Original subtitles

(dramatic music)

I have been fighting since I was born

against two queens who wanted to take my life

and against countless men who professed to love me.

They all had designs on my throne for themselves.

The Pope and half of Europe had conspired against me.

However, my most fierce opponent

was my very own heart.

(dramatic music)

I was the Queen of England.

I was the head of the English church

and reigned over a proud people.

I had led my country through the storms of a religious war,

but now, I was facing the greatest challenge of my life.

(dramatic music)

Spain had declared war on me.

The leading world power was sending its tremendous Navy

to our little island.

I had become too powerful.

The Spanish king hated me and called me a heretic

because I wasn't a Catholic.

(dramatic music)

130 Spanish ships, all heavily armed,

were bearing down on the coast of England.

They were manned with 30,000 soldiers.

The Spanish Armada.

(dramatic music)

I was afraid.

At that moment I thought, England is lost.

(dramatic music)

This battle my people, I'm only a woman.

I only have the body of a woman, weak but proud.

Men for England.

Is there another way to put it on?

I'm suffocating.

Be careful, your wig.

My lady, your troops are ready.

How I loathe these wars,

all the money, all the bloodshed,

and then we don't know how it'll turn out.

Eyes right. (dramatic music)

Forward march.

Company, get your eyes right men.

Prepare for the queen's speech.

Can you tell me what is happening outside?

We can't see anything, it's getting foggy again.

The soldiers are restless.

I advise you to go to your men.

They want to see their queen.

Company halt.

(dramatic music)

Your scepter.

(dramatic music)

Should our Navy perish out there

only my soldiers could save our country.

I didn't know what happened at sea,

but I knew that my men believed in England

and they believed in me.

(dramatic music)

Attention.

Eyes right.

(dramatic music)

I had one weapon that gave them courage, my words.

I have come to you to join you in the heat of battle,

resolve to live or die with you,

lying together in the dust for my God,

and for my kingdom, for my people, my honor, and my blood.

I only have the body of a weak woman,

but I have the heart and courage of a king,

a King of England.

And my heart is full of hate to think that Spain

dares to invade the borders of my country.

(soldiers cheer)

I was only a woman, the most powerful one in the world.

Until now I had conquered every challenge,

which nobody had counted on, not even me.

My birth was a massive disappointment, only a girl,

not a successor to my father's throne.

Women were mere pawns in men's power games.

My father King Henry the VIII had six wives.

He needed a male heir.

Divorces, executions, he even approved the dissolution

of the Roman Catholic Church.

This made him an enemy of the Pope and Catholic Spain.

(dramatic music)

At the end, my father just had three children.

My half-brother Edward who died early,

my older, half sister Mary, and me.

(dramatic music)

I was sent away as a child to the country.

Here I was to learn everything

that behooved a royal princess.

(soft harpsichord music)

But that wasn't enough for me.

I wanted to have the best teachers and I got them.

The sun, Earth, moon, which of these heavenly bodies

rotates around which?

As to Copernicus, the first and foremost of all spheres

is that of the fixed stars.

But the first of the following planets is actually Saturn.

Exactly how long is required

for it to completely travel its course?

It takes about 30 years for it to complete it.

Explain.

(dramatic music)

Then follows Jupiter, then Mars, and the Earth,

followed by Venus and Mercury.

And here in the middle sits our golden sun.

I could speak six different languages.

As Don Rose.

I studied ancient classics, mastered rhetoric,

and loved mathematics.

At 15, I was better educated than most men of my standing.

There was nothing I wouldn't excel at.

I wanted to steel myself for the fight for England's crown.

When I was 20 years old,

my half sister Mary ascended the throne

and my nightmare began.

(gulls squawk) (dramatic music)

Torture, burn, and hang them all.

Majesty, that would be hundreds.

All the better.

This Protestant plague on our land must be eradicated.

Mary Tudor,

she was very different from me.

We had the same father, but different mothers.

Hers was Spanish, mine was English.

She was Catholic, I was brought up in the Protestant faith.

My lady,

please reconsider.

These are still your people that you are fighting here.

They have a name for you on the street.

I know.

I know that, Bloody Mary.

(eerie music)

Don't you think that it is high time

that we consider returning all of these lost sheep

to our flock, my lady?

Sheep.

Yes, precisely, that is a good word for these English.

Stubborn and stupid.

Just look at my sister, Princess Elizabeth.

(dramatic music)

Is she actually my flesh and blood

because she is the worst of them all.

I don't understand Your Majesty.

What is there to not understand.

With respect,

the people love your little sister.

