0:00:03 > 0:00:07Britain at the time of Queen Elizabeth I was divided,
0:00:07 > 0:00:09unstable and violent.
0:00:13 > 0:00:17Despite this, Elizabeth stayed in power for over 40 years.
0:00:19 > 0:00:21The secret of her incredible reign
0:00:21 > 0:00:23is hidden in this portrait.
0:00:27 > 0:00:30Detailed in the folds of her dress,
0:00:30 > 0:00:33these eyes and ears represent a spy network.
0:00:36 > 0:00:39The world's first secret service,
0:00:39 > 0:00:40run by a father-and-son team.
0:00:42 > 0:00:45Both exceptionally intelligent and given the job of protecting
0:00:45 > 0:00:48Queen and country.
0:00:48 > 0:00:51This series tells their story over five decades
0:00:51 > 0:00:54and reveals how the secret state was born.
0:00:56 > 0:00:58Elizabethan England as it really was,
0:00:58 > 0:01:01with a network of spies battling a terrorist threat.
0:01:03 > 0:01:06And both sides will stop at nothing.
0:01:06 > 0:01:10You have to wonder what personal cost comes with that.
0:01:10 > 0:01:13That there must be some kind of damage to somebody's soul
0:01:13 > 0:01:15to commit that kind of crime.
0:01:18 > 0:01:20Leading historians have researched these events
0:01:20 > 0:01:22from different individual perspectives.
0:01:27 > 0:01:31Elizabeth was ineffably different.
0:01:31 > 0:01:36She was exceptional, she was holy, she was magical.
0:01:38 > 0:01:42They'll take us inside the mind of each of the key players,
0:01:42 > 0:01:46dissecting their motives and actions while the course of British history
0:01:46 > 0:01:48hangs in the balance.
0:01:48 > 0:01:51The double-crossings, the conspiracies
0:01:51 > 0:01:53which he holds in his head,
0:01:53 > 0:01:56it's an endless labyrinth, and it is terrifying.
0:01:58 > 0:02:02We'll see how history is really made in the corridors of power
0:02:02 > 0:02:04from just behind the throne.
0:02:07 > 0:02:09In this first episode,
0:02:09 > 0:02:12one of the most famous executions in British history -
0:02:12 > 0:02:14Mary Queen of Scots.
0:02:27 > 0:02:32In the second half of the 16th century, England finds itself alone.
0:02:32 > 0:02:35A Protestant nation surrounded by a Catholic Europe.
0:02:37 > 0:02:41Then, in 1570, 12 years into Elizabeth's reign,
0:02:41 > 0:02:43the Pope raises the stakes
0:02:43 > 0:02:45by claiming that Elizabeth is a heretic.
0:02:48 > 0:02:51This effectively gives 40,000 Catholics
0:02:51 > 0:02:54who were illegally practising in England, permission to kill her.
0:02:58 > 0:03:02Elizabeth lived constantly in fear of her life and to the despair
0:03:02 > 0:03:05of her ministers, she was very determined not to show it.
0:03:07 > 0:03:11Right until her old age, she made a point of going among her people.
0:03:11 > 0:03:13She felt that it was a gift she'd inherited from her father,
0:03:13 > 0:03:16Henry VIII, that she had I suppose what we might call now
0:03:16 > 0:03:19the common touch, and she made a point of showing herself
0:03:19 > 0:03:22to the people, even when it was quite risky to do so.
0:03:23 > 0:03:26She didn't want to appear to be cowed or afraid.
0:03:28 > 0:03:30Over the course of her reign,
0:03:30 > 0:03:33there were 14 assassination attempts on her life.
0:03:38 > 0:03:41But Elizabeth has one person who is ultimately reassuring.
0:03:45 > 0:03:47The man whose job it is to keep her alive.
0:03:49 > 0:03:51Her spy master.
0:03:55 > 0:03:57This is William Cecil.
0:03:57 > 0:04:00He is brilliant...
0:04:01 > 0:04:03..confident, cunning...
0:04:05 > 0:04:08..ruthless and loyal.
0:04:11 > 0:04:13He's second only to Elizabeth.
0:04:13 > 0:04:16Whenever she needs anything doing, however dirty it may be,
0:04:16 > 0:04:18he is the main figure.
0:04:19 > 0:04:20He runs everything.
0:04:21 > 0:04:24He was always at Elizabeth's side.
0:04:24 > 0:04:26He was her guide, her oracle,
0:04:26 > 0:04:30in many ways her political mentor. And I also think that perhaps -
0:04:30 > 0:04:34this is an opinion - he was maybe her only real friend.
0:04:35 > 0:04:38It's really Cecil who acts as a buttress...
0:04:40 > 0:04:45..between Elizabeth and the threat of Catholic terrorist conspiracy.
0:04:47 > 0:04:50He's got eyes and ears everywhere in Europe.
0:04:50 > 0:04:52He controls an enormous network
0:04:52 > 0:04:54of what's rather gloriously called spyery.
0:04:54 > 0:04:57It's such a wonderful word, isn't it, spyery?
0:04:57 > 0:04:58You want to whisper it.
0:05:06 > 0:05:09Cecil's genius was to create the world's first spy network.
0:05:11 > 0:05:14He has intelligence into Europe through the merchants
0:05:14 > 0:05:15that trade with foreign powers.
0:05:19 > 0:05:23He has people working for him inside England's diplomatic service.
0:05:26 > 0:05:30And has even penetrated England's secretive Catholic community,
0:05:30 > 0:05:32paying servants inside their households.
0:05:34 > 0:05:40By the 1570s, Cecil has informants and spies in every part of society.
0:05:41 > 0:05:44People are watching out for everything and all the information
0:05:44 > 0:05:46is coming back right to the centre of power,
0:05:46 > 0:05:49which is completely controlled by Cecil.
0:06:05 > 0:06:07In early 1571,
0:06:07 > 0:06:10Cecil's network provides something that grabs his attention.
0:06:12 > 0:06:14According to the Pope's banker,
0:06:14 > 0:06:17huge funds have been raised for a new plot to overthrow Elizabeth.
0:06:19 > 0:06:22Details of this plot have been brought into the country
0:06:22 > 0:06:25by a Catholic courier, who'll be landing at Dover.
0:06:47 > 0:06:50For days, Cecil's men watch the port.
0:07:08 > 0:07:10And when the courier arrives, he's arrested.
