All language subtitles for Elizabeth 104 - Glorianna

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'In 1588, Elizabeth's navy
defeated the Spanish Armada

'at the greatest English victory
since Agincourt.

'The celebrations
were long and magnificent.

'The procession to
the thanksgiving service at St Paul's

'was the grandest
since Elizabeth's coronation.'

The captured Spanish banners
were hung up as trophies

and a commemorative medal
was struck with the inscription,

"God's winds blew
and they were scattered."

The English really thought that
God had fought on their side.

They were the new chosen race,
God's own Protestant people.

England stood proud and Elizabeth
and her reign were at their zenith.

'It was the golden age
of Elizabethan England.

'The great houses
Elizabeth's courtiers built

'are a visible, tangible expression of their
confidence, exuberance and wealth.'

Unlike her father, King Henry VIII,

Elizabeth built no palaces, nothing.

She'd no need to
because her courtiers built for her.

Sir Christopher Hatton,
the Lord Chancellor

already had a great house at Holdenby.

But, he told Elizabeth
he would build another one

nearby at Kirkby,
that would be dedicated to her

as a shrine to a holy saint.

'Elizabeth had ceased
to be a mere queen.

'She'd become instead Gloriana
England's national icon.

'She was painted again and again.

'Always dazzling,
always glorious, always triumphant.

'Even in her late fifties
she has the face of eternal youth.

'But Elizabeth the woman was ageing.

'The goddess had feet of clay.

'Literature flourished as never before.

'Shakespeare wrote his first plays,

'some of them commissioned
by the Queen.

'But new theatre
brought new and dangerous ideas.

'One of Shakespeare's plays

'would soon be used
in an attempt to overthrow her.

'She had ruled for 30 years

'beloved by her subjects,
loyally served by her courtiers.

'But, as she aged,
a new generation was growing restless.

'She would have to fight as never before
to hang on to power.

'It is September 1588.

'Queen Elizabeth has been locked inside
her chamber for some days.

'All attempts to contact her have failed.

'The court is in panic.

'Despite fears to the contrary,
the Queen is alive

'but she is not well.'

(Reader) "I most humbly
beseech Your Majesty

"to pardon your old servant
to be thus bold

"in sending to know
how my gracious lady doth.

"For my own case,
I continue still your medicine

"and it amends much better
than any other thing given me.

"With the continuance of my prayer

"for Your Majesty's
most happy preservation,

"I humbly kiss your foot.

"Your Majesty's faithful and
obedient servant, R Leicester."

(Starkey) 'Elizabeth would never
receive another of his letters.

'Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester,
favourite of the Queen

'her friend and counsellor
for the last 30 years

'and the nearest thing
she'd ever had to a lover, was dead.

'In the next two years,
a succession of court notables

'followed Robert Dudley to the grave.

'Sir Francis Walsingham, Secretary
of State and spy master extraordinary.

'Sir Christopher Hatton, Lord Chancellor,
builder of Kirkby Hall.

'Ambrose Dudley, Earl of Warwick,
brother of Robert.

'Of the old guard, only William Cecil,
Lord Burghley, remained.

'The gaps in court and council
would have to be filled.

'But the Queen had always hated change

'and instead of bringing in new blood,

'she replaced fathers with their sons.

'Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex
was Robert Dudley's stepson.

'He was 21, vain, high-spirited,
impatient and brilliant,

'with a fondness for duelling.

'He was much admired at court

'and was viewed by all
as a man destined for greatness.

'He aspired to his stepfather's role
of a great noble and a military leader.

'Robert Cecil was the second son
of Lord Burghley.

'He was 25, careful, astute and cunning,

'with a fondness for
corresponding in code.

'He was mocked, mostly behind his back,

'for his short stature
and his hunched shoulders.

'But his mind was razor sharp.

'He aspired to his father's role
of statesman and political leader.

'Robert Cecil and the Earl of Essex
were of the new generation.'

The new generation
had different ideas from the old.

Robert Cecil, for example,
made a much sharper distinction

between the service of the state
and the service of the Queen

than his father, William
would ever have done.

And the Earl of Essex
had much more grandiose ideas

about the power and
the independence of the nobility

than his stepfather, Leicester.

They were both young men in a hurry,

waiting impatiently for the aged Queen
to get out of the way.

'And she knew it.

'Essex charmed the Queen

'and she was flattered by
his youthful attentions.

'But she was 55 and he was 21.

'If she loved him, it was
partly as her gigolo, partly as her son.

