0:00:02 > 0:00:04CHEERING
0:00:04 > 0:00:091953. A coronation fit for a king.
0:00:09 > 0:00:12But it's a young queen who's about to be crowned.
0:00:12 > 0:00:15And the crowd roars its approval.
0:00:17 > 0:00:20The fact that she's a woman attracts no comment,
0:00:20 > 0:00:25and she will go on to reign over us for six decades.
0:00:25 > 0:00:29But England's queens haven't always been greeted with such adoration.
0:00:29 > 0:00:33'The first woman who sought to be crowned queen in her own right
0:00:33 > 0:00:36'here in Westminster, 800 years earlier,
0:00:36 > 0:00:39'received a very different response.'
0:00:40 > 0:00:43She wasn't met by cheering crowds.
0:00:43 > 0:00:47Instead, she was chased away from the capital by an angry mob.
0:00:49 > 0:00:52That's because throughout our history,
0:00:52 > 0:00:56'women and power have made an uneasy combination.'
0:00:57 > 0:00:59Never more so than in the Middle Ages,
0:00:59 > 0:01:03when monarchy was forged in the cut and thrust of battle.
0:01:03 > 0:01:08It was taken for granted that men would rule.
0:01:08 > 0:01:09So what if the king died
0:01:09 > 0:01:12and there were no men to take the reins of power?
0:01:12 > 0:01:18In 1553, the only heirs to the Tudor throne were female.
0:01:18 > 0:01:21The next three monarchs of England would be women.
0:01:21 > 0:01:23But they would each discover that power
0:01:23 > 0:01:28did not rest easily in the hands of a queen.
0:01:28 > 0:01:30When they pursued power like kings,
0:01:30 > 0:01:33these royal women were criticised and condemned.
0:01:33 > 0:01:37Most graphically of all, they've been vilified as she-wolves.
0:01:37 > 0:01:40These are the stories of the she-wolves of England.
0:01:40 > 0:01:44And to explore them is to realise just how far we've come,
0:01:44 > 0:01:47and how little has changed.
0:02:03 > 0:02:07This impressive building is the Old Royal Naval College.
0:02:07 > 0:02:14500 years ago, another, even grander building stood on the same spot.
0:02:14 > 0:02:18It was one of the greatest residences of the Tudor kings.
0:02:21 > 0:02:23On the 6th of July 1553,
0:02:23 > 0:02:28in the magnificent palace that once stood here at Greenwich,
0:02:28 > 0:02:30a 15-year-old boy lay dying.
0:02:30 > 0:02:33He was Edward VI, the only son of Henry VIII.
0:02:35 > 0:02:40Edward was the male heir for whom Henry had been so desperate
0:02:40 > 0:02:42that he'd divorced one wife and killed another.
0:02:42 > 0:02:46And Edward had been a golden boy,
0:02:46 > 0:02:49until he was reduced by a horrifying illness
0:02:49 > 0:02:52to a grotesque and lonely figure
0:02:52 > 0:02:54struggling for breath in a gilded bed.
0:02:57 > 0:03:00But this wasn't just a moment of unbearable pathos.
0:03:00 > 0:03:04It was also a moment of extraordinary political crisis.
0:03:04 > 0:03:06Because when Edward died,
0:03:06 > 0:03:09there was no-one left to claim the title of King of England.
0:03:09 > 0:03:11For the first time in English history,
0:03:11 > 0:03:15all the contenders for his crown were female.
0:03:19 > 0:03:21Hindsight makes it difficult to appreciate
0:03:21 > 0:03:24just how great a crisis this was.
0:03:26 > 0:03:29For the men who stood around Edward's deathbed,
0:03:29 > 0:03:33the prospect of being ruled by a woman was deeply troubling.
0:03:35 > 0:03:39What they thought they knew was that women were not equipped to rule.
0:03:39 > 0:03:45Weaker than men, less rational, more sinful, unable to fight,
0:03:45 > 0:03:47unable to make law.
0:03:50 > 0:03:53Over the previous 400 years,
0:03:53 > 0:03:55the handful of women who had tried to take power
0:03:55 > 0:04:00had found themselves condemned as unnatural, even monstrous.
0:04:04 > 0:04:07Whether through inheritance or by force,
0:04:07 > 0:04:09the crown of England had always been worn by a man.