0:07:13 > 0:07:15He'll be taken to the Tower of London.
0:07:17 > 0:07:19The intercepted message is rushed to Cecil.
0:07:47 > 0:07:49Cecil immediately sees that these letters are in code.
0:07:54 > 0:07:57Although Cecil can't break the code, he sees that the letter is addressed
0:07:57 > 0:08:00simply to someone with the codename 40.
0:08:13 > 0:08:15If he can find out who 40 is,
0:08:15 > 0:08:18he can find the traitor who's plotting to kill the Queen.
0:08:20 > 0:08:25He heads to the Tower of London to talk to the captured courier -
0:08:25 > 0:08:26a man called Charles Bailly.
0:08:26 > 0:08:28SCREAMS ECHO
0:08:34 > 0:08:36Charles Bailly is a Roman Catholic.
0:08:36 > 0:08:40He's a relatively young man, with a degree of innocence
0:08:40 > 0:08:42to the real world.
0:08:42 > 0:08:45I don't get the feeling that he's somebody
0:08:45 > 0:08:49who has seen all the dangers and troubles of this world.
0:08:59 > 0:09:00Who is 40?
0:09:04 > 0:09:05Who is 40?
0:09:07 > 0:09:09Who is number 40?
0:09:09 > 0:09:12Cecil realises that if he can crack that,
0:09:12 > 0:09:14he'll know who stands behind the conspiracy.
0:09:16 > 0:09:20William Cecil's face looks like a very ruthless face.
0:09:20 > 0:09:23Not least because he has the authority and the power
0:09:23 > 0:09:25over life and death.
0:09:30 > 0:09:33When you see this man, you will be looking at the last face
0:09:33 > 0:09:35that you will ever see.
0:09:39 > 0:09:41Despite Cecil's threats, Bailly won't talk.
0:09:45 > 0:09:48Bailly then befriends another Catholic prisoner,
0:09:48 > 0:09:49in the cell next door.
0:09:55 > 0:09:58He thinks that he's meeting people who can help him.
0:09:58 > 0:10:01He thinks he's meeting other people that are being held on trial,
0:10:01 > 0:10:03that are Catholics like him.
0:10:03 > 0:10:06And he begins to divulge information in a confessional way.
0:10:11 > 0:10:13The other prisoner even offers to pass messages
0:10:13 > 0:10:16to the Catholic underground on the outside.
0:10:24 > 0:10:28But the prisoner in the cell next door isn't actually a prisoner.
0:10:28 > 0:10:29He's working for Cecil.
0:10:31 > 0:10:35It's classical of Cecil's techniques to introduce such a stool pigeon
0:10:35 > 0:10:38into Bailly's cell, who is a double,
0:10:38 > 0:10:41but of course can sometimes become even a treble agent,
0:10:41 > 0:10:43into the heart of the conspiracy.
0:10:43 > 0:10:45And this works very effectively in Bailly's case.
0:10:49 > 0:10:51Cecil discovers Bailly was carrying letters
0:10:51 > 0:10:53from the government of Spain.
0:10:55 > 0:10:58Spain, of course, is the big Catholic
0:10:58 > 0:11:03political and military power that at any point could invade England.
0:11:03 > 0:11:06So to have the spectre of a conspiracy,
0:11:06 > 0:11:10with Spain supporting an attempt to overthrow Elizabeth,
0:11:10 > 0:11:17is everything that Cecil has feared but is now confronting him,
0:11:17 > 0:11:18and it is terrifying.
0:11:28 > 0:11:32At some point, Bailly realised he had been tricked.
0:11:32 > 0:11:35He carved a message on his cell wall that can still be read
0:11:35 > 0:11:37over 400 years later.
0:11:45 > 0:11:48"Wise men ought circumspectly to see what they do.
0:11:50 > 0:11:56"Examine before they speak, to prove before they take in hand,
0:11:56 > 0:11:59"to beware whose company they use.
0:11:59 > 0:12:01"And above all things,
0:12:01 > 0:12:03"to consider whom they trust."
0:12:05 > 0:12:09He's talking about the various agents that have come in and out,
0:12:09 > 0:12:10who he has been duped by.
0:12:14 > 0:12:16Just three weeks after his arrest,
0:12:16 > 0:12:18Bailly writes to Cecil revealing what he knows.
0:12:22 > 0:12:25That 40 is a lord of the realm.
0:12:28 > 0:12:31Now, this is absolutely explosive.
0:12:31 > 0:12:34Cecil is probably not as shocked as he might be.
0:12:34 > 0:12:39He's always suspected that these English aristocrats may at any point
0:12:39 > 0:12:44revert to Catholicism, as much for political as religious reasons.
0:12:50 > 0:12:55For Cecil, knowing it was a lord he was dealing with, adds a new level.
0:12:55 > 0:12:57Cecil himself was born a commoner.
0:12:57 > 0:13:00He studied at Cambridge University,
0:13:00 > 0:13:03learned five languages and worked his way up.
0:13:03 > 0:13:05What he has, he earned.
0:13:08 > 0:13:10Now he has to take on a lord of the realm.
0:13:11 > 0:13:13But which one?
0:13:15 > 0:13:17For three months, there's no progress.
0:13:18 > 0:13:21Then his network makes a breakthrough.
0:13:23 > 0:13:26In August 1571,
0:13:26 > 0:13:29one of his agents in Shrewsbury arrests two men
0:13:29 > 0:13:31carrying £600 in gold.
0:13:31 > 0:13:33A fortune large enough to start a war.
0:13:34 > 0:13:36They're also carrying a coded letter.
0:13:38 > 0:13:40Brought to London for interrogation,
0:13:40 > 0:13:42they admit they're servants of a lord of the realm.
0:13:44 > 0:13:46The lord's home is searched and the key to the code
0:13:46 > 0:13:48is found in his Bible.
0:13:50 > 0:13:53The traitor is the Duke of Norfolk.
0:13:59 > 0:14:0140 turns out to be the Duke of Norfolk.
0:14:02 > 0:14:05One of the most powerful nobles in the country,
0:14:05 > 0:14:07he is related in blood to Elizabeth.
0:14:07 > 0:14:09She calls him her cousin.
0:14:11 > 0:14:15Norfolk is a widower, a keen tennis player
0:14:15 > 0:14:16and the richest man in England.