The daughter of that whore Anne Boleyn.

She's plotting together with all these

filthy Protestant schemers.

(dramatic music)

Lock her in the Tower.

(dramatic music)

(thunder crashes)

(eerie music)

She actually locked me up.

Every day I expected death to come.

So many had already been executed in this place.

Like my mother, Anne Boleyn.

(eerie music)

(thunder crashes)

(eerie music)

I tried desperately to make friends in the loneliness.

I pleaded for Mary to listen to me.

For months I tried in vain.

(eerie music)

(dramatic music)

Then finally she received me.

Mary wanted England to be Catholic again.

And I was standing in her way,

for I was next in line to the throne

and God knows, no friend to her church.

(dramatic music)

What do you want?

For you to listen to me.

And?

Why do you treat me like an enemy?

Aren't you an enemy?

My lady, I am your sister.

You've betrayed the true faith. You know that?

And you want my throne you bastard.

You've united with all these heretics who want my life.

I will lead this island to the right faith again.

And you will not stand in my way.

The Pope and Spain are both on my side, little sister.

I have never

been part of any kind of conspiracy against you.

I assure you I'm loyal.

I am your subject.

Have you suddenly become Catholic in the Tower?

Give me some time to better understand your beliefs.

There is a lot that I have to learn.

I beseech you,

let me go.

(dramatic music)

I will do everything that you ask,

on everything that's holy,

(dramatic music)

I swear it.

(dramatic music)

I had learned to be a good actress.

Lying wasn't hard for me.

Her faith didn't matter to me.

(dramatic music)

I wanted to live.

(dramatic music)

She believed me and let me go.

(dramatic music)

I moved to the country far from London, far from Mary.

From this remote place, I learned that she and her husband,

the Spanish king, were expecting a child.

But instead of an heir to the throne she got ulcers,

and then came the news that changed everything.

(dramatic music)

Mary was dead,

and suddenly I was the Queen of England.

(dramatic music)

(bells ring)

I inherited a difficult legacy,

but I could've hardly expected it.

The fate of England was finally in my hands.

Unfortunately, I had to do it with loud, old men

who always knew better.

My Lords, a new wind blows in London today.

My lady, it is with extreme reluctance that I say this,

but you are inheriting a poor country on the edge of Europe.

The coffers are empty.

The people divided by their faith.

Then it seems we've got work to do.

I haven't made you all my advisors simply for your pleasure.

Yeah.

What do you suggest Cecil?

Madam, since you ask so directly,

please end the heretic trials, release the prisoners,

the people will thank you for it.

Yes, that's right.

Very good.

Do what is necessary.

And plan a journey through England for me.

But Your Majesty, these exertions, all the dirt,

you are the queen.

Thus, I ask you, please don't surrender yourself

and your health for these huge inconveniences.

My people shall see me

and I want to see my people in every year at that.

That is much too dangerous,

since there are still enough Catholics out there

who want your life.

But don't I have all these great strong gentlemen here.

Majesty with respect,

you just don't know these crazy people.

Believe me, against them you would need an army.

You Majesty must not set off,

but the soldiers of our army must go,

if you will allow it, that is what England needs,

a blow against the Catholics.

(dramatic music)

If I want to live, I must let live.

And to rule, I need the people, my people,

regardless of belief, regardless of standing.

It concerns England, not religion.

I don't need any kind of window to see into their souls.

I want tolerance.

We go from Greenwich onwards to Dartford,

where I would like to be received by Lord Coleman.

Then we go to Eltham Palace, to Nonsuch Palace,

and then to Glastonbury,

where I would like to be received by the mayor.

Then on to West Horsley to Lord Fiennes,

and on the way I would like to make

two or three stops in small villages.

Suggest some suitable ones, gentlemen.

At the end of September, we will return here.

(inspiring music)

It was on this journey that I came to understand my kingdom.

(inspiring music)

England was dreadfully poor,

the nobility corrupt, everything was paralyzed.

So it was if time was standing still.

My people were terribly uneducated.

There were a few schools,

hardly anyone could read and write.

My subjects were starving.

I wanted to change that.

(inspiring music)

Sheep farming needed wealth.

English cloth was highly sought after on Europe's markets.

I supported traders, merchants, and businessmen.

Everyone who had ideas made England richer, stronger,

and more powerful.

And I supported the universities,

for we needed clever minds to achieve all of that.

(inspiring music)

I ruled with passion.

It was tiring and robbed me of strength,

but it was precisely how I wanted it.

Everything could have been so lovely

had it not been for this one little sore point.