'He was gifted, but he could
also be immature and unruly.

'Like a strict parent, Elizabeth resisted
his demands for a military command.

'Robert Cecil was already an MP.

'Elizabeth called him her "elf".

'Or, less to his liking, her "pygmy".

'She respected his political instincts
but she was wary of him

'and was never able to trust him
as she had his father.

'She made him a Privy Counsellor

'but she stopped short of giving him
his father's old job.

'The new generation
would have to wait its turn.

'She continued to rely, instead,

'on the man who'd served her
since the start of her reign,

'whom she trusted above all others

'Robert Cecil's father, Lord Burghley.'

"I do entreat heaven daily
for your longer life.

"Else will my people and myself
stand in need of cordial too.

"You are, in all things to me,
alpha and omega."

She wouldn't let him retire

even when he was in his late seventies

gouty, deaf and visibly shrunk with age.

But in the summer of 1598
Burghley fell dangerously ill.

Elizabeth sent him medicines, letters

and on one occasion she even fed him
soup with a spoon, with her own hand.

To no avail.
In September 1598, Burghley died.

'For 40 years, Burghley had
carried the heavy administrative burden

'of running the day-to-day
government of England.'

It wasn't as risky
as the essentially noble role

of the Queen's military lieutenant,

which had been fulfilled, by
the Earl of Leicester

but nor was it as prestigious.

Which is why, in death,
the bureaucrat, Burghley,

wears the furred robes
and the gilded armour

that symbolised
the role of the nobleman

a role that he'd shunned in life.

I have this vision of Elizabeth
visiting him when he was dying.

This old woman, stamping along
with her wig askew,

with her pockmarked face disguised
with horrendous, white lead make-up.

Huge diamonds.

Bad-tempered and upset,

and getting to his bedroom
and there's this poor old man,

breathing very heavily, hardly conscious.

'She must have been torn between
the agony of losing a good adviser

'and the agony of losing
a very close friend.

'It's like losing one's parents.

'However old one is
it's still the most ghastly shock.'

He'd kept a guiding, wise hand
on her shoulder

all through her tempestuous
youth and middle age

and suddenly that guiding hand
was being removed.

She must have been very bereft.

(Starkey) 'In 1596, England once again
faced the threat of invasion.

'Spain remained
the most powerful country in Europe

'and King Philip was still determined

'to destroy Elizabeth
and her island nation.

'In March, his army had captured Calais.

'Now, he had troops
within 20 miles of England

'and a great fleet was gathering
at C�diz in Spain to transport them.'

Confronted with this new danger,

Elizabethan England
galvanized itself into action.

The Queen set aside her doubts
about military action

and her courtiers, their divisions.

It was decided to send
an expedition to C�diz

to destroy the new Armada in port,
before it had even set sail.

The strategist and commander
of the expedition was the Earl of Essex

but the man who financed it
and organised it was Robert Cecil.

'Essex had finally got
the military command he craved.

'And, on the day he put to sea,

'Robert Cecil was at last confirmed
as Elizabeth's chief secretary.

'The new generation had arrived.

'In the early hours of Sunday 20th June,

'120 English and Dutch ships
attacked C�diz.

'The Spanish were taken off guard.

'Their invasion fleet was destroyed.

'The town was captured
and plundered for booty.

'Spain had again been humbled.

'England and Essex had triumphed.'

"You have made me famous
dreadful and renowned

"not more for your victory
than for your courage.

"I care not so much for being Queen

"as that I am sovereign
of such subjects."

'Essex was now a popular hero

'and the burning of C�diz was built up

'to rival the defeat of
the Spanish Armada itself.

'But the Armada only
had a single heroine - Elizabeth.

'C�diz, though, was Essex's victory.'

At the service of thanksgiving
in St Paul's Cathedral

the congregation burst into
spontaneous applause

when the preacher
sang Essex's praises to the skies.

For Elizabeth, it was a novel
and disturbing development.

Her previous favourite,
Leicester, Essex's stepfather,

had actually been hated.

Now a man whom she had created
was her rival in popular affection.

But popularity was
the basis of Elizabeth's monarchy.

It could not be shared with a subject.

All further popular celebrations
of C�diz were banned.

'But London continued
to glorify their new hero.

'Some preachers even
compared him to Julius Caesar,

'the greatest of the Romans.

'The city that had always adored
the Queen had found a new idol.

'A wiser man than Essex

'would have mollified the Queen
by keeping a low profile.

