Original subtitles

[Music]

it is 1559

England is a newly crowned queen

[Music]

Elizabeth has overcome extraordinary

obstacles to gain the crown but her

struggle isn't over

there's one thing about her that will

lead to scalp that will compromise her

power

threaten her security

and demand a terrible personal sacrifice

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she is a woman

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Elizabeth inherited a part that was

traditionally played by two people king

and queen male and female a king was

supposed to be strong-willed and

assertive a decisive leader in war and

peace the Queen on the other hand and

bodied softer more feminine virtues she

was to be pious merciful and charitable

but above all she was a royal breeding

machine was her duty to get pregnant

early and often so for Elizabeth to

succeed she to do something

extraordinary

unnatural evil she to be a royal

hermaphrodite to rule like a man and a

king and to bear children like a queen

and a woman

[Music]

Elizabeth would have to fight to survive

and in a man's world she would need men

to help her do it her first task as

Queen was to establish her own Court her

counsel who would be in charge of the

everyday running of the country and her

household staff who would look after her

the old regime was catholic the new was

largely Protestant though a few favored

Catholics survived some counselors were

old hands who had served under her

father but the top job went to a younger

man William Cecil who became her

Secretary of State he was 38 serious

brilliant with an instinctive grasp of

politics and a fierce loyalty to the

Queen in a flamboyant age he dressed in

black and he rode a mule because it was

modest and good for his gaped

there were also surprises in the new

household as master of the horse the man

responsible for the Queen's safety

Elizabeth appointed the son of a traitor

cube

Robert Douglas father had been executed

for his treachery but the family

remained tainted by the crime

known disparagingly as the gypsy because

his dark looks charm and cunning

doublers appointment raise more than a

few eyebrows at court

Elizabeth and Dudley were the same age

they'd known each other in childhood

they may also have met unless happy

circumstances here in the tower where

they were both imprisoned at the same

time early in mare Israel Elizabeth was

in fear of death Dudley had already seen

his father his brother and his

sister-in-law

executed and he was under sentence of

death himself it was this common

experience of imprisonment and imminent

death that lay at the basis of that

unbreakable instinctive bond of sympathy

that joined the Queen and her favorite

Elizabeth choice of Cecil was about

politics and duty the choice of Dudley

was about pleasure desire

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Elizabeth had inherited from her sister

Mary a nation that was bankrupt

militarily weak and hemmed in by enemies

in the parlance of the time the country

was a boon between two dogs France and

Spain England needed friends the obvious

way to achieve it was an alliance

through marriage the Queen must marry

and soon

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parlament petitioned the Queen asking

her to pledge herself to a suitable

international marriage three days later

she gave her response now that the

public care of governing the kingdom is

laid upon me to draw upon me also the

cares of marriage may seem a point of

inconsiderate fully yay to satisfy you

I have already joined myself in marriage

to an husband namely the kingdom of

England and for me it shall be a full

satisfaction if when I shall let my last

breath it may be in graven upon my

marble tomb here lieth Elizabeth which

reigned a virgin and died a virgin but

the Queen wasn't behaving like a virgin

as the Spanish ambassador insinuatingly

observed during the last few days Lord

Robert has come so much into favor that

he does whatever he likes with affairs

and it is even said that Her Majesty

visits him in his chamber day and night

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by the end of April the Ambassador