(dramatic music)

(Elizabeth speaks in a foreign language)

Have you come to pay homage to us, or to declare war on us?

(Elizabeth giggles)

Majesty, I have the great honor to announce that Philip,

(man speaks in a foreign language)

The Spanish can't help it.

(Elizabeth speaks in a foreign language)

Wait, that's not all.

(Elizabeth speaks in a foreign language)

I know, I know.

The king is impressed and would like to propose.

Oh, is that right.

What an honor.

But, I would like to discuss

the merits of virginity for a little while.

I'm thinking only of our mother of God.

And let us all consider the various merits of celibacy.

It gives us the room and the time to rule.

And that is my duty to this throne.

I am the queen, leader of England,

not a candidate for marriage.

Majesty, that is your opinion,

but if you don't have any children,

who will inherit the throne?

But I am still very much alive as you see.

And until then, I would be absolutely delighted

if the flowers of friendship between our two countries

could continue to grow as before our little talk.

(dramatic music)

You've taken a lot of my time.

(Elizabeth speaks in a foreign language)

(dramatic music)

I can't listen to it anymore.

Isn't there anything more important?

What is it that bothers you so?

What is it with men?

You're constantly after me like whining dogs.

Why is he so interested, this King of Spain?

That Papist troll trying to impress me

just 'cause he's from Madrid.

Majesty, the king is waiting for an answer.

His courtship seems quite serious to me.

And a match with him would be very sensible politically.

Am I on the cattle market?

I feel like a cow being put on the block.

Who wants to have this magnificent animal>

Majesty, it is about the welfare of England,

about an heir to the throne.

Either I go to bed with Spain or perhaps with France.

The main thing is that you get your heir to the throne soon.

Male and legitimate.

Shut your mouth.

England doesn't need a Spaniard,

nor an impertinent Secretary of State,

who dares to try and tell his queen

who she shall marry or not.

(dramatic music)

Majesty, I ask you.

I won't allow public debates about the heir to the throne.

Careful, if you say that I am only a woman one more time.

Tell the Spanish king that I will think it over.

I kept the Spaniard waiting a bit, before I refused him.

I preferred to reign rather than marry,

and to amuse myself.

So we would have these

from Robert Earl of Leicester in blue.

(relaxing music)

Or these ones here from the Duke of Norfolk in green.

(relaxing music)

Or perhaps, the pearls from Francis Drake.

(woman giggles)

(Elizabeth sighs)

(relaxing music)

Fantastic, these despicable pearls.

Aren't they pirate pearls, madame?

No, no, no.

Without our little adventurers,

all the pretty treasures would still be in Spain,

and that would be a shame.

Will he be here today?

Francis?

He who sails around the coast of the New World?

I hope so though.

Francis Drake, it was a well-known secret

that I profited from his piracy.

The Spanish were seething with rage.

After all, it was their ships he plundered.

I'm really quite anxious

as to how long it will still go well.

Now who says that the New World

only belongs to the Spanish?

The Pope, but who still listens to the Pope?

A pirate? Certainly not.

The main thing is that he continues to deliver

my share on top.

So, we don't want to dance in the same dress twice.

(Elizabeth giggles)

I don't drink, I hardly eat, and I don't have any lovers.

This is my one and only vice.

And what is Robert Dudley?

(dramatic music)

Robert.

If there were a man in my life, then he was it.

Let us dance.

Music!

He was my great love,

clever, charming, funny,

unfortunately far from my standing and also married.

Our relationship didn't only provide rumors for my court,

the whole of Europe was yapping.

Why doesn't the queen have a king by her side?

(upbeat harpsichord music)

I had enough suitors.

(upbeat harpsichord music)

Philip of Spain, unfortunately too Catholic.

My handsome Swede Erik, couldn't wait.

Emperor Ivan, a bit too horrible.

Et voila, Francois, my cute little French frog.

(upbeat harpsichord music)

Only you Robin, my red breast, were able to touch my heart.

(dramatic music)

Robin don't be an idiot, never.

Why not?

You refuse everyone,

Spanish, French, Catholics, Protestants,

rich, powerful, all of them.

You think I should bring all of my enemies into my bed.

A husband who tells me how I should reign.

Sons who want my crown.

If I hadn't died in childbirth that is.

If you don't want any of them,

then take me.

(Elizabeth sighs)

Elizabeth,

choose us.

My darling Robert,

a queen before the altar, before God,

with a stable master.

You're the most powerful woman in the land.

You can do what you want.

Exactly,

and I don't want to marry.

No, I'll remain a virgin, married to England.