'But Essex was not wise

'and ambition and vanity
got the better of him.

'He commissioned
an engraving of himself

'in the style of a Roman emperor.

'A direct challenge
to the Queen's royal authority.

'He threw his weight around at court,

'objecting whenever Elizabeth
honoured another courtier.

'And when the Queen
turned down his plea

'to launch another attack on Spain,

'he courted public support
behind her back.

'Elizabeth was furious.'

The conflict came to a head
when Essex and Elizabeth disagreed

about who was to be
Lord Deputy of Ireland.

The Queen dismissed
the Earl's arguments.

The Earl turned his back on the Queen

and the Queen, irritated
boxed the Earl's ears.

At this point, the Earl half drew
his sword on the Queen.

To strike somebody
within the precincts of the court

was punished by
the amputation of the right hand.

To strike the Queen was treason.

But before the unthinkable
could happen,

the Lord Admiral interposed himself
between Essex and the Queen.

'The Earl then withdrew
to his country house

'whilst Elizabeth was left to ponder
the monster that she'd created.

'Elizabeth loved the theatre.

'Some plays were as much about
politics as entertainment.

'Most dangerous was
Shakespeare's Richard II,

'which dealt with the making
and the unmaking of a king.'

I give this heavy weight
from off my head

With mine own hands
I give away my crown

With mine own tongue
deny my sacred state

All pomp and majesty I do forswear

My acts, decrees and statutes I deny

God save King Henry

Unking'd Richard says

And send him many years
of sunshine days

The play tells the story

of the deposition of
the rightful anointed king, Richard II,

by Henry Bolingbroke,
his cousin and the military hero.

Elizabeth identified herself passionately
with the deposed king.

"I am Richard II. Know ye not that?"
she's supposed to have said.

She thought that there were
many potential Bolingbrokes around.

Robert Cecil and the Earl of Essex told
her to her face that they worshipped her.

'Behind her back, they were looking
to the future, after her death.

'And, Elizabeth sometimes feared

'they were plotting to depose her,
just like Richard II.

'When Shakespeare's play
was printed the following year,

'the deposition scene
had been cut from the text.

'We can guess that
the author and his publisher

'were given hints
that they'd been wise enough to take.

'A new tragedy,
bloodier than anything in Shakespeare,

'was now unfolding in Ireland.

'In August 1598, at Yellow Ford in Ulster,

'Irish rebels ambushed a column of
English soldiers and cut them to pieces.

'1,200 men lay dead or dying.

'It was the worst military defeat
of Elizabeth's reign.

'The Catholic Irish had long resented

'the occupation of their country
by Protestant England.

'There had been rebellions before
but this one was much more dangerous.

'It had the support of Spain.

'King Philip II was dead but his son had
inherited his father's zeal to be avenged

'for the defeats
of C�diz and the Armada.

'He planned to land troops in Ireland and
to threaten England across the Irish Sea.

'The Queen would have to act.

'In spring of 1599 the largest
English army of Elizabeth's reign

'landed on the east coast of Ireland.

'In command was her half-disgraced
favourite, the Earl of Essex

'who had pestered the Queen
until she gave him the post.'

He wished to rehabilitate
himself in the Queen's favour.

He also wanted to show
that he was a real soldier

able to draw his sword
on the Queen's enemies

just as he'd half-drawn it
on the Queen herself.

But the first use Essex made
of his sword in Ireland

was to employ it to usurp
the Queen's kingly prerogatives

by knighting, in defiance of Elizabeth's
orders, 38 of his captains.

Turning his sword against the Queen's
enemies proved more of a challenge.

'For months, Elizabeth received
little news from Ireland

'and she became frustrated
at Essex's failure to engage the enemy.'

"If sickness in the army be the reason,

"why was not the action undertaken
when the army was in a better state?

"If winter's approach,

"why were the summer months
of July and August lost?

"If the spring were too soon
and the summer otherwise spent,

"we must conclude that
none of the quarters of the year

"will be in season for you."

'But Essex did not meet
his enemy in battle.

'Instead, he and the rebel leader
the Earl of Tyrone,

'had a secret rendezvous
near Carrickmacross.

'They talked for half an hour, alone,
and out of earshot of their officers

'then they parted on good terms.

'After six months in Ireland
Essex had spent �300,000

'and lost 12,000 men
to disease and desertion.

'That was incompetence.

'Now, he had made a secret deal
with the rebel leader

'the sworn enemy of the Queen.