0:14:20 > 0:14:23Related to Elizabeth through a shared grandmother,
0:14:23 > 0:14:25Norfolk is very much part of the royal family.
0:14:27 > 0:14:31So this is absolutely extraordinary, that somebody so close to Elizabeth
0:14:31 > 0:14:35has been plotting to support a Spanish invasion of the country
0:14:35 > 0:14:37and to take over the realm.
0:14:44 > 0:14:47Now it is Cecil's job to tell Queen Elizabeth I
0:14:47 > 0:14:50that her cousin is trying to kill her.
0:15:08 > 0:15:12To reveal to Elizabeth that Norfolk is complicit in a plot to have her
0:15:12 > 0:15:16overthrown and probably killed, is politically explosive.
0:15:18 > 0:15:20So the information, the intelligence he has,
0:15:20 > 0:15:23has to be handled with incredible care.
0:15:23 > 0:15:25You need to have your case absolutely watertight
0:15:25 > 0:15:28and you need to do it at just the right moment,
0:15:28 > 0:15:31to ensure that Elizabeth will follow what he wants to do,
0:15:31 > 0:15:35which ultimately, of course, is to get the Duke of Norfolk.
0:15:35 > 0:15:37The Queen doesn't react as Cecil hoped.
0:15:39 > 0:15:42She suddenly gets cold feet and she stalls.
0:15:43 > 0:15:46She says, you know, "He's a kinsman of mine.
0:15:47 > 0:15:51"I can't quite accept that he has to be executed."
0:15:57 > 0:16:00Cecil is a civil servant, he's a man of the middle class.
0:16:00 > 0:16:05He does not know, and can never know, what it means to be royal.
0:16:05 > 0:16:08Elizabeth's belief in her own specialness,
0:16:08 > 0:16:10her own extraordinariness,
0:16:10 > 0:16:15was what had sustained her throughout the very difficult years.
0:16:15 > 0:16:19She had this extraordinary belief in herself and in her own right.
0:16:21 > 0:16:23It's incredibly frustrating, I think, for Cecil,
0:16:23 > 0:16:27because he's trying to say, "Look, I've got chapter and verse here,
0:16:27 > 0:16:30"proving that they've been trying to kill you.
0:16:30 > 0:16:32"You have to sign their death warrants."
0:16:32 > 0:16:33And she backs away.
0:16:36 > 0:16:39Cecil can't allow someone who has plotted to kill the Queen
0:16:39 > 0:16:41to get away with it,
0:16:41 > 0:16:43but ultimately it's the Queen's decision.
0:16:47 > 0:16:49It seems that Cecil is stuck.
0:17:11 > 0:17:15A few weeks later, a London printing press publishes a pamphlet.
0:17:15 > 0:17:19A scandal sheet that is distributed on the streets.
0:17:26 > 0:17:28It accuses Norfolk of plotting a rebellion
0:17:28 > 0:17:30and assisting England's enemies.
0:17:35 > 0:17:39The public turn against the rebel royal and demand his head.
0:17:47 > 0:17:50The scandal sheet is anonymous,
0:17:50 > 0:17:53but it came from a printing press run by Cecil.
0:17:58 > 0:18:02Cecil is pioneering something new because he is using spin,
0:18:02 > 0:18:07political manipulation of news, to influence public opinion.
0:18:07 > 0:18:09He is an absolute master at doing that
0:18:09 > 0:18:12and I think this is a new way of doing politics within the state.
0:18:16 > 0:18:19For eight months, Norfolk begs for forgiveness.
0:18:21 > 0:18:26But in June 1572, the Queen signs his death warrant.
0:18:27 > 0:18:28He is beheaded.
0:18:30 > 0:18:33There is a real pathos to watching how those people are caught
0:18:33 > 0:18:35in the spider's web.
0:18:35 > 0:18:39Cecil really does capture those people, play with them.
0:18:39 > 0:18:41They are absolutely his creatures.
0:18:42 > 0:18:44And they will be destroyed.
0:18:48 > 0:18:50Cecil seems to have won.
0:18:54 > 0:18:58But something is still niggling away inside the mind of the spy master.
0:18:59 > 0:19:01Was Norfolk working alone?
0:19:09 > 0:19:12Alongside the coded letters the courier was carrying,
0:19:12 > 0:19:15he also had this pamphlet promoting Mary Queen of Scots.
0:19:20 > 0:19:23So he can't quite make these things add up,
0:19:23 > 0:19:25and he's working relentlessly on the story,
0:19:25 > 0:19:27interrogating people again and again,
0:19:27 > 0:19:29introducing the story of Norfolk.
0:19:31 > 0:19:33It's a classic spy master's manoeuvre.
0:19:33 > 0:19:35How can he make these things work?
0:19:35 > 0:19:38He's got to keep things going.
0:19:38 > 0:19:42He can't quite lock it all down until he knows the full story.
0:19:46 > 0:19:49He interrogates Catholics connected to Norfolk.
0:19:50 > 0:19:53And in the end, he works out what Norfolk was planning.
0:20:02 > 0:20:04Norfolk will marry Mary Queen of Scots,
0:20:04 > 0:20:08he'll invite a Spanish invasion into the country.
0:20:08 > 0:20:11He will then depose Elizabeth and he will rule the country
0:20:11 > 0:20:15with Mary Queen of Scots. So it confirms all his worst fears.
0:20:28 > 0:20:30Mary Stuart was the Queen of Scotland.
0:20:33 > 0:20:37She is ill-educated, impulsive,
0:20:37 > 0:20:40romantic, proud...
0:20:41 > 0:20:42..and short-sighted.
0:20:45 > 0:20:47She has taken risks all of her life.
0:20:48 > 0:20:51She has had affairs with all the wrong men.
0:20:56 > 0:20:58She no longer has access to her son.
0:20:58 > 0:20:59Her lover is in a Danish prison.
0:21:00 > 0:21:04Her second husband was blown up, possibly with her own connivance.
0:21:06 > 0:21:08When Cecil sees Mary,
0:21:08 > 0:21:11he sees everything that's wrong about European Catholicism.
0:21:12 > 0:21:16He sees a vain, pretty but ostentatious woman.
0:21:16 > 0:21:18You can see that from the fashionability of the clothes
0:21:18 > 0:21:21that she's wearing, the hat,
0:21:21 > 0:21:24the slightly coquettish look that she gives you.
0:21:26 > 0:21:28This is everything that Cecil despises and hates.
