'Elizabeth was the kind of daughter of whom any father would be proud

'and this painting shows Henry's confidence in her.

'It commemorates his decision in 1544

'to reinstate both his daughters in the succession.

'No woman had ever sat on the English throne before.

'Now, if Edward died without an heir

'first Mary and then Elizabeth would become queen.

'Henry then sailed for France to fight a war

'leaving his wife, Katherine Parr, as regent in charge of the kingdom.

'Elizabeth now witnessed at first hand

'that an intelligent, well-educated woman could rule effectively.

'At about this time Elizabeth acquired a new tutor, Roger Ascham.

'He worked with the brightest minds at Cambridge

'but he found Elizabeth more than their equal.'

(Reader) "The lady Elizabeth shines like a star.

"The constitution of her mind is exempt from female weakness.

"No apprehension can be quicker than hers."

'She demonstrated her abilities

'in an extraordinary New Year's gift for her father.'

It's a work of prose but it shows the 12-year-old girl to have been, in her way,

just as much of a child prodigy as the young Mozart.

It's bound in red cloth of gold, heavily embroidered,

with Henry's initials top and bottom.

And - you can see it more clearly on the back - in the middle, a cipher.

That's the interlaced initials for Henry

and Katherine - spelt with a K - Katherine Parr.

The cover's the work of a professional embroiderer

but inside it's all Elizabeth's own work.

And what work.

Page after page of perfect, beautiful, rhythmic italic handwriting.

It shows just how far she'd come on in a year.

Her New Year's present of the year before to her stepmother

is filled with mistakes, corrections second thoughts, but here, nothing!

First the Latin then the French, then the Italian.

Not a mistake not a mistranslation, not a blot.

Just perfection.

But it's the introductory letter that really takes us into Elizabeth's own mind.

She addresses her father.

A very striking phrase.

"Matchless and most kind father."

She even has her own views on the importance of the state of kingship,

the state of kingship which philosophers say

is equivalent to that of a god upon earth.

In love with her father, perhaps.

Even more in love with the idea of the monarchy.

'Elizabeth had never been more secure in her royal status.

'She basked in Henry's attention.

'In 1546 she had this portrait painted for him

'and it shows her as she wished to be seen by her father.

'So she's studious, one finger marking a page in a book.

'She's pious. The book open on the lectern beside her is certainly the Bible.

'She is the virtuous Renaissance princess.

'But this tranquillity could not last.

'Henry, her father, was dying.

'At 13, Elizabeth was about to lose the giant of a father whom she revered.

'The next decade would be the most threatening period of her life.'

Christmas 1546 was a gloomy one at court.

For a long time the King had suffered from

an old jousting injury to his leg which had turned into a chronic ulcer.

Pus would build up causing the leg to swell.

'The pain was intense.

'On 30th December Henry completed his will

'and then the descent was swift.'

As Henry lay dying in his bedchamber,

outside in the gallery, Edward Seymour, Prince Edward's uncle

was pacing up and down with his advisers.

They were plotting the takeover of power in the new reign.

Towards two o'clock in the morning Henry died

clutching the hands of Archbishop Cranmer, Elizabeth's godfather.

To make sure that there was a smooth transfer of power,

Henry's death was kept secret for three full days.

Finally all was ready

and Seymour brought together Edward, now Edward VI

and his favourite sister, Elizabeth

and told them that their father was dead.

One account describes how the two children

threw themselves into each other's arms weeping uncontrollably.

'Little King Edward VI had stepped into his father's shoes

'but they were several sizes too big for him.

'He was just nine years old

'and to begin with he was the pawn of his powerful royal councillors.

'And so was Elizabeth. Her father's will had left her rich

'and her place in the line of the succession made her a tempting target.

'One man in particular, Thomas Seymour, had his eyes on her.

'The Seymour brothers, as uncles to the young King,

'were the most powerful family in the land.

'Thomas was bitterly jealous, of his elder brother, Edward

'because Edward had made himself Duke of Somerset and Lord Protector.

'Edward built Berry Pomeroy Castle in Devon.

'It's still owned by his descendant, John Seymour.'

Thomas, I think, was a wonderfully flamboyant and colourful character.

Like his brother he was very ambitious

and he took most of the opportunities that were presented to him.

He was headstrong, he probably didn't think a great deal

about what was going to happen as a result of his actions.

But he was undoubtedly out to favour himself

and make the most of his opportunities in his life, which he did.