'That was close to treason.

'Her reservations about her
young courtiers began to look justified.

'They could not be trusted.

'Robert Cecil began
a secret correspondence

'with James VI of Scotland.

'He had taken it upon himself
to pave the way

'for James' succession
to the English throne,

'thereby ensuring
his own continuance in office.

'At first sight,
it seems an extraordinary idea.

'England and Scotland were old enemies

'and Elizabeth had executed
James' mother, Mary Stuart.

'But James was the obvious heir.

'He was Elizabeth's closest male relative.

'He was an experienced ruler.
He was a Protestant.

'And he already had two sons.

'Cecil told James
if he accepted his advice and guidance,

'he could expect a peaceful accession
to Elizabeth's throne.

'But Cecil had to proceed with care.

'The Queen had never
named a successor

'and had banned
all talk of the matter at court.

'The secret must be carefully kept.'

He must have worried
about security in London

but would have been more worried
about security in Edinburgh.

James I of England and VI of Scotland
was notoriously indiscreet

and he was surrounded
by loose-mouthed people.

So it was important for him to use code
and trustworthy messengers.

'He would never know
whether the Queen

'if she did find out officially,
wouldn't have sacked him.

'And it was a splendid
opportunity for his enemies

'to accuse him of treason and
treating with a foreign power.'

(Door opens and closes)

(Footsteps)

At ten o'clock on 28th September,

an exhausted rider
arrived at Nonsuch Palace.

He rushed up the grand stairs,
through the presence chambers,

pushing past startled gentlemen
ushers and outraged ladies-in-waiting

and burst, unannounced
into the Queen's bedchamber.

There he found Elizabeth
newly risen and still in her nightgown,

without her wig,
her make-up and her ruff.

It was a sight that
no man had seen in thirty years.

Elizabeth the woman without
the trappings of Gloriana the Queen.

The man who had thus violated
the image of Elizabeth's monarchy

was Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex.

'It was an extraordinary affront
to the Queen's honour.

'Essex had returned in panic,

'convinced that Cecil
was engineering his downfall

'and desperate to plead his case.

'He was exhausted, ill
scarcely in his right mind.

'But the Queen was in
no mood for forgiveness.'

Elizabeth had stayed calm when
Essex burst into her bedchamber.

Later that afternoon
the Earl was summoned

for a private audience with the Queen,

which quickly turned
into an interrogation.

Why, Elizabeth wanted to know,
had he left Ireland without permission?

Why had he made so many knights
in defiance of express instructions?

Why, above all, had he made a truce
with that rebel and traitor Tyrone?

The Earl answered as best he could.

Then Elizabeth was left alone
to ponder what she should do.

Towards ten o'clock at night,
she gave orders

that the Earl was to be put
under a form of house arrest.

The fall of the favourite had begun.

'Essex was summoned
before a public tribunal.

'He spent 11 hours on his knees
whilst a list of his delinquencies

'was read out in front
of an invited audience.

'But, even now
the Queen could not bring herself

'to destroy her disgraced
favourite completely.

'Instead, she sent him
into a sort of limbo.

'She ordered him not
to attend the Privy Council.

'She banned him from her presence.

'And she refused to renew
his lucrative monopoly on sweet wines,

'which threatened him with bankruptcy.

'Essex was released to
his London residence, Essex House.

'He was down
but he wasn't quite finished yet.

'He would make one final
desperate bid for power.

'He would rebel.

'A scheme was quickly hatched.'

The Earl would capture
the City of London and the Tower.

The Queen would be forced to summon a
Parliament and to impeach Robert Cecil

and Essex would be declared
Lord Protector of England.

It was a harebrained scheme
but it might just work.

The Earl's military followers
would provide the backbone of an army

and Essex was so popular
with the people of London

that he was confident that
they would rise in his support.

'Essex wrote to James
seeking his support for the rising.

'The Scots king
was too careful to commit himself

'but sent Essex a reply in code
and dispatched two envoys to meet him.

'Essex had already done his deal
with the rebel, Tyrone,

'who had backed the Earl's rising, it was
said, in exchange for power over Ireland.

'And he had the support
of one of the London sheriffs

'as well as five other disaffected nobles.

'To call the people of London to arms,

'Essex's henchmen bribed
Shakespeare's company

'to stage a performance at the Globe.

'Essex chose the play.

'It was Richard II.'