0:04:15 > 0:04:19And Edward's father, Henry VIII, had gone to extreme lengths
0:04:19 > 0:04:22to ensure that he would have a son to succeed him.
0:04:26 > 0:04:29This painting offers a revealing insight
0:04:29 > 0:04:31into Henry VIII's view of his dynasty.
0:04:32 > 0:04:34In the centre is Henry himself,
0:04:34 > 0:04:38flanked by his third wife, Jane Seymour, and their son, Edward.
0:04:38 > 0:04:41On the left is Henry's older daughter, Mary,
0:04:41 > 0:04:43by his first wife, Catherine of Aragon.
0:04:43 > 0:04:46On the right is his younger daughter, Elizabeth,
0:04:46 > 0:04:48by his second wife, Anne Boleyn.
0:04:48 > 0:04:51The painting is a fabricated representation,
0:04:51 > 0:04:54rather than a portrait from life.
0:04:54 > 0:04:57In fact, Jane Seymour had died just a fortnight after Edward's birth.
0:04:57 > 0:05:03But here she sits as the beloved mother of Henry's male heir.
0:05:03 > 0:05:06Henry's daughters, by contrast, are left on the sidelines.
0:05:09 > 0:05:12He even went as far as to declare that they were bastards
0:05:12 > 0:05:14after he'd disposed of their mothers.
0:05:16 > 0:05:19Daughters, for Henry, would not do.
0:05:19 > 0:05:22He was a king, and only a king could succeed him.
0:05:28 > 0:05:30All of Henry's hopes for England's future
0:05:30 > 0:05:33rested on his son's shoulders.
0:05:34 > 0:05:37And when Henry died in 1547,
0:05:37 > 0:05:40nine-year-old Edward became King of England.
0:05:42 > 0:05:44He knew it was his destiny
0:05:44 > 0:05:47to continue the glorious line of Tudor kings.
0:05:49 > 0:05:55But a few months after his 15th birthday, Edward fell seriously ill.
0:05:56 > 0:06:01Throughout the winter, he was confined within the palace walls,
0:06:01 > 0:06:05and by the spring of 1553, it was clear he was dying.
0:06:08 > 0:06:12But the identity of his heir was far from clear,
0:06:12 > 0:06:16and that left England facing an alarmingly uncertain future.
0:06:18 > 0:06:22As well as his two half-sisters, Mary and Elizabeth,
0:06:22 > 0:06:26Edward had seven cousins, but all of them were women.
0:06:29 > 0:06:32For the first time since the Norman conquest,
0:06:32 > 0:06:34there were no male heirs to the throne.
0:06:34 > 0:06:38Whatever happened, England's next monarch would be a woman.
0:06:38 > 0:06:42And the question now was, which woman would it be?
0:06:44 > 0:06:46Mary and Elizabeth both knew
0:06:46 > 0:06:49that under the terms of their father's will,
0:06:49 > 0:06:53if Edward died, the crown should pass first to Mary,
0:06:53 > 0:06:54then to her younger sister.
0:06:56 > 0:06:59But they also knew there was a complicating factor -
0:06:59 > 0:07:01Edward's faith.
0:07:02 > 0:07:04He was an ardent Protestant,
0:07:04 > 0:07:07and Mary an equally committed Catholic.
0:07:08 > 0:07:12Mary's fear was that faith would usurp bloodline.
0:07:12 > 0:07:16MONASTIC CHANTING
0:07:21 > 0:07:25Mary had watched her father, Henry VIII, break from the Church of Rome,
0:07:25 > 0:07:29and make himself head of the Church of England.
0:07:29 > 0:07:33But it was under Edward that England underwent
0:07:33 > 0:07:35a fully-fledged Protestant reformation.
0:07:36 > 0:07:38Edward was a precociously intelligent child.
0:07:38 > 0:07:44He'd been educated by Protestant tutors, and despite his young age,
0:07:44 > 0:07:49he was determined to make his people follow his faith.
0:07:49 > 0:07:51All that Mary held dear,
0:07:51 > 0:07:56the Latin mass, sung in churches full of images and incense,
0:07:56 > 0:07:59was swept away, to be replaced by an English prayer book
0:07:59 > 0:08:01and simpler forms of worship.
0:08:01 > 0:08:05MONASTIC CHANTING CONTINUES
0:08:05 > 0:08:09For Edward, it was unthinkable that his own death
0:08:09 > 0:08:13should send his people back into the darkness of Catholicism.