0:21:37 > 0:21:40Mary Queen of Scots is Catholic.
0:21:40 > 0:21:43Kicked out of Scotland by her Protestant subjects,
0:21:43 > 0:21:45she's now living in the North of England.
0:21:52 > 0:21:55This is a problem because Mary and Elizabeth are first cousins.
0:21:57 > 0:22:00Elizabeth is the daughter of Henry VIII.
0:22:00 > 0:22:02Mary descends from Henry's sister.
0:22:09 > 0:22:12Cecil is deeply, deeply worried because he knows that she has
0:22:12 > 0:22:14a strong claim to the English throne
0:22:14 > 0:22:18through her family connections with Henry VIII.
0:22:18 > 0:22:22She's the only person who can make that claim against Elizabeth.
0:22:22 > 0:22:25He knows there are going to be the conspiracies.
0:22:25 > 0:22:27He's got to try and do something about it.
0:22:28 > 0:22:31There's no way in which this problem has gone away.
0:22:31 > 0:22:33This problem has only just started.
0:22:51 > 0:22:53England in the 1570s is changing fast.
0:22:55 > 0:22:57Merchant ships are bringing huge numbers
0:22:57 > 0:22:59of Protestant refugees into London.
0:23:02 > 0:23:05And Sir Walter Raleigh sets sail for America,
0:23:05 > 0:23:06hoping to set up a trading post.
0:23:16 > 0:23:19Cecil, meanwhile, is made Lord Burghley.
0:23:20 > 0:23:24And he builds himself a luxurious stately home -
0:23:24 > 0:23:26Burghley House in Lincolnshire.
0:23:39 > 0:23:43Meanwhile, Queen Elizabeth I is beginning to carve out
0:23:43 > 0:23:44a kind of legendary status.
0:23:47 > 0:23:49She commissions portraits of herself.
0:23:55 > 0:24:00It's here that we see one of the first manifestations of Elizabeth
0:24:00 > 0:24:01as the Virgin Queen,
0:24:01 > 0:24:04which will continue as her brand to the end of her reign.
0:24:07 > 0:24:12No longer, really, a human being, but an icon, a statue.
0:24:12 > 0:24:15She's as much an idea as she is a person.
0:24:18 > 0:24:22What's really interesting about Elizabethan portraiture of the Queen
0:24:22 > 0:24:24is that it was designed to be looked at by people
0:24:24 > 0:24:27who on the whole couldn't even read or write.
0:24:27 > 0:24:31Elizabeth took advantage of the opportunity for publicity
0:24:31 > 0:24:33which printing offered
0:24:33 > 0:24:38and she had hundreds of images of herself diffused about the realm,
0:24:38 > 0:24:40so that people could recognise their Queen,
0:24:40 > 0:24:42they could know what she looked like,
0:24:42 > 0:24:44and that they had a sense of her
0:24:44 > 0:24:48as a powerful and present figure in their lives.
0:24:48 > 0:24:53It's a technique which has been used by many subsequent rulers,
0:24:53 > 0:24:56the idea that you have the image of the ruler in your home,
0:24:56 > 0:25:00and Elizabeth was really the first person to pick up on this.
0:25:02 > 0:25:04But behind the powerful images,
0:25:04 > 0:25:07the truth was that she was living in constant danger.
0:25:15 > 0:25:18The plots against Elizabeth keep coming.
0:25:23 > 0:25:26A disaffected Catholic aristocrat offers himself as the inside man
0:25:26 > 0:25:28to a foreign invasion.
0:25:30 > 0:25:33A Catholic extremist tries to enter the court armed with a gun.
0:25:38 > 0:25:40Even an MP has a go.
0:25:40 > 0:25:42With the blessing of a Catholic priest,
0:25:42 > 0:25:45he plans to shoot the Queen in her palace garden.
0:25:50 > 0:25:54All the assassination attempts are at the very least inspired by Mary.
0:25:56 > 0:26:00The would-be killers want to put their Catholic queen on the throne.
0:26:03 > 0:26:05For Cecil, she's like a sort of running sore
0:26:05 > 0:26:08at the heart of the country that he's trying to defend.
0:26:08 > 0:26:11He knows, really, I think, from this point onwards,
0:26:11 > 0:26:13that he has to get rid of Mary.
0:26:20 > 0:26:24For Cecil, it's an almost impossible task.
0:26:24 > 0:26:28Persuading Elizabeth to execute the Duke of Norfolk had been tricky.
0:26:28 > 0:26:32To get her to kill her first cousin, and a queen,
0:26:32 > 0:26:34that will require some real cleverness.
0:26:37 > 0:26:40But by the 1580s, his dark empire has grown.
0:26:43 > 0:26:47Alongside the traditional departments of governmental control,
0:26:47 > 0:26:51Cecil's secret state now employs some very interesting characters.
0:26:54 > 0:26:57A forger who can open and close a seal so that nobody notices.
0:27:00 > 0:27:01To break codes,
0:27:01 > 0:27:04Cambridge University's top mathematician is brought in.
0:27:07 > 0:27:11Running these expert spies is someone Cecil has picked carefully.
0:27:17 > 0:27:19Francis Walsingham,
0:27:19 > 0:27:23he's a driven man.
0:27:23 > 0:27:25If you look at those eyes...
0:27:29 > 0:27:31..there is no mercy there,
0:27:31 > 0:27:34there is no compassion there.
0:27:36 > 0:27:42He is made by what he saw on Sunday 24th August, 1572,
0:27:42 > 0:27:44when he was the English ambassador to France.
0:27:48 > 0:27:52And what was happening was the St Bartholomew's Day massacre,
0:27:52 > 0:27:54when 3,000 French Protestants were killed.
0:27:59 > 0:28:02He was surrounded by the Paris mob.
0:28:02 > 0:28:05He had his wife and four-year-old daughter in there.
0:28:05 > 0:28:09He saw Protestants being dragged out of that house and hanged.
0:28:11 > 0:28:15That left a traumatic experience,
0:28:15 > 0:28:17which he lived with for the rest of his life.
0:28:21 > 0:28:24Walsingham is an absolute dead cert for Cecil.
0:28:24 > 0:28:25He knows he can trust him implicitly.