This sceptred isle

This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars

This precious stone
set in the silver sea

ls now bound in with shame

With inky blots
and rotten parchment bonds

That England,
that was wont to conquer others

Hath made
a shameful conquest of itself

John of Gaunt
is lamenting nostalgically

for a lost England -
a great country fallen into ruin.

The stage is set for the deposition
of a corrupt and overweening monarch

by a once favoured
and faithful nobleman.

The audience were a mixed lot -

adventurers, ex-soldiers
papists, malcontents -

but they shared a common resentment
for Elizabeth and her England.

Or was it Robert Cecil's England?

They had a common loyalty
to the only conceivable alternative -

Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex.

'Early the following morning,
Elizabeth received a report

'that Essex had left his house
at the head of a private army.

'They were marching up Fleet Street,
calling the people of the city to arms.

'For the first time, Elizabeth was
in personal danger in her own capital.

'The rebels were just
two miles from the court.

'She acted quickly, ordering her forces
to block the route to the palace

'by building a barricade
near Charing Cross.

'She sent royal heralds through the city,
proclaiming Essex a traitor.

'The sight of government troops
and the heralds' cry of treason

'made Londoners think twice.

'They stayed behind closed doors.

'Essex's force was confronted by troops
belonging to the Bishop of London.

'Essex's page and two others were killed.

'By nightfall, the rebels were in retreat,

'their hands or cloaks covering
their faces to try to avoid recognition.

'Essex himself panicked and fled
back towards Essex House.

'He barricaded himself in

'and set about destroying incriminating
evidence, including James' coded letter.

'Outside, the Queen's forces
trained cannon on the house.

'At 10pm, he surrendered.

'He was arrested
along with 85 of his co-conspirators,

'including the Earl of Southampton,
Shakespeare's patron.

'When she received the news
Elizabeth retired to bed.

'Essex was tried within
a few days of the rebellion.

'The verdict was
a foregone conclusion.

'Guilty of high treason and
condemned to a traitor's death.

'Only the Queen
could confirm the sentence.

'It brought echoes of her past.

'She had agonised for months

'before authorising the execution
of her cousin, the Duke of Norfolk.

'She had hesitated for years before
finally confirming the death sentence

'on her fellow queen, Mary Stuart.

'She told the French ambassador
that she'd willingly reprieve

'the life of her disgraced favourite

'and that she was partly to blame
for allowing him to grow so bold.

'But it was clear, she said, that
the danger from him was so great

'that he would have to die.'

Essex was the only man to challenge
Elizabeth publicly and to her face

and he was the only one of her subjects
to try to rival her in popularity.

Curiously enough, it was Essex himself
who got to the heart of the matter.

Under interrogation, the Earl said that

the state was not
big enough for them both.

'Essex was executed on
Ash Wednesday, 25th February, 1601.

'He was 34.

'It took three blows of the axe
to remove his head.

'A change came over the Queen.

'For most of her life, she had enjoyed
what seemed like eternal youth.

'Now, at 68, she seemed suddenly old,

'in mind and body.'

"All the fabric of my reign, little by little,
is beginning to fail."

'With his rival dead, Robert Cecil was
the most powerful man in the country.

'And, behind the scenes

'his plan for James to succeed
Elizabeth was maturing.

'The King, writing in code,

'told Cecil that he could
look forward to greater favour

'once he had the crown

'than he already enjoyed
under Elizabeth.

'The future looked bright for Cecil
but the present was troubled.

'He'd never been popular.

'Now, the public really hated him
for killing their hero, Essex.

'The regime was seen
as stale and corrupt

'and Cecil became the focus of blame
for the country's many ills.

'A harvest had failed.
The war in Ireland dragged on.

'Taxes were heavy.

'And the Queen's own popularity
was also at an all-time low.

'For years, she had rewarded
her favourite courtiers

'with grants called monopolies -

'taxes on everything
from playing cards to soap.

'The policy aroused deep resentment
in the impoverished population.'

We're familiar with this kind of
combination of casual corruption

and a government
that's been in power too long.

We call it sleaze.

And the rot went right to the top.

Elizabeth herself had been
around longer than everybody else.

At first, her motto, "semper eadem" -
"always the same"

had made her seem a rock of stability
in a changeable world.

'Now, she was merely an obstacle
to necessary reform.

'The unpopular Queen and her
despised minister suffered a disaster.

'They lost control of Parliament.

'MPs were determined to break
the hated monopolies system.

'The ageing Queen was forced
to address Parliament in person

'to try to rescue the situation.'