(Starkey) 'Thomas plotted his advancement to power

'from his base at Sudeley Castle in Gloucestershire.'

His first idea was to marry one of Henry VIII's daughters.

Either Mary or Elizabeth would have done

but the council vetoed that idea.

So Seymour went for the next best thing

and proposed to Henry's widow - Katherine Parr.

Katherine had been passionately in love with him before she married Henry,

so she accepted him like a shot.

Elizabeth was living with Katherine,

so this meant that Seymour wasn't only her stepfather,

he was also her guardian.

It was a position of trust which he abused shockingly.

'At first Katherine Parr's involvement

'made Seymour's games seem innocent enough.

'Elizabeth found Seymour an intriguing playmate.

'He was 40 and she was just 14.

'But Seymour saw a relationship with Elizabeth

'as a means of drawing closer to the throne.

'His game grew darker.

'Katherine Parr was deceived by these antics

'but Kat Ashley was worried.'

"He romped with her in the garden

"and cut her gown into a hundred pieces."

'Seymour now got hold of the key to Elizabeth's bedroom.

'He would come into her room partly dressed, early in the morning.

'Sometimes he would tickle her and slap her buttocks.'

Good morning, my lady.

Elizabeth was confused by Seymour's behaviour and by her reaction to it.

Seymour was a handsome, sexually charged man

and she was flattered by his attentions but she was also scared by them.

So she would behave as though it was all a game

and play hide-and-seek behind the bed's curtains.

'On other occasions she would react

'as though her maidenly modesty had been outraged.'

She'd get up early and make sure that she was dressed

so as to avoid Seymour's attentions.

On the other hand, Kat Ashley, Elizabeth's governess,

knew exactly what was going on.

But when she reproved Seymour for risking Elizabeth's reputation,

he brazened it out.

He'd no intention of stopping his behaviour, he said

because he meant no harm by it.

'But when Katherine Parr became pregnant

'Seymour's flirtation with Elizabeth grew more serious.

'At first Katherine could not believe what was happening.

'Finally she was left in no doubt.'

(Parr) My lord?

Your Grace.

'Following a painful interview, during which Elizabeth hardly spoke,

'her stepmother sent her away.

'It was the last time Elizabeth saw Katherine.

'When she moved to Sudeley to have the baby,

'Elizabeth wrote to her wishing her luck.

'But Katherine died shortly after the birth of her child

'and she was buried here at Sudeley.'

In her final delirium all her fears and jealousies

about Seymour's behaviour had revived, with very good reason,

because Seymour soon renewed his suit to marry Elizabeth

and this time he had the powerful backing of Kat Ashley.

Elizabeth herself was enthusiastic

but she'd the good sense to say that she wouldn't consider the marriage

without the backing of the council.

Seymour for his part, hot-headed and impetuous as usual,

was too impatient to wait.

Thomas was becoming more and more keen to attain some personal power

and to further his career.

One way of doing this was to get Edward, the young king,

completely on his side.

I think he decided he was going to actually abduct the King

and as he lived in the neighbouring apartment it was very easy for him

to have conversations and meetings with the young King.

How it happened I don't think is really clear

but we do know that he was found in the King's apartment

with a sword in his hand.

One of the many spaniels the young King had started to bark

and, I suppose, in desperation Thomas ran it through with his sword

and there was a great kerfuffle and noise

and people burst in and Thomas was arrested.

(Starkey) 'Seymour was charged with treason.

'His relationship with Elizabeth made her a suspect too.

'A team of interrogators descended on Hatfield

'to discover whether she'd been plotting with him.

'Her closest confidante, Kat Ashley, was arrested and taken to the Tower.

'Under threat of torture

'she described the scandalous events of the previous summer.

'Her evidence was now used word for word against Elizabeth.'

"Another time at Hanworth he romped with her in the garden."

"Romped."

"..and cut her gown,

"being black cloth, into a hundred pieces.

"And when I came and chid Lady Elizabeth,

"she assured me she could not strive withal

"for the Queen held her while the Lord Admiral cut the dress.

"The Queen, suspecting the often access of the Admiral to the Lady Elizabeth...

"came suddenly upon them where they were all alone,

"he having her in his arms."

'Despite the evidence, Elizabeth refused to admit any wrongdoing.

'Then a rumour began that she was pregnant by Seymour.

'She complained bitterly to Somerset.'