0:28:28 > 0:28:32There's no formal moment where William Cecil turns to Walsingham
0:28:32 > 0:28:34and says, "This is now what you are about,
0:28:34 > 0:28:37"you have to go and hunt down Mary,"
0:28:37 > 0:28:40but I think there's no question that they worked together so closely,
0:28:40 > 0:28:43Walsingham knows that that's the number-one priority.
0:28:46 > 0:28:47They know that it is not enough
0:28:47 > 0:28:51for Mary to be the figurehead of a conspiracy.
0:28:51 > 0:28:55They must catch her red-handed in a plot to kill the Queen.
0:29:08 > 0:29:12The first thing they do is to move her to the remote Chartley Manor
0:29:12 > 0:29:17in Staffordshire - a place with high battlements and a moat around it.
0:29:18 > 0:29:21William Cecil is trying to absolutely isolate her,
0:29:21 > 0:29:23cut her off from the outside world.
0:29:28 > 0:29:29She is completely surveyed.
0:29:29 > 0:29:33Her guardians, her jailers, really, are making sure that they can
0:29:33 > 0:29:36see everything that goes in and everything that
0:29:36 > 0:29:37comes out of the household.
0:29:45 > 0:29:48Mary's allowed to receive gifts, checked carefully.
0:29:50 > 0:29:53More than anything, Mary's life becomes very, very boring.
0:29:53 > 0:29:57She loses her right to ride in the grounds,
0:29:57 > 0:29:58which really upsets her.
0:29:58 > 0:30:03She takes great pleasure in fresh air, in horsemanship
0:30:03 > 0:30:07and she complains bitterly about wasting away
0:30:07 > 0:30:09without access to fresh air.
0:30:12 > 0:30:17Cecil is deliberately applying a kind of psychological pressure.
0:30:17 > 0:30:20She gets very lonely. She gets very frustrated.
0:30:29 > 0:30:31Stifled by these new rules,
0:30:31 > 0:30:34Mary makes contact with some of her followers
0:30:34 > 0:30:37and they also have espionage skills.
0:30:39 > 0:30:42Of course Mary has a spy network.
0:30:42 > 0:30:44Wouldn't you, if you were locked up in the middle of England,
0:30:44 > 0:30:47not knowing what was going to happen to you?
0:30:51 > 0:30:53This is Mary's code book
0:30:53 > 0:30:55for communicating with the Catholic underground.
0:30:57 > 0:30:59It's a substitution code
0:30:59 > 0:31:01where every letter and some important words
0:31:01 > 0:31:03are replaced by a symbol.
0:31:09 > 0:31:12This is E.
0:31:13 > 0:31:17This is B.
0:31:18 > 0:31:20This is the sign for intelligence.
0:31:22 > 0:31:25And this...is the Queen of England.
0:31:35 > 0:31:38But how to pass the coded messages back and forth?
0:31:40 > 0:31:43There's only one way in and out of Chartley Manor
0:31:43 > 0:31:46and everything that passes through it is searched.
0:32:02 > 0:32:05Every few days, a brewer brings in supplies of beer.
0:32:42 > 0:32:47And this is how, in June 1586, Mary hears about Anthony Babington.
0:32:50 > 0:32:54Anthony Babington is a well-born Catholic
0:32:54 > 0:32:56and well-connected young man.
0:32:58 > 0:33:01This is a man who does not really need for a job.
0:33:01 > 0:33:04So, you know, you could see him
0:33:04 > 0:33:07as a sort of young Catholic Elizabethan playboy.
0:33:07 > 0:33:11And he sees himself as something of a man of action.
0:33:18 > 0:33:22Via her agents, Babington relays a message to Mary,
0:33:22 > 0:33:24describing his loyalty to her.
0:33:26 > 0:33:29She replies direct to him, calling him a friend.
0:33:33 > 0:33:35What attracts her to Babington
0:33:35 > 0:33:39is that he tells her there's a whole army of young men
0:33:39 > 0:33:41who virtually pray to her.
0:33:41 > 0:33:44She's not forgotten, she's not alone
0:33:44 > 0:33:48and he tells her that she has these followers and she laps it up.
0:33:50 > 0:33:53Babington also has the potential to be useful to Mary.
0:33:54 > 0:33:58As a gentleman, he has friends at the Royal Court.
0:33:58 > 0:34:01They can get close enough to Elizabeth to kill her.
0:34:04 > 0:34:10For Babington, morally, in the eyes of God, in the eyes of the church,
0:34:10 > 0:34:16it was fine for him to be part of a plot
0:34:16 > 0:34:19to remove her and to have her assassinated.
0:34:28 > 0:34:30On the 7th July,
0:34:30 > 0:34:34Babington sends a coded letter to Mary outlining his plan.
0:34:34 > 0:34:37He, along with 100 followers,
0:34:37 > 0:34:41are going to try and free Mary
0:34:41 > 0:34:45from house arrest at Chartley Castle in Staffordshire.
0:34:49 > 0:34:51But Babington is in way over his head.
0:34:52 > 0:34:54Buried deep in Cecil's network
0:34:54 > 0:34:57is an operative going by the codename Honest Man.
0:35:02 > 0:35:06He's none other than the brewer who delivers Mary's beer.
0:35:09 > 0:35:11The brewer was on to a wonderful thing.
0:35:11 > 0:35:13He's taking the bribes from Walsingham,
0:35:13 > 0:35:16he takes bribes from Mary Queen of Scots,
0:35:16 > 0:35:18he even raises the price of his beer.
0:35:21 > 0:35:23In fact, even the Catholic courier,
0:35:23 > 0:35:27who had put Babington in touch with Mary, is a double agent
0:35:27 > 0:35:29working for Walsingham and Cecil.
0:35:31 > 0:35:33It is labyrinthine.
0:35:33 > 0:35:35I mean, it's mirrors within mirrors,
0:35:35 > 0:35:37rooms within rooms.
0:35:37 > 0:35:40And it's Cecil who's at the heart of it,
0:35:40 > 0:35:42who knows every room and whose inside of it
0:35:42 > 0:35:45and whose onside and who's not.
0:35:49 > 0:35:52And so they intercept Babington's letter.
0:35:57 > 0:36:01The letter is given to Cecil's Cambridge University code-breaker
0:36:01 > 0:36:02and the clock is ticking.
0:36:04 > 0:36:06If the letter is delayed getting to Mary,
0:36:06 > 0:36:08she'll know her correspondence is compromised.
0:36:11 > 0:36:13How can he possibly make sense of the icons and squiggles
0:36:13 > 0:36:16without knowing what they stand for?