reported that the Queen was in love with

Robert and wouldn't let him leave her

side but the Queen's closeness to Dudley

disturbed her quarters as a colleague

they could put up with him as a

potential king he was intolerable

I think that William was very worried

about Dudley indeed he saw him as a huge

threat both to national prosperity if he

married the Queen and also to his own

position at court I think he was the one

man really he was fussed about and also

I suspect was a certain amount of

jealousy I mean he'd ordered the Queen

and there was this guy he considered to

be rather lightweight coming between him

and her and he certainly did not want

him to get married to her

Cecil stepped up the pressure for the

Queen to marry a European Prince there

was no shortage of candidates King fell

King Philip of Spain Catholic and

widower of Elizabeth sister Mary Charles

he is 16 Charles the 9th of France

Catholic and a mere sickly boy Charles

of Austria the Archduke Charles the most

promising candidate but still a Catholic

Eric of Sweden no my lord

Elisabeth was playing hard-to-get for

reasons that were political as well as

personal she'd seen the problems created

by her sister Mary's disastrous marriage

to Philip of Spain and she was

determined to avoid them but actually

that was easier said than done so if she

married a foreigner

how could England avoid the kind of

disastrous foreign entanglements would

you led to the loss of Calais and if she

married a Catholic and almost all the

suitors for her hand were Catholics

how would Protestant England cope with a

Catholic King and finally and above all

how could she be happy if she married a

man that she'd never seen sometimes she

must have reflected it was safer to

follow her own inclination and not marry

at all

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Elizabeth faced a second major challenge

she was a Protestant Queen in a country

that was still officially Catholic her

sister Mary had stamped Catholicism on

England with extraordinary violence

burning at the stake over 300 Protestant

men women and children Elizabeth had

finally got Parliament to agree to

restore Protestantism in England

ladies Catholic Bishops had fought her

all the way and when they were ordered

to swear an oath accepting the Queen as

head of the new church all but one of

them refused her response was swift of

the 20th of May 1560 Thomas Watson

Bishop of Lincoln was sent to the tower

in the following weeks many more bishops

were arrested as well

as one of the ex bishops the surviving

Catholic members of Mary's council were

also arrested but Elizabeth unlike her

sister Mary didn't try to force them to

convert it wasn't her business she said

to make Windows into men's souls because

Elizabeth was subtler she insisted only

on outward conformity they had to

acknowledge her supremacy and they were

allowed to celebrate Mass only privately

the result deprived Catholicism of the

publicity of martyrdom instead it

reduced it to something furtive to be

allowed in as abbath hoped slowly to

wither away

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whilst Catholicism was forced

underground England's new religion was

given a bold public face

[Music]

this is the Rood screen rude means cross

and originally an image of Christ

hanging on the cross stood in the center

of the screen with the Virgin Mary on

one side and since John on the other

unrealism earth these images were torn

down because they were seen as being

idolatrous and they were replaced

instead with this painted gigantic

version of the Royal Arms Queen

Elizabeth the arms say is God's direct

representative here on earth church and

state are one and when the congregation

note to pray they worshiped not only God

but also the English nation as embodied

in its virgin Queen

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but the Virgin Queens relationship with

Robert Dudley was by now a national

scandal both court and public were

appalled at his arrogance offended by

his brashness and suspicious of his

motives and there was another thing

he was married

Douglas wife Amy Rob SOT was rumored to

be very ill gossip claimed that Dudley

was simply waiting for her to die so

that he could marry the Queen

sessile was close to despair and

confided in the spanish ambassador

I'm at secretary Cecil who said that the

Queen was going on so strangely that he

was about to withdraw from her service

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he perceived the most manifest ruin

impending over the Queen through her

intimacy with Lord Robert he had made

himself master of the business of State

and of the person of the Queen to the

extreme injury of the realm with the

intention of marrying

[Music]

last of all he said there was a

conspiracy to kill Lord Robert's wife

there's a late on the afternoon of the

8th of September 1560 had come the place

in Oxfordshire the home of Lord Robert

Dudley the Queen's favorite and a mihrab

SOT his wife of five years standing the

house has been unusually quiet all

afternoon because the servants have been

given the day off

to attend a local fair when they return

they find Lady Dudley's body the foot of

the staircase dead and with her neck

broken

Dudley's first reaction fear for his

reputation he was right to fear

[Music]

a major scandal erupts at court Queen's

favorite murders wife to clear way to

Queens bed

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Elizabeth fearful for her reputation

she couldn't allow the scandal to

besmirch her

reluctantly she banishes Dudley from

court

the inquest exonerated Dudley by

returning a verdict of accidental death

but his enemies were confident that his

reputation was beyond repair that he

would never recover is all - intimate

relationship with the Queen

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it is October 15 62

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Queen Elizabeth has lain unconscious in

a coma for the last 24 hours

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the physicians have diagnosed smallpox

which is not expected to live

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in a nearby room the Privy Council is in