If my kingly bounties have been abused

and if any in authority under me
have neglected or perverted

what I have committed to them

I hope God will not lay
their offences in my charge.

For I do assure you,

there is no prince
that loves his subjects better.

There is no jewel,
be it of never so rich a price,

which I place before this jewel.

I mean, your love.

And though you may have
many mightier and wiser princes

sitting in this seat,

yet you never had, nor shall have

any that will love you better.

'It became known
as the Golden Speech.

'It was Elizabeth's
last great public address

'and it was a consummate
piece of politics.

'Elizabeth won the MPs over
not only by her announcement

'that she would suspend
and investigate monopolies,

'but also by her language and sentiment.

'The MPs showed their gratitude

'by voting unprecedentedly
heavy parliamentary taxation.'

Other good news followed quickly.

There was victory in Ireland,
a truce in the war with Spain,

trade improved and, at last,
there was a good harvest.

Elizabeth seemed to rejuvenate.

In August, she rode for ten miles
and then went hunting.

She was aged almost 69,
and yet, she boasted,

she was in better health than
she'd been for ten years.

It was an Indian summer.

Glorious but brief.

It could not last.

(Elizabeth) "For God's sake
let us sit upon the ground

"And tell sad stories
of the death of kings

"Let's talk of graves,
of worms and epitaphs

"Make dust our paper,
and with rainy eyes

"Write sorrow
on the bosom of the earth"

'By March 1603,
Elizabeth was in serious decline.

'She was suffering from ulcers in
the throat, fever and lack of appetite.

'Against all advice,
she refused to go to bed.

'Cecil, unwisely, insisted that she must.'

"Little man, the word 'must'
is not to be used to princes.

"But ye know that I must die

"and that makes thee so presumptuous.

"If you were in the habit of
seeing such things in your bed

"as I do when in mine

"you would not persuade me
to go there."

'After two weeks on the floor
in the same clothes

'Elizabeth asked her attendants
to get her to her feet.

'But still, she did not go to bed.

'Instead, she remained standing,
in total silence, for the next 15 hours.'

"She appeared already
in a manner insensible

"holding her finger
continually in her mouth,

"with her eyes open
and fixed to the ground."

As Elizabeth's death approached,

a young man was pacing
the courtyards of the palace.

He was Robert Carey, ,
the Queen's cousin

and he'd resolved to make
his fortune in the new reign

by being the first to let James
know that Elizabeth was dead

and that he was King of England.

He informed James of his intention
and told him not to leave Edinburgh.

And then he returned to the palace
to watch and to wait with the rest.

(Mumbled prayer)

'Elizabeth was preparing herself
for the end.'

"The Archbishop
kneeled down beside her

"and examined her first of her faith.

"And she so punctually
answered all his questions,

"by lifting up her eyes
and holding up her hand,

"as it was a comfort
to all the beholders.

"Then the good man told her plainly
what she was and what she was come to.

"Though she had been long
a great queen here upon earth,

"yet shortly she was to yield
an account of her stewardship

"to the King of Kings."

'At ten o'clock at night,
on 23rd March, 1603

'Elizabeth falls into a deep sleep.

'She never woke up.

'Three days later, James VI was
proclaimed as Elizabeth's successor

'at Holyrood Palace in Edinburgh.

'England and Scotland
were joined under one monarch.'

Elizabeth's body was brought by water
from Richmond to Whitehall.

There it lay for five weeks, watched over
day and night by her ladies-in-waiting.

Then it was taken
to Westminster Abbey for burial.

The funeral effigy
on top of the coffin was so lifelike

that from the great crowds
lining the route,

nothing was heard but a general
sighing, groaning and weeping.

'Elizabeth the woman was dead

'but the achievement of Gloriana
the great Queen of England, lived on.

'When Elizabeth came to the throne
England was an insignificant country;

'When she died
it was a major European power.

'She had begun her reign by promising
to avoid the mistakes of her sister, Mary.

'By and large, she succeeded.

'Elizabeth had founded a national church
and she inspired a national literature.

'Her father, Henry VIII,
had reinvented the idea of England.

'Elizabeth became
its living embodiment.'

Few monarchs have been better
loved by their subjects.

None has exercised
a more powerful hold

over the imagination
of succeeding generations.

The myth started within
a few years of her death,

when the preface to
the King James Bible hails her as,

"That bright, occidental star,

"Queen Elizabeth of famous memory."

And the star still burns bright.

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