Do you want to wither like a tree branch in my arms?

I simply don't want to jeopardize my crown.

Not for love, nor for a quick adventure.

I won't marry, I'll remain free.

(door creaks)

Madam, forgive me.

I have bad news.

Don't make such a face, Cecil.

Out with it already.

Mary of Scotland has given birth to a son.

I don't need to tell you what that means.

It is high time for you to look for a groom.

Either you have a child or we will soon have a Catholic

or a foreigner on the throne.

(dramatic music)

(door creaks)

(dramatic music)

Mary Stuart, my Catholic cousin,

Queen of Scotland.

For the Catholics, she was the rightful successor

to my father.

(baby cries)

And now she had something else that I didn't have,

a male heir for her country,

(dramatic music)

for Scotland.

I wanted to bind the country to England,

but now the wind was changing.

Mary and her followers wouldn't rest

until she or her son were wearing the English crown.

But then Mary's torrid love affairs

ruined her political plans.

One of her lovers killed her husband

to get him out of the way.

That was too much, murder for love.

It would be wonderful if you were to go kill my husband.

How foolish of her.

The Scottish nobility wanted her gone,

forced her to abdicate.

And what did she do?

She actually fled from her own kingdom

and suddenly appeared in England,

and asked me of all people for help.

What should I do with her?

Why so hesitant madam?

Throw Mary in the Tower.

She may soon be sitting on your throne

if we're not careful now.

England's Catholics see their chance to take the throne.

Not in the Tower.

It won't be too long

before there's a Catholic plot against us.

We could give her a castle with all the trimmings

and not allow her to leave it.

You want to spend money on this, this Catholic.

If we throw her in the Tower.

we will set half of Europe against us immediately.

We must avoid that.

I don't want a war.

England is not ready for that.

Majesty, I beseech you.

You have to be tough.

She was my enemy, but also royal blood like me.

Should I lock her up?

Would Mary have done that to me?

Place her under house arrest befitting her status.

Give her clothes, maids, everything that she requires.

Whoever's well-treated makes no complaints

and everyone will calm down.

Those that can't stir the pot can't be dangerous, right?

Check.

Huh.

(dramatic music)

But I had been mistaken.

It wasn't long before the answer came from Rome.

A Catholic queen in Protestant shackles.

Even if they were golden, that was too much for the Pope.

(dramatic music)

(horse neighs)

(dramatic music)

Alleged Queen of England, servant of evil, heretics.

Elizabeth is ex-communicated and Pope Pius V declare

her claim to the throne to be unlawful.

You see that.

Caution, Elizabeth will be beside herself

and then she will lock up all the Catholics

and perhaps you as well.

Come on, she wouldn't dare to do that.

I'm the queen's royal cousin, all right.

I must warn you, it may be quite dangerous.

I beseech you, hold yourself back.

Why should I?

My feeling is that you're afraid that you're not capable.

The Catholics here in England are taking heart.

They see me as their queen.

They'll fight for me.

My lady, do you not see the danger in this?

Elizabeth is now outlawed.

Every Catholic has been called to kill her.

Everyone is after her life

and Elizabeth can't accept that.

Believe me, she will retaliate.

I warn you urgently,

hold back, otherwise you yourself will be in danger.

(dramatic music)

Excommunicated!

The arrogance of it.

We must react to it.

(dramatic music)

If I want to live, I must let live.

I had sworn that when I ascended the throne,

I wanted to be tolerant.

And I was, until this day.

Go get me Walsingham.

I don't need a watchdog.

I actually couldn't stand him.

But he was the right man for the job.

(woman cries)

Confess your crimes and I'll make it stop.

Francis Walsingham.

He had thousands arrested and killed in my name.

He uncovered every plot against me.

How did he find out everything?

I never asked him.

(woman sobs)

(dramatic music)

Was I still a good queen?

Now I had blood on my hands,

the blood of my own people.

I had to do what I didn't want to.

I couldn't do anything else.

(dramatic music)

And I had to bear this burden alone.

(dramatic music)

I'm just waiting for the day

when your spy knocks at my door.

Do you actually know how many plots

there have been against me in this year alone?

I guess a lot.

I thought you didn't want windows into people's souls.

I always thought that you wanted to-

How can you dare reproach me for what I'm doing.

You know, nothing.

Torture's not good, it's not.

But to do nothing would be a big mistake,

a sign of weakness.

I can't let high treason go unpunished.

No, you can't do that.

Robert,

was that what you wanted to tell me.

Perhaps your henchmen are going too far.