crisis it is three years into the reign

but Elizabeth has neither married nor

named a successor if she dies there will

be a constitutional crisis possibly a

civil war

and a new threat was waiting in the

wings

on the 19th of August 1561 a tall

striking-looking woman stepped ashore at

leaf near Edinburgh it was Mary Queen of

Scots returning to her Kingdom

there was a thick sea mist that morning

some later saw this as an evil omen of

the sorrow the darkness and the impiety

which made his return was to bring to

Scotland

the 18 year old Queen of Scots had been

brought up in France and she'd not seen

Scotland for 13 years but even when she

was back in Scotland her sights were set

on another greater Kingdom England

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the Catholic Mary was Elizabeth's cousin

and had a very strong claim to the

English throne

she posed a double threat to Elizabeth

what ostent ISM was only recently

established and still vulnerable and

with Elizabeth unmarried childless and

in poor health the succession was

dangerously open

but it is with recovered and for the

moment the crisis was over her first

words on regaining consciousness were to

command her council to appoint a Lord

Protector in the event of her death his

salary she specified would be a

staggering twenty thousand pounds more

than was spent on the coronation the man

she named was Robert Dudley

[Music]

the scandal of his wife's death a died

away and Dudley's reputation had

recovered now he was back in favor in

spectacular style

only three months after her illness

Elizabeth faced a fresh ordeal

Parliament had been summoned for January

15 63 and everybody knew that a

reluctant Queen will be forced once more

to confront the issue of the succession

the Parliament was opened with a sermon

preached in Westminster Abbey by

Alexander no the Dean of st. Paul's and

no put into words what most people only

dared think all of the Queen's most

noble ancestors have commonly had some

issue to succeed them but her Majesty

yet none the wants of your marriage and

issue is likely to prove a plague if

your parents had been of your mind where

had you been then alack what shall

become of us now I reckon that's pretty

straight talking it was a very small

part of the sermon but this if you like

was almost before a state opening of

parliament now I don't know if Dean

Knoll had been put up to it by

Elizabeth's political advisors or

whether he was just speaking for himself

but I do think he was taking a bit of a

risk

no would not have been the first

churchmen to be sent to the tower he'd

had a bit of a run-in at some polls the

year before when he'd given her a prayer

book you know with pictures of saints

and she took exception to this this was

a kind of idolatry that she'd forbidden

so he was playing with fire a bit but

clearly he was prepared to nail his

colours to this particular mast

[Music]

NOLs tough words set the tone for the

Parliament but again the Queen hedged

and obfuscated her marriage was simply

not on the cards Mary though showed no

such reluctance and was entertaining the

suits of several European Catholics an

alliance between Scotland and one of

England's enemies could spell disaster

so Elizabeth requested diplomatic talks

with the Scots but nine days she

entertained Mary's ambassador Sir James

Melville she desired to know of me

whether my Queen's hair or hers was best

which of the two was fairest

I said she was the fairest queen in

England and my in the fairest queen in

Scotland she inquired which of them was

of highest stature I said my queen then

she is too high saith she for I myself

am neither too high not too low there

was a final round in this game of

diplomacy

Elizabeth offered an English candidate

for the hand of the Queen of Scots

Lord Robert Dudley

[Music]

her Majesty called him her brother and

best friend whom she could have married

had she ever minded to have taken a

husband but being determined to end a

life in virginity she wished that the

Queen her sister might marry him but did

Elizabeth really intend to give the man

that she'd love to Mary Queen of Scots

well Robert Dudley who should have known

took her intentions seriously enough to

do everything that he could to scupper

the scheme but actually there was a lot

to be said for it politically would have

solved the problem of what to do with

Dudley he wouldn't have become King of

England but he would have become King as

consort of Mary Queen of Scots and it

was solve the problem of what to do with

Mary she'd have been safely married to

an Englishman and so kept out of the

clutches of a foreigner and the foreign

alliance that the English so feared for

their northern neighbor and it was solve

the problem of the succession there have

been no difficulty about recognising the

children of the marriage as heirs to the

English throne but the scheme did fail

not because of Elizabeth but because of

Mary's contempt for the man that she

called Elizabeth's horse keeper

mary had her own ideas about love

Henry Stuart Lord Darnley was 18 tall

handsome define lute player Mary

described him as the lust hist and best

proportioned long lad she had ever seen

when he fell ill she nursed him

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they fell in love

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it was a whirlwind romance and four