0:08:13 > 0:08:17MONASTIC CHANTING CONTINUES
0:08:17 > 0:08:21'Housed in the Inner Temple Library in London
0:08:21 > 0:08:25'is a document which shows just how far Edward was prepared to go
0:08:25 > 0:08:26'to stop this happening.'
0:08:28 > 0:08:30This extraordinary document
0:08:30 > 0:08:33is what Edward called "My Device for the Succession."
0:08:33 > 0:08:38You can see that it's drafted and redrafted in his own hand.
0:08:38 > 0:08:40And what this is about, above all,
0:08:40 > 0:08:43is excluding his sister Mary from inheriting his crown.
0:08:44 > 0:08:49Mary anticipated that her father's will would prevail,
0:08:49 > 0:08:52but Edward found a loophole.
0:08:52 > 0:08:57Henry had declared in law that his daughters were illegitimate.
0:08:57 > 0:08:59And that gave Edward his chance.
0:09:01 > 0:09:04English monarchs, he decided, had to be legitimate.
0:09:04 > 0:09:06And they also had to be Protestant,
0:09:06 > 0:09:10which ruled out his Catholic cousin, Mary Queen of Scots.
0:09:10 > 0:09:12That left his only remaining cousins,
0:09:12 > 0:09:15the descendants of Henry VIII's younger sister.
0:09:15 > 0:09:18There was Frances Grey and her three daughters,
0:09:18 > 0:09:21Jane, Catherine and Mary.
0:09:21 > 0:09:22Jane Grey in particular
0:09:22 > 0:09:26shared Edward's fierce devotion to the Protestant faith.
0:09:26 > 0:09:29But Edward planned that all future English monarchs would be kings.
0:09:29 > 0:09:34He intended to cut women out of the succession altogether.
0:09:34 > 0:09:38So in his first draft, he left his crown not to the Grey girls,
0:09:38 > 0:09:42but to the sons they might one day have, their heirs male.
0:09:43 > 0:09:48But there was no time for the Grey girls to have a son.
0:09:48 > 0:09:53By the summer of 1553, Edward and his ministers knew he was dying.
0:09:55 > 0:09:59On his sickbed, Edward took up his pen once again.
0:09:59 > 0:10:02At the 11th hour, and faced with no other choice,
0:10:02 > 0:10:06he accepted that he would have to name a female heir.
0:10:06 > 0:10:08His Device said that the crown should pass to
0:10:08 > 0:10:11"the Lady Jane's heirs male,"
0:10:11 > 0:10:16but now the king altered it to read "the Lady Jane and her heirs male."
0:10:17 > 0:10:19With the addition of two small words,
0:10:19 > 0:10:23Jane Grey became the chosen heir to Edward's throne.
0:10:28 > 0:10:30Mary was the rightful heir,
0:10:30 > 0:10:32but she had no inkling of these manoeuvres,
0:10:32 > 0:10:34and neither did Jane Grey.
0:10:34 > 0:10:38She was merely a pawn in a much larger political game.
0:10:40 > 0:10:44During Edward's reign, England had been ruled by a noble council
0:10:44 > 0:10:47as they waited for Edward to reach adulthood.
0:10:49 > 0:10:52These men ran the country in the name of the young king.
0:10:52 > 0:10:56At their head was the Duke of Northumberland.
0:10:57 > 0:11:03For him, 15-year-old Jane Grey was the perfect choice as Edward's heir.
0:11:03 > 0:11:07Not only was she a Protestant, like Northumberland himself,
0:11:07 > 0:11:09but she had just been married to his son.
0:11:12 > 0:11:17June 1553 was a month of mounting tension.
0:11:17 > 0:11:21Northumberland sent warships to patrol the Thames,
0:11:21 > 0:11:23and did everything he could
0:11:23 > 0:11:26to ensure his coup would go according to plan.
0:11:30 > 0:11:32Meanwhile, Mary and Elizabeth were kept ignorant
0:11:32 > 0:11:35of their brother's weakening condition,
0:11:35 > 0:11:38as, one by one, the king's lawyers and councillors
0:11:38 > 0:11:40were called into his bedchamber
0:11:40 > 0:11:46to put their seals to the "Device" for Lady Jane's succession.