"Master Tyrwhitt has told me of rumours abroad

"that I am in the Tower and with child by my Lord Admiral.

"These are shameful slanders.

"I shall most heartily desire that I may come to the court

"that I may show myself as I am."

'Tyrwhitt told Somerset he was sure she was guilty

'but he could prove nothing.

'Elizabeth had survived the crisis.

'But Seymour's guilt was clear.

'In March 1549 Somerset signed his brother's death warrant

'and Seymour was beheaded on Tower Hill.'

Elizabeth's brush with Thomas Seymour marked a turning point in her young life.

It was a brutal initiation into the world of adult politics and adult sexuality.

She'd learned the hard way that a sexual relationship,

even a close friendship, might mean danger, perhaps death.

She knew now that when a man approached her

he'd got his eyes on the throne as much as on her.

'From this point onwards she trusted almost nobody.

'She kept her own counsel and she concealed her true faults.

'It was her defence against a hostile world.

'Elizabeth was left alone in the peaceful solitude of Hatfield.

'Here she continued her studies.

'She also indulged a passion for riding and hunting.

'The clean air and exercise were a welcome antidote

'to the headaches and sickness that had plagued her during the investigation

'and would recur throughout her life during moments of stress.'

At about this time Elizabeth's, French tutor, John Bellmain

gave her as a present his translation of St Basil's epistle to St Gregory

on the virtues of the single life.

The saint's argument was that marriage distracted the soul

from the worship of God.

Bearing in mind her experiences with Thomas Seymour,

Elizabeth was well aware of the practical, political advantages of celibacy too.

It was the same with the saint's arguments

about temperance and sobriety of dress.

Elizabeth created a sensation at court

by turning up with her hair straight, face unmade-up

and virtually no jewellery.

She was rehabilitating herself after the disaster of the Seymour affair

by playing the Quaker maid.

'There was more to it than just image.

'Elizabeth was caught up in the new Protestant mood in England.

'The crosses and candles of the Catholic faith

'were being stripped from altars everywhere.

'The new faith had the enthusiastic backing

'of Elizabeth's brother the young King Edward'.

'But by 1553 the 15-year-old King was dying of tuberculosis.

'He was desperate to stop the religious reforms being undone

'by his Catholic sister Mary,

'who would succeed under the terms of their father's will.

'So he excluded her from the succession because she was a bastard.

'But if Mary was a bastard so too was Elizabeth.

'Instead, Edward chose a Protestant cousin to succeed him

'the 15-year-old Lady Jane Grey.

'Anxiously, Elizabeth waited with her armed followers at Hatfield

'to see what would happen next.

'In July 1553 Edward died.

'Lady Jane Grey was proclaimed queen

'and Elizabeth and Mary were denounced as bastards.

'But Mary was Henry's elder daughter

'and in the eyes of the people she was rightful queen.

'She was supported by many of England's leading families.

'Sir Henry Bedingfeld, a substantial Norfolk landowner

'was one of the first to rally to Mary's banner.

'His descendant still lives at Oxburgh Hall.'

Sir Henry, at Oxburgh, gathered together 160 men

armed, as they say, cap-a-pie,

, that is to say with a certain amount of armour

leather jerkins, swords, certainly

and, I'm sure, a few horses.

'His role was to take this small group of people to, first of all, Kenning Hall

'where other units such as his were joining up to make an army

'and from there to Framlingham where the army swelled.'

And they marched from there to London with Queen Mary.

Princess Elizabeth joined them en route.

As custom dictated, at the gates of the city of London they left the army behind

and Elizabeth and Mary rode into the city of London

to wild rejoicing and cheers from the crowd.

(Starkey) 'In the face of this overwhelming support for Mary

'the opposition collapsed.

'Lady Jane Grey was later beheaded at the Tower.

'On July 19th 1553 Mary was proclaimed Queen.

'Her vision was to lead England back to the true Catholic faith.

'Elizabeth's Protestantism marked her out as a potential enemy.'

For the first two months of Mary's reign

Elizabeth contrived to avoid going to Mass.

Finally Mary issued an ultimatum.

Elizabeth was to attend Mass on the 8th September,

the day of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin.

Cornered at last, Elizabeth sought an interview with Mary at Richmond.

She threw herself on her knees before the Queen

tears streaming down her face.

She explained that she'd never been taught the old faith

and could she have priests to instruct her?

Oh, yes, and she would go to Mass.