months later in the Chapel Royal at

Holyrood palace in Edinburgh they were

married the effect on Elizabeth was

dramatic within a few days it was

reported that she and Robert had become

inseparable again if the young Queen of

Scots could marry for love

why couldn't in Glyn's Queen do the same

but the return of the rumor of marriage

brought new and fierce resistance

at the Duke of Norfolk the most powerful

Noble in the land was the Queen's

closest male relative and was bitterly

opposed to the prospective man

Norfolk had always resented the rise to

power of the upstart Dudley the

resentment intensified by his own

failure to gain high office he became

the focus of the anti Dudley camp

their rivalry split the court

[Music]

Douglas side took to wearing purple

ribbons Norfolk's yellow the two

factions room the corridors of power

armed and angry

[Music]

the Queen intervened to slap both sides

down when Dudley objected to the Queen's

flirtation with a young pretty courtier

she lashed him with her tongue loud

enough for the whole court to hear I

will have here but one mistress and no

master

Northup to found himself in disgrace at

a Privy Council meeting he raised the

matter of the Queen's marriage and the

succession she flew into a rage calling

him a traitor and adding that she would

not name a successor and she had no wish

to be buried alive for good measure

she also threatened to have the Duke

arrest me

but a tough words could not resolve the

tensions of court behind the bickering

lay the real problem the succession

until Elizabeth married and produced an

heir the crisis would never go away

[Music]

while Elizabeth thought to Hill the men

of her caught together Mary enjoyed a

female triumph

on the 19th of June 1566 in a tiny room

in the castle at Edinburgh Mary

fulfilled her duty as a woman and as a

queen

she had a child

her labor was long and hard but the baby

was healthy and it was a boy they

christened him James Scotland now had an

heir and Mary Queen of Scots a son when

the English ambassador saw the baby a

few days later he reported that he was

likely to prove a goodly prince

the news was far from goodly for

Elizabeth she burst out to some of her

ladies but the Queen of Scots was mother

of a fair son while she was but a parent

stock but Mary's triumph did not last

the initial euphoria of marriage had

faded as Donna's true nature emerged

he was violent an arrogant drunk allowed

with all the makings of a psychopath

[Music]

Donley had become insanely jealous of

David Rizzio

near his Italian secretary whom he

suspected of having an affair with the

Queen a group of Protestant Scottish

Lords also hated ritsu because he was a

Catholic and the Queen's favorite so the

two groups of ritzy as enemies came

together and signed a contract to murder

him on the night of the 9th of March

1566

the conspirators burst in here into the

Queen's smallest chamber where they

found Ritz you having one of his

late-night tete-a-tete with the Queen he

was dragged outside and stabbed 57 times

conspirators thoughtfully left

Donna's dagger sticking in Ritz CIO's

belly less than a year later Donnelly

himself was dead

the house where he was staying was blown

up and Donnelly was found strangled in

the orchard everything suggested that

the man responsible for the crime was

James Hepburn Earl of Bothwell who was

one of Mary's leading supporters still

worse the finger of suspicion also

pointed at Mary herself and as Elizabeth

told her bluntly her behavior was making

a bad situation worse madam my ears have

been so astounded my heart so frightened

to hear of the horrible and a bondable

murder of your former husband our mutual

cousin but I have scarcely spirit to

write yet I cannot conceal that I grieve

more for you than for him

but there was still worse to come

Mary was abducted taken by force to

Dunbar and raped

the perpetrator was James Hepburn the

Earl of Bothwell

two weeks later they were married

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madam how could a worse choice be made

for your honor

than in such haste to marry a subject

who besides other notorious lacks public

fame has charged with the murder of your

late husband within a few weeks Mary

paid a terrible price for her folly a

large party of the Scottish nobility

rose up in arms against their scandalous

Queen

[Music]