0:11:46 > 0:11:49THUNDER RUMBLES
0:11:50 > 0:11:53On the 6th of July, Edward died at Greenwich
0:11:53 > 0:11:56as a summer storm raged across the capital.
0:11:56 > 0:11:58But the would-be queens of England
0:11:58 > 0:12:02didn't yet know that their moment had come.
0:12:02 > 0:12:04The Duke of Northumberland wanted to ensure
0:12:04 > 0:12:07that the king's death was kept secret
0:12:07 > 0:12:09until the levers of power had been secured.
0:12:13 > 0:12:16Three days after Edward's death, Jane Grey was summoned
0:12:16 > 0:12:20to meet Northumberland and other members of the Privy Council.
0:12:20 > 0:12:23She watched in bewilderment as they knelt before her,
0:12:23 > 0:12:27offering their allegiance to the new Queen of England.
0:12:27 > 0:12:31Her first reaction was a storm of grief for her dead cousin.
0:12:31 > 0:12:33Her second was horror.
0:12:33 > 0:12:37"The crown is not my right and pleases me not," she said.
0:12:37 > 0:12:40"The Lady Mary is the rightful heir."
0:12:42 > 0:12:47Jane Grey was strong-willed and ferociously intelligent,
0:12:47 > 0:12:52but she was only 15, and struggling with shock and grief.
0:12:53 > 0:12:55In the end, she couldn't hold out
0:12:55 > 0:12:58against her powerful and manipulative father-in-law,
0:12:58 > 0:12:59Northumberland.
0:13:02 > 0:13:07On the 10th of July, heralds at last appeared on the streets of London
0:13:07 > 0:13:10to tell Edward's subjects that their king was dead
0:13:10 > 0:13:13and to proclaim the accession of Queen Jane.
0:13:17 > 0:13:20The heralds' proclamation was a lengthy document,
0:13:20 > 0:13:23largely because of the need to explain to Jane's subjects
0:13:23 > 0:13:26exactly who their new queen was.
0:13:26 > 0:13:28If the idea that she might inherit the throne
0:13:28 > 0:13:30had come as a shock to Jane herself,
0:13:30 > 0:13:33it was a bolt from the blue for the people of England,
0:13:33 > 0:13:34and beyond.
0:13:34 > 0:13:37The Emperor Charles V had to ask his envoys
0:13:37 > 0:13:41to send a family tree to explain Jane's claim to the crown.
0:13:41 > 0:13:43And on London's streets,
0:13:43 > 0:13:47the news was met in puzzled and fearful silence.
0:13:54 > 0:13:58But Jane soon realised even more was expected of her.
0:14:00 > 0:14:03As she was taken to the royal apartments in the Tower of London
0:14:03 > 0:14:05to prepare for her coronation,
0:14:05 > 0:14:09it became clear that her father-in-law Northumberland
0:14:09 > 0:14:12expected his son to become king once she was queen.
0:14:16 > 0:14:20Jane later wrote that she was wrestling with "a troubled mind,
0:14:20 > 0:14:23"infinite grief and displeasure of heart,"
0:14:23 > 0:14:26as she struggled to cope with the shock of her situation.
0:14:26 > 0:14:30But, all the same, she was prepared to flex her royal muscles.
0:14:30 > 0:14:33The question of the status of a reigning queen's husband
0:14:33 > 0:14:37was without precedent in English history.
0:14:37 > 0:14:39Jane's husband Guildford had assumed
0:14:39 > 0:14:41that he would become king when Jane became queen,
0:14:41 > 0:14:43but she was having none of it.
0:14:43 > 0:14:47She was worried that the crown might not rightfully be hers,
0:14:47 > 0:14:49but she was sure that it wasn't her husband's.
0:14:53 > 0:14:56Jane's stand precipitated a furious row
0:14:56 > 0:14:59with her father-in-law and her husband.
0:15:00 > 0:15:04When it was suggested that a crown be made for Guildford too,
0:15:04 > 0:15:07she said she would make him a duke, but not a king.
0:15:08 > 0:15:11Northumberland had expected a puppet.
0:15:11 > 0:15:16Now he was finding Jane wouldn't be so easily manipulated.
0:15:17 > 0:15:20But for the moment, this battle had to wait,
0:15:20 > 0:15:23because another strong woman was preparing for a fight -
0:15:23 > 0:15:25Mary.
0:15:28 > 0:15:32It was Mary, Henry VIII's eldest daughter,
0:