Your people are not your enemies,

but Spain and Rome who are conspiring with Mary

and she is the one who's behind all of it,

this Catholic plot.

There is no proof of that.

(dramatic music)

I had saved Mary from the Tower,

given her a castle and servants and then this.

(dramatic music)

Robert was right.

All the time she was working together with the Pope

and the Spanish king.

They were all in it together,

planning to overthrow me or even to kill me.

(dramatic music)

I didn't want it to be true.

But Walsingham delivered the evidence.

(dramatic music)

The coded letters he uncovered left no doubt.

I had to act.

Mary Stuart was put on trial and she was sentenced to death.

(dramatic music)

Just my signature was needed

to send her to the gallows.

(Elizabeth sighs)

Planned murder is high treason.

The queen must sign the judgment.

Can't you encourage her?

She's agonizing.

My God, Mary must be gone.

I don't understand this hesitation.

The people are also impatient.

But it's hard to understand why the other high traitors

have been executed, but not her.

You do not behead a queen with a stroke of a pen.

With a stroke of a pen?

There was a proper trial and the judgment was unanimous.

I would have expected more diplomatic skill from you.

What do you think will happen

if we take this Catholic queen's head off?

Then France and Spain will declare war on us.

Elizabeth is clever enough to know that England

would not survive such a war.

And Mary is ordained by God, an anointed queen.

Behead her, then all monarchs can be,

Elizabeth too.

Yes, that could happen.

Therefore, we must be quicker, right?

(dramatic music)

What was right?

What was wrong?

That was irrelevant.

It was either her or me.

(dramatic music)

Pray with us.

If you really want to pray for me

then I thank you for that.

However, I am not able to join my prayers

together with yours because we don't have the same religion.

(dramatic music)

She didn't pray for her soul.

She doesn't have the same religion.

(dramatic music)

Please forgive me.

I do forgive you with all of my heart,

for it is my hope that you will end all my suffering

with one stroke.

Into your hands Lord I commend my spirit.

Into your hands Lord I commend my spirit.

Into your hands Lord I commend my spirit.

(dramatic music)

(ax thuds) (woman gasps)

(dramatic music)

Who, who dared to do it?

Who deceived me?

Which one of these damn advisors ordered the execution.

I want his head.

You signed the paper yourself Majesty.

(metal clatters)

But I never passed it on, never.

You knew about it, you.

(soft piano music)

(dramatic music)

I had betrayed what was important to me,

my royal status, my conviction.

(dramatic music)

What would they later write about me?

How would they think of me?

Elizabeth the great or Elizabeth the cruel.

(dramatic music)

Was I no more than a murderer?

(dramatic music)

No, I am the Queen of England,

and everything that I do is for the good of this country

and its subjects.

England is my fate.

And now my fate is also England's.

(dramatic music)

England needed me now, for Spain was declaring war on us.

What should we do?

They are superior in number,

they are heavily armed, and they are seasoned fighters.

We are not.

And the Spanish Armada out matches us.

Spain rules the sea.

To fight it on the open seas is madness.

So what should we do, my lords?

My lady, but they are coming to our waters.

They are unfamiliar with them, with the wind,

not to mention the current, let alone the tides.

We let them sail into the English Channel

and then carry out our plan.

Our plan?

We load a couple of our ships with pitch,

set them alight,

and send them toward the Spanish ships

into the middle of their formation.

If the wind is favorable to us.

There will be panic.

They will cut the anchor lines

and the proud Armada will spread out in all directions.

As I said, if the wind is favorable to us.

Then we attack them one ship after another.

That is our chance.

It's the only one we have.

(dramatic music)

Then,

we'll seize the chance we have.

(dramatic music)

God be with us.

(dramatic music)

Revenge for Mary Stuart was only a pretext.

It was about ruling the seas.

How quickly the world turns.

The Spanish king, who once asked for my hand,

sent his Navy to destroy me.

The battle raged just off our coastline.

There was a nagging uncertainty.

Then the cannon stopped thundering at sea.

(dramatic music)

Spanish ships?

I don't know yet.

Shall we bring out the cannons, Your Excellency?

No.

(dramatic music)

That's our Navy.

Those are our ships there.

(man cheers) We have won!

(men cheer)

For the queen.

For the queen.

England was saved.

Spain had been brought to its knees.

Now a new age could finally begin.

(dramatic music)

Mine.

I wore the English crown for 45 years.

I never married nor had children.

I was never alone, but often lonely.

That was the price I paid.

Was this price too high?

I don't think so.

(dramatic music)

(horse neighs)

(dramatic music)