the two sides joined in battle but

Mary's troops melted away without

striking the blow even her husband

Bothwell negotiated a safe conduct for

himself from the field of battle

Mary was defeated and abandoned

mara was brought as a prisoner here to

the island fortress of Loch Leven

where she miscarried of twins then

broken in body and mind under the

immediate threat of physical force she

was compelled to abdicate in favor of

her one-year-old son James

she was never to see him again Mary had

married unwisely for love and for must

as a consequence she had lost her crown

her son her Liberty perhaps after all

there was wisdom in living and ruling

alone

[Music]

to be led from the place of arraignment

to the Tower of London and from thence

to the gallows at Tyburn

[Music]

and they're to be hanged and being half

dead to be cut down under bowels to be

taken out of the belly and thrown into

the fire

[Music]

and the heads to be cut off and the body

to be divided into four parts and the

head and four quarters to be set up and

disposed at our pleasure which manner of

execution is due to every person that

committed treason given under our Signet

at our Palace of Westminster Elizabeth

our

for the Tudors treason was the worst of

crimes which deserved the worst of

punishments Elizabeth had personal

experience of its terrors because she

been imprisoned in the tower on charges

of treason herself when she became Queen

she hoped that the moderation of her

rule would make treason and it's

terrible penalties a forgotten memory

but a decade after her accession these

hopes were fading Catholicism hadn't

withered away as she'd hoped the

nobility were no longer content simply

with honour and dignity instead some of

them wanted real power which Elizabeth

was reluctant to give them and above all

there were the great unsolved questions

of the succession and her marriage it

was a combustible mixture needed only a

spark to set it alight in May 1568 Mary

escaped from her Island prison

thousands of troops flopped to join her

standard

but once again she was defeated in

battle at this time the defeat was final

she escaped from the field of battle but

she was now alone and desperate she fled

to the only place that might offer her

safety protection he will support

England

Elizabeth dispatched one of her

counselors to Carlisle to convey Mary to

a place of refuge and to treat her with

all honor as befitted her status as a

queen in reality she was a prisoner

mary's arrival in England was a disaster

for Lizabeth until now the Queen had

kept Catholicism under control but Mary

gave English Catholics especially those

in the north

a figurehead round whom they could rally

and even repeal

the north of England had been the scene

of the biggest rebellion against Henry

the eighth now insurrection was brewing

again the population had remained

largely Catholic and felt little loyalty

to the Protestant Queen far away in

London

[Music]

the northern Earl's were Catholic too

they had been prepared to put up with

Elizabeth providing she left them alone

but slowly the government was nibbling

away at their independence the Earl's

looked to Norfolk for leadership Norfolk

was not a natural rebel and he too was

aggrieved and disaffected ripe for

rebellion

[Music]

in June 15 68 marah's envoi approached

the Duke of Norfolk with an

extraordinary suggestion he proposed

that the Duke should marry Mary Queen of

Scots and retake Scotland Norfolk would

then exchange a ducal coronet for the

royal crown of Scotland whilst his and

Mary's children will be the natural

heirs of England also attractive but

dangerous Norfolk had in his pocket a

commission from Elizabeth in which he

said that anybody marrying Mary will be

forthwith adjudged a traitor and Norfolk

himself was convinced of Mary's guilt as

a murderer and an adulterer but ambition

brings strange bedfellows rumours of

this dangerous conversation reached

Elizabeth and she summoned Norfolk to

court

but her cousin denied the charge she

gave him two more chances to come clean

twice more came denial his denials

roused her suspicions this was more than

just a covert marriage plan it was a

plot to overthrow her

[Music]

norfolk's suddenly left the queen's

summer progress and returned here to the

charter house his London residence he

agreed to join in a plot hatched by the

Earl's of Westmoreland and

Northumberland the Earl's would raise

the north liberate Mary Queen of Scots

and bring about her marriage to Norfolk

all the north

Northumberland boasted will repel at his

command Thomas Percy the Earl of

Northumberland had his own reasons for

rebellion it was partly about religion

the Percy's had remained story Catholic

but at heart it was about power

Northumberland

forty had a right to share in power

Elizabeth was prepared to share power

with no one thomas was really driven to

rebellion by Elizabeth and Cecily in

particular I mean Cecil didn't like the

power of the Percy's in the north and

the fact that they were Catholic as well

and a lot of the people in this area

were Catholic meant that there was a

power base in the north close to

Scotland obviously close to Mary Queen

of Scots that presented a serious

problem to the crown Thomas could have

had a very easy life he was wealthy

enough to maintain his life in

Northumberland he loved country pursuits

he had a wonderful wife he had four

beautiful children he risked everything

basically

[Music]