But on the morning she developed a diplomatic chill

and rather spoiled the solemnity of the occasion

by complaining, loudly, of a bad stomach.

Neither Mary nor anyone else was deceived.

Mary and Elizabeth had different attitudes to their religions.

Mary, of the old religion,

would have had a slightly mechanistic expression of her religion.

Not that she wasn't devout and spiritual, I'm sure she was,

but her religion involved doing things,

pilgrimages, saying the rosary, making signs of the cross.

'For Elizabeth, those things didn't feature in her faith.

People of the new religion would have been much more Bible-based

and would have interpreted the Bible in the light of their own reason,

rather than relying on an authority from Rome

telling them what the Bible meant.

(Starkey) 'Mary now tried to guarantee the Catholic future of England

'by marrying King Philip of Spain.

'But Mary's passionate love for a foreign prince was deeply unpopular

'and Philip's envoys were pelted with snowballs.

'Mary brushed aside the protests.

'Elizabeth became a figurehead for Mary's opponents.

'Early in 1554 she received a letter

'from a gentleman called Sir Thomas Wyatt.

'He told her that he intended to rebel to prevent the Spanish marriage.

'Elizabeth didn't reply in writing.

'Instead she told Wyatt's messenger with careful ambiguity

'that she would do as God would direct her.

'Within days Wyatt had raised an army of 7,000 men

'in the southeast and marched on London.

'As Wyatt's army drew closer to the capital

'there was panic in Mary's court.

'Mary ordered Elizabeth to come to Whitehall

'where she could be kept under control.

'But Elizabeth claimed that she was ill.

'Mary's doctors confirmed the, illness but said, nevertheless

'that she was well enough to travel.

'It took her 11 days to cover the 23 miles to London.

'By the time she arrived Wyatt's rebellion had collapsed.

'He had overestimated support for his cause.

'Wyatt was beheaded and quartered on Tower Hill.

'At first Elizabeth was detained and interrogated at Whitehall,

'then it was decided to send her to the Tower.

'The night before the journey Elizabeth wrote to Mary.

'She was writing for her life.'

"I most humbly beseech Your Majesty

"that I be not condemned without answer and due proof

"which it seems that I now am.

"For without cause proved I am commanded to go to the Tower,

"a place more wanted for a false traitor than a true subject."

'This is the letter that Elizabeth writes

'at this most desperate moment of her life.'

She begins with a fine, firm, clear hand

but gradually, as the pressure of circumstances gets to her -

remember, she thought that she'd only days before she was executed -

the handwriting becomes looser and more irregular.

She makes mistakes and then she corrects them.

But finally she's run out of things to say and time to say them in

and still she's only a quarter of the way down the second page.

Then, as a primitive security device

to stop anybody forging her handwriting

and making incriminating additions to the letter

she draws long diagonal strokes that almost fill up the page.

'They leave just space at the bottom for a postscript.'

"'I humbly crave but only one word with yourself."

'It summarises the entire letter.

'And then at the right she signs off.

"'Your Highness's most faithful subject from the beginning

"'and shall be to my end."'

Elizabeth's letter was a long one.

Deliberately so, because by the time she had finished

the tide was too high

for a boat to be able to make the journey safely to the Tower.

She'd bought herself a few precious hours

but to no avail.

Mary didn't even deign to reply.

'Early the next morning Elizabeth was rowed up the river to the Tower.

'The rain was falling in a steady drizzle.

'Elizabeth knew that most of those who made this voyage

'would never make another.'

When Elizabeth landed the river was very high

and the steps were very slippery.

She found it difficult to keep her feet.

She found it even more difficult to control her terror.

"I never thought to come here a prisoner.

"I beseech you all, my friends and fellows,

"bear witness that I come here no traitor

"but as true a subject to the Queen's majesty as any now alive."

At the top of the steps stood the soldiers.

They were there to guard her.

Instead they fell on their knees crying, "God save Your Grace!"

This is the room in the bell tower

where Elizabeth is supposed to have been imprisoned.

The eight weeks of her captivity in the Tower

were the darkest days of her entire life.

As so often happened at moments of psychological crisis she fell ill.

She thought constantly of death.

After all, she was only a few yards from the spot

where her mother had been executed.

She prayed to be delivered from the same fate.

'Two months dragged by.

'Still there was no word from Mary.

'Elizabeth could only expect the worst.

'On the morning of 19th May 1554

'Sir Henry Bedingfield, Mary's staunch supporter,

'arrived at the Tower with 100 men.