0:36:17 > 0:36:19He does something rather clever.
0:36:23 > 0:36:25He has calculated that, in written English,
0:36:25 > 0:36:2713% of letters are E.
0:36:28 > 0:36:302% are X.
0:36:34 > 0:36:36He looks at the frequency of symbols
0:36:36 > 0:36:38and painstakingly unpicks the code.
0:36:50 > 0:36:53Babington tells Mary he has six nobles
0:36:53 > 0:36:56who are ready to assassinate Elizabeth.
0:37:14 > 0:37:16They have now caught Babington in an act of treason.
0:37:18 > 0:37:21But he isn't the ultimate target of their operation.
0:37:21 > 0:37:25They want Mary's written consent to the assassination attempt.
0:37:35 > 0:37:37And if Cecil can capture that
0:37:37 > 0:37:40and can definitively prove that that's happening,
0:37:40 > 0:37:41Mary is finished.
0:37:48 > 0:37:51Babington's letter reaches Mary late on the 8th July.
0:37:54 > 0:37:59But will Mary set in motion a plot to kill her cousin Elizabeth
0:37:59 > 0:38:00and put herself on the throne?
0:38:04 > 0:38:06Days pass...
0:38:06 > 0:38:08..but Mary does not reply.
0:38:11 > 0:38:15I find that silence on Mary's part really very striking
0:38:15 > 0:38:21because she's a very impulsive woman and yet, in this case, she waits.
0:38:24 > 0:38:28Mary knows that if she sends this letter off,
0:38:28 > 0:38:29the plot is going to be activated.
0:38:31 > 0:38:35She is sending a gang of armed men
0:38:35 > 0:38:38to ambush the Queen of England with violence.
0:38:38 > 0:38:40That's a huge thing for anyone to do.
0:38:42 > 0:38:45It takes quite a long time for Mary to reply.
0:38:45 > 0:38:48Meanwhile, Babington is in London.
0:38:48 > 0:38:50He's there with his co-conspirators.
0:38:52 > 0:38:55One can only sort of imagine how tense,
0:38:55 > 0:38:57how nervous he must've felt.
0:39:14 > 0:39:17Now Walsingham and Cecil,
0:39:17 > 0:39:20it's like two hunters in the jungle,
0:39:20 > 0:39:22watching a baited trap
0:39:22 > 0:39:26and your quarry comes up and sniffs all round it.
0:39:28 > 0:39:29It hasn't taken a bite yet.
0:39:37 > 0:39:39They must've been beside themselves...
0:39:41 > 0:39:45..with frustration and concern that their sting operation,
0:39:45 > 0:39:49which is what it is, has been rumbled.
0:40:01 > 0:40:03After ten days, Mary replies to Babington.
0:40:05 > 0:40:08She tells him to set the six gentleman to work.
0:40:10 > 0:40:12She's having a miserable time
0:40:12 > 0:40:15in the least-comfortable house arrest she's ever had.
0:40:15 > 0:40:16She's almost given up hope
0:40:16 > 0:40:19by the time she consents to the Babington plot.
0:40:19 > 0:40:21That's why she's so desperate,
0:40:21 > 0:40:23that's why she's prepared to go through it.
0:40:23 > 0:40:25But it is the act of a woman who's...
0:40:26 > 0:40:30The Babington plot is Mary's one last role of the dice.
0:40:36 > 0:40:38The letter is given to Walsingham's agent
0:40:38 > 0:40:42and he puts a gallows on the front cover,
0:40:42 > 0:40:45so Walsingham will know immediately
0:40:45 > 0:40:48that the trap has been sprung
0:40:48 > 0:40:52and that letter is Mary Queen of Scots' death warrant.
0:40:57 > 0:41:02It's actually the fulfilment of dreams of both Cecil and Walsingham.
0:41:03 > 0:41:06The absolute smoking gun.
0:41:07 > 0:41:09Cecil sees that
0:41:09 > 0:41:12and agrees that this is now the best opportunity he has
0:41:12 > 0:41:15to really have Mary executed.
0:41:19 > 0:41:22But before Cecil orders Mary's arrest,
0:41:22 > 0:41:24there's the small matter of dealing with the young Catholic
0:41:24 > 0:41:26who provided the bait.
0:41:27 > 0:41:34Babington has dinner one evening with one of Walsingham's informers
0:41:34 > 0:41:39and it's partway through this dinner that he realises
0:41:39 > 0:41:44that this man has, in fact, received orders for Babington's own arrest.
0:41:44 > 0:41:47So Babington gets up from the dinner table,
0:41:47 > 0:41:49goes to pay the bill
0:41:49 > 0:41:51and scarpers.
0:42:13 > 0:42:17Babington is brought back to London, where he's hanged,
0:42:17 > 0:42:19cut down whilst still alive
0:42:19 > 0:42:21and disembowelled.
0:42:38 > 0:42:40October 1586,
0:42:40 > 0:42:43Mary Queen of Scots is put on trial for treason.
0:42:44 > 0:42:47Cecil conducts the prosecution himself.
0:42:51 > 0:42:52She's found guilty.
0:43:04 > 0:43:06Now he needs Elizabeth's approval.
0:43:07 > 0:43:10The death warrant of a member of the royal family
0:43:10 > 0:43:12requires the Queen's signature.
0:43:15 > 0:43:17Cecil knows that this is one of the most crucial moments.
0:43:17 > 0:43:20But he's been here before with Norfolk and he knows,
0:43:20 > 0:43:23so he can assume, that she will prevaricate.
0:43:25 > 0:43:28News of Mary's trial sends shock waves through Catholic Europe.
0:43:30 > 0:43:32The King of France even writes to Elizabeth,
0:43:32 > 0:43:35pleading for Mary's life to be spared.
0:43:36 > 0:43:40For Cecil, this is still a very, very volatile moment.
0:43:40 > 0:43:44He's got to come out completely the winner of this.
0:43:51 > 0:43:53In January 1587,
0:43:53 > 0:43:55Cecil visits Elizabeth at Greenwich.
0:43:57 > 0:43:59He's impatient for Mary's sentence to be carried out.
0:44:06 > 0:44:08Cecil tells Elizabeth, "She has to die,
0:44:08 > 0:44:11"you have to sign the death warrant".
0:44:11 > 0:44:13He desperately, desperately wants this to be signed off on.