but the risk was too much for Norfolk he

wrote to Northumberland begging him to

cancel the rising but it was too late

midnight on November the 9th 1569 church

is all over the north rang their bells

backwards was a signal the rebellion to

begin

[Music]

the 10th of November the rebels enter

the city of Durham and broke open the

doors of this great Cathedral and here

they performed an act of calculated

defiance they tore up and burned the

Protestant Bibles and prayer books the

symbols of the new religion and they

celebrated the central mystery of the

old by attending a Catholic Mass they

had crosses on their armor and they

carried the badge and the banner of the

five wounds of Christ it looked like

holy war a crusade

the loss of Durham was a catastrophe the

city was a fortress to stop an invasion

from Scotland now it had fallen to the

rebels and could be turned against the

Queen Elizabeth was paying a heavy price

for her mishandling of the northern

Earl's

by bullying them like her father his

worst he had pushed them over the edge

[Music]

that goal was obvious to rescue Mary

from captivity

[Music]

now he was imprisoned a tough brain

staffordshire if they managed to reach

her they would hold not only half of

England they would have alternative

Queen

[Music]

Elizabeth acted decisively she had her

cousin moved further south to Coventry

when inside the Protestant Heartland and

beyond the rebels Beach she also ordered

the rapid deployment of an armed force

to the north to intercept them our

orders the rebel Earls had advanced

south confidently expecting that other

noblemen would join them so when they

heard instead that the southern Lords

who were marching against them with

royal troops in overwhelming numbers

they were taken off guard they decided

to retreat to fight on their own

territory but the retreat not the

stuffing out of the rebellion their

troops melted away and the Earl's fled

towards Scotland Elizabeth was exultant

by behaving like her father she'd helped

to provoke the rebellion now she

actually outdid him in the savagery with

which he punished the rebels

spare no offenders we are in nothing

moved to spare them the bodies to remain

till they fall to pieces where they hang

700 men were put to death including the

earl of northumberland

no village was without at least one

execution lands were seized and

distributed amongst Elizabeth Protestant

supporters the north of England would

never be the same again

[Music]

loofa was arrested but there wasn't

enough evidence to execute him for

treason

but whilst under house arrest he became

involved in a new plot masterminded by

the Italian banker Ridolfi

[Music]

the conspirators were careless

English spies captured incriminating

letters and the plotters were rounded up

[Music]

it was more than enough to seal

Norfolk's fate

but the Queen could not bring herself to

execute England's only Duke a closest

male relative

three times she signed the execution

warrant three times she called it back

and destroyed it for five months she

procrastinated

[Music]

she was staving off inevitable

Thomas Duke of Norfolk late of kenning

Hall in the county of Norfolk on

judgment to this day a ready should be

fled from the arraignments at the Tower

of London hostages and events should be

drawn and his body to be divided into

four parts and his head and out of his

purchase to be sent out that exposed and

his head to be cut off which matters

positive attitude to every person who

committed treason

[Music]

yet we being moved to pity of our grace

our pleas to change such manner of

execution to cause only that his head to

be smitten from his body at the tower

he'll be accustomed place of execution

[Music]

given under our signet at our Palace of

Westminster the thirteenth year of our

reign Elizabeth our

[Music]

on the morning of the 2nd of June 1570

to Norfolk was led to the scaffold

fastidious to the last he rearranged the

straw note down

stretched out his neck and then as a

crowd murmur Lord Jesus he on thy soul

the executioner cut off his head with a

single stroke Elizabeth had reigned for

14 years

she had beaten off rebellion

she had resisted the pressure to marry

and she had survived

[Music]

but Mary and religion have divided her

country and her Catholic enemies abroad

were muscling their forces

[Music]

Elizabeth and her Protestant people will

be plunged into war

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you