'Elizabeth believed that she was about to die

'and from Mary's point of view she deserved to.

'Mary knew that she had been involved in the Wyatt plot

'but Elizabeth had cleverly covered her tracks.

'Without positive proof

'Mary couldn't risk executing the heir to the throne.

'Bedingfield took Elizabeth to Woodstock Palace near Oxford.'

The relationship that Elizabeth had with Sir Henry

was, from Sir Henry's point of view, a very professional one.

From her point of view, I should think thoroughly frustrating

because he was there with a bunch of keys

and he kept her locked in. The garden gates were locked.

If she wanted to go for a walk someone had to accompany her, an armed guard.

She couldn't receive anything in case there were messages involved

and she, in fact, called him, "my jailer".

(Starkey) 'Elizabeth was locked up for almost a year

'before Mary summoned her.

'The Queen believed that she was pregnant

'and she wanted Elizabeth to play a part in the christening.

'But it was a phantom pregnancy and as his wife sickened

'Philip's attitude to Elizabeth changed.

'He thought that he could use her to keep control of England

'by marrying her to a friend.'

In the autumn of 1555 Elizabeth got Mary's permission to leave court

and to come here to the peace and security of her country estate at Hatfield.

She wanted to escape the court

with its poisonous atmosphere of intrigue and surveillance.

But she also wished to put a metaphorical distance

between herself and Mary's government because that summer

the burning of Protestants had really got underway.

'More than 300 people met this horrible death during Mary's reign.

'A few were lucky.

'Kind executioners would tie bags of gunpowder to their legs

'to finish them off quickly.

'Most roasted alive.

'Every death created a martyr for the Protestant cause.

'Making England Catholic wasn't going to be easy.

'Sensing that her time was near

'Elizabeth fiercely resisted Philip's plans

'to marry her off to a Catholic prince, the Duke of Savoy.

'She would be no one's puppet.

'Mary was dying but still she resisted naming Elizabeth as her successor.

'Ten days before her death she finally relented

'under pressure from her council.'

It was 17th November 1558.

Towards noon messengers arrived at Hatfield

to inform Elizabeth that her sister Mary was dead

and that she was now Queen.

The story goes that they found her walking in the park

underneath a great oak tree.

As they fell on their knees before her she too knelt

uttering the words of the 118th psalm,

"A Domino factum est et mirabile in oculis nostris."

"This is the Lord's doing and it is marvellous in our eyes."

'The Spanish ambassador, De Feria,

'told Elizabeth she owed her throne not to the lord but to King Philip.

'Elizabeth would have none of it.'

(Reader) "She is a very vain and clever woman.

"She puts great store by all the people who put her in her present position

"and she will not acknowledge that Your Majesty had any part in it.

"She is determined to be governed by no one."

On Wednesday 23rd November,

Elizabeth rode through these great gates of the Charterhouse in London

to take possession of her capital.

Her journey from Hatfield had turned into a triumphal progress.

She was accompanied with a great train

of a thousand lords ladies and gentlemen!

and vast, cheering crowds greeted her arrival.

'Elizabeth consulted the astrologer Dr John Dee

'before choosing Sunday 15th January 1559 for her coronation.

'The Queen walked along lengths of blue cloth

'from Westminster Hall to the entrance to Westminster Abbey.

'The crowds behind her fell on the cloth cutting off pieces as souvenirs.'

Today Elizabeth would play the part that she had understudied so long -

and in what a setting.

Her christening at Greenwich had been high theatre

but her coronation in Westminster Abbey

would be a performance on the grandest scale.

First Elizabeth was acclaimed by the people and swore the oath.

Next her outer robes were removed

and she knelt, solemnly, for the anointing.

Bishop Oglethorpe anointed her in the seven traditional places -

shoulder blades breasts, palms of the hand

and finally on the crown of the head.

Then she was enthroned.

'Successively three different crowns were put on her head

'and, on her fourth finger, a ring

'as a symbol of the mystical marriage between Elizabeth and her kingdom.'

Tradition, mystery and symbolism

had made her Queen of England as fully and completely

as any of her predecessors had been king.

Elizabeth at last wore the crown.

Now came the difficult bit.

She had to show that she could grasp the reality of power

and govern a divided country.

To do that she had to disprove two widespread assumptions -

that no monarch could ever match the achievement of her father

and that no woman could ever make an effective ruler.

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