0:44:14 > 0:44:17Elizabeth's initial reaction to Mary's conspiracy -
0:44:17 > 0:44:19she's absolutely furious.
0:44:19 > 0:44:22I think she refers to Mary, at one point, as "this viper".
0:44:22 > 0:44:25Undoubtedly, Elizabeth wanted Mary dead.
0:44:25 > 0:44:27That's beyond question at this point.
0:44:29 > 0:44:33Nonetheless, what she was nervous about
0:44:33 > 0:44:37would be that she would be a queen who was also a regicide.
0:44:39 > 0:44:41If Elizabeth strikes at Mary,
0:44:41 > 0:44:42she ultimately strikes at herself.
0:44:45 > 0:44:48So she's not quite ready to take this last political step.
0:44:48 > 0:44:53And therefore, she doesn't wish Mary to be used too harshly.
0:44:59 > 0:45:03Cecil and Elizabeth argue about Mary's death warrant for six weeks.
0:45:08 > 0:45:12And he pushes and pushes because, again, Elizabeth stalls,
0:45:12 > 0:45:14she prevaricates and he's absolutely appalled by it.
0:45:14 > 0:45:17Because he sees it as the great weakness.
0:45:19 > 0:45:23I don't think that Elizabeth's prevarication was a weakness at all.
0:45:23 > 0:45:25First of all, that behaviour which,
0:45:25 > 0:45:29in a male ruler might have been described as prudent or cunning,
0:45:29 > 0:45:31in Elizabeth it's dismissed as kind of, you know,
0:45:31 > 0:45:33feminine prevarication.
0:45:33 > 0:45:35"She couldn't make up her mind."
0:45:35 > 0:45:38She was perfectly capable of making up her mind,
0:45:38 > 0:45:42she just chose not to make it up until it suited her to do so.
0:45:42 > 0:45:46Elizabeth was a spectacularly good player of a long political game
0:45:46 > 0:45:50and the fact that she survived as long as she did and died in her bed
0:45:50 > 0:45:54is testament to how useful it was not to make hasty decisions.
0:46:01 > 0:46:03Cecil does not relent.
0:46:03 > 0:46:05And on the 1st of February,
0:46:05 > 0:46:07Elizabeth finally signs Mary's death warrant.
0:46:12 > 0:46:15But it still needs the seal of England
0:46:15 > 0:46:16to give the warrant legal status.
0:46:27 > 0:46:30Elizabeth asks for the warrant to be returned to her.
0:46:33 > 0:46:34She never gets it back.
0:46:36 > 0:46:38It's one of the murkiest moments, I think,
0:46:38 > 0:46:40in all of Elizabethan politics.
0:46:41 > 0:46:44How does it get to Cecil?
0:46:44 > 0:46:46We'll never really know.
0:46:46 > 0:46:48Elizabeth doesn't know what's going on.
0:46:48 > 0:46:51Or does she, and she doesn't want to know
0:46:51 > 0:46:54and she wants it just to be taken care of?
0:46:54 > 0:46:57I think there's a lot of that that's really happening.
0:47:01 > 0:47:04Elizabeth couldn't be seen to authorise the deed
0:47:04 > 0:47:07and so she constructs this elaborate facade,
0:47:07 > 0:47:12which does everything to encourage her ministers to get the deed done,
0:47:12 > 0:47:15but without actually explicitly telling them to do so.
0:47:19 > 0:47:21Quite clearly, what Elizabeth is doing
0:47:21 > 0:47:27is allowing her ministers to take the decision from her,
0:47:27 > 0:47:29to do the undoable
0:47:29 > 0:47:32without her having to take personal responsibility.
0:47:39 > 0:47:41So now it's up to Cecil.
0:47:43 > 0:47:46Does he want to take the decision to execute a queen?
0:48:15 > 0:48:18At 9am on the 8th of February,
0:48:18 > 0:48:20Mary mounts the scaffold
0:48:20 > 0:48:22in a ceremony carefully choreographed by Cecil.
0:48:31 > 0:48:34OK, this is the Great Hall of Fotheringhay Castle.
0:48:36 > 0:48:40In one corner burns an enormous fire.
0:48:40 > 0:48:42It's a cold, cold day.
0:48:42 > 0:48:44Here's all the gentry lined up
0:48:44 > 0:48:47round this very low wooden scaffold.
0:49:01 > 0:49:04But when Mary takes off her cloak,
0:49:04 > 0:49:07she reveals a dress of brilliant scarlet,
0:49:07 > 0:49:09the Catholic colour of martyrdom.
0:49:12 > 0:49:16Mary has this one last chance to tell the story for herself,
0:49:16 > 0:49:19to make herself the heroine of the chronicle
0:49:19 > 0:49:22of the life of Mary Queen of Scots.
0:49:22 > 0:49:26And she's very, very well aware that she is doing that,
0:49:26 > 0:49:29even in his face, as she faces the scaffold.
0:49:38 > 0:49:40When it comes to the moment of truth...
0:49:44 > 0:49:48..the executioner comes up and raises the axe...
0:49:49 > 0:49:55..and basically misses the crucial part of the neck.
0:49:55 > 0:49:58He has to shorten his grip and chop...
0:49:59 > 0:50:03..until, eventually, he can lift up the head and cry out, you know,
0:50:03 > 0:50:05"Here's the head of a traitor."
0:50:05 > 0:50:09He didn't know that Mary Queen of Scots
0:50:09 > 0:50:11was wearing a wig.
0:50:14 > 0:50:18So, for Mary to be exposed in that moment,
0:50:18 > 0:50:22when the executioner holds up her head
0:50:22 > 0:50:26and then the wig becomes detached from her skull,
0:50:26 > 0:50:28that is the ultimate humiliation.
0:50:30 > 0:50:34And the head falls out of his hands,
0:50:34 > 0:50:37bounces on the straw-covered scaffold.
0:50:37 > 0:50:39The lips are still moving.
0:50:42 > 0:50:47And she has a dog, a pet dog, a West Highland Terrier,
0:50:47 > 0:50:50who's hiding amongst the skirts of her dress
0:50:50 > 0:50:52and it comes out and starts barking.
0:50:52 > 0:50:55The two commissioners, basically, have a nervous breakdown.
0:50:55 > 0:50:59They can't cope with what has happened.
0:50:59 > 0:51:03They can't cope with how Mary has taken control of her own death.
0:51:05 > 0:51:07So, as theatre,
0:51:07 > 0:51:11it really has little parallel in the whole of British history.
0:51:27 > 0:51:28February the 9th,
0:51:28 > 0:51:32Elizabeth is still waiting for Mary's death warrant to be returned.
0:51:36 > 0:51:39Cecil visits the Queen with the news that her cousin
0:51:39 > 0:51:41has already been beheaded.
0:51:54 > 0:51:57She goes completely crazy, she is furious with him.
0:52:01 > 0:52:04Her rage, so profound, that he actually says afterwards
0:52:04 > 0:52:06that he fears for her health.
0:52:11 > 0:52:16It must be like being engulfed by this tsunami of rage.
0:52:17 > 0:52:21I mean, she's almost biting the carpet with rage.
0:52:21 > 0:52:25I mean, the Tudors always were redheaded,
0:52:25 > 0:52:29pretty...full of colour
0:52:29 > 0:52:33and Elizabeth was probably one of the worst of them.
0:52:35 > 0:52:37In my reading of the situation,
0:52:37 > 0:52:39she fell victim to a bit of method acting.
0:52:39 > 0:52:44She'd talked herself into the role of the unfortunate monarch
0:52:44 > 0:52:47who was being pushed by the necessity of good government
0:52:47 > 0:52:49to take this terrible step.
0:52:49 > 0:52:52And then she kind of starts believing her own shtick.
0:52:52 > 0:52:53She starts thinking,
0:52:53 > 0:52:56"Actually, I am angry, I am upset, I am outraged."
0:52:58 > 0:53:01And it was easier for Elizabeth to believe
0:53:01 > 0:53:04that Cecil had somehow cheated her,
0:53:04 > 0:53:06that he'd acted without her authority,
0:53:06 > 0:53:08even though that's what she'd wanted him to do all along.
0:53:09 > 0:53:13Elizabeth has played a very, very shrewd game herself.
0:53:13 > 0:53:17She's played Cecil as much as Cecil has played her
0:53:17 > 0:53:18and, in the end,
0:53:18 > 0:53:21they've got what they both understand really has to happen.
0:53:21 > 0:53:23Mary is dead,
0:53:23 > 0:53:26that Elizabeth can feel her hands are not quite as bloody
0:53:26 > 0:53:28as they really are.
0:53:40 > 0:53:43The Queen then banishes Cecil from her court.
0:53:43 > 0:53:46He is completely cut off from power.
0:53:47 > 0:53:49He writes to her, begging to be taken back.
0:53:51 > 0:53:53He sorrowfully prays
0:53:53 > 0:53:57Her Majesty will suspend her heavy censure against him.
0:54:02 > 0:54:05The surviving correspondence around this time is very sketchy,
0:54:05 > 0:54:07but there is an interesting fragment,
0:54:07 > 0:54:09which tells us that Cecil believes
0:54:09 > 0:54:14that he would rather be sent to the Tower and probably executed,
0:54:14 > 0:54:18than just be banished and watch politics going on from afar.
0:54:18 > 0:54:21This is how much he is such a political animal.
0:54:28 > 0:54:33Looking at the picture, you can see how devastated he would have been.
0:54:33 > 0:54:36Almost every single element of this portrait
0:54:36 > 0:54:40shows the trappings of power and political influence.
0:54:40 > 0:54:42So he holds the staff of state,
0:54:42 > 0:54:46he's also got the Order of the Garter around his neck.
0:54:47 > 0:54:51The robes symbolise his role as principal Secretary of State.
0:54:51 > 0:54:53Everything tells you that this is, effectively,
0:54:53 > 0:54:57the most powerful man in the land after the Queen.
0:55:02 > 0:55:09It's 30 years of work, of hard graft in the offices of state,
0:55:09 > 0:55:12working with correspondents, networks of spies.
0:55:14 > 0:55:16It's all gone.
0:55:16 > 0:55:18And I think you can see, just in this one picture,
0:55:18 > 0:55:20of how awful that would have been.
0:55:40 > 0:55:43But Cecil has one last trick up his sleeve.
0:55:44 > 0:55:47His banishment creates an opening,
0:55:47 > 0:55:50which there is only one man perfectly trained to fill.
0:55:51 > 0:55:52His son, Robert.
0:56:08 > 0:56:12For years, behind the scenes, he's been grooming young Robert,
0:56:12 > 0:56:15teaching him all the intricacies of running the dark state.
0:56:19 > 0:56:23There is young Robert sitting at the family occasions,
0:56:23 > 0:56:25at the kitchen table, if you like,
0:56:25 > 0:56:28learning from his father about statecraft.
0:56:28 > 0:56:31And he is a prodigy, he's brilliant at maths, he's great at cosmography,
0:56:31 > 0:56:34he learns all the languages that, of course, you need for statecraft.
0:56:34 > 0:56:38And it has to be the fruition of everything that he's really wanted.
0:56:38 > 0:56:41It's about legacy, it's about dynastic succession.
0:56:41 > 0:56:43And so it is the fulfilment of everything
0:56:43 > 0:56:45that he could possibly wish for.
0:56:49 > 0:56:50The house,
0:56:50 > 0:56:52the position at court,
0:56:52 > 0:56:54and the spy network
0:56:54 > 0:56:56are all handed down to Robert.
0:56:58 > 0:57:01Robert Cecil is one of half a dozen statesmen
0:57:01 > 0:57:05who changed the course of English history.
0:57:10 > 0:57:12Robert Cecil, it turns out,
0:57:12 > 0:57:15is even more clever and even more intense
0:57:15 > 0:57:17than his father.
0:57:18 > 0:57:20He is cunning...
0:57:21 > 0:57:22..feeble...
0:57:23 > 0:57:25..rich, lonely.
0:58:02 > 0:58:04The Cecils meet their archenemy.
0:58:04 > 0:58:06Priests are not social workers.
0:58:06 > 0:58:10They are at the sharp end of a religious war.
0:58:10 > 0:58:12An attack on Spain...
0:58:12 > 0:58:14It's a raid.
0:58:14 > 0:58:16It's the old way of doing things.
0:58:16 > 0:58:19..and the death of Queen Elizabeth I.
0:58:19 > 0:58:22"I spent all my life," Elizabeth says,
0:58:22 > 0:58:27"in little rooms." In many ways, she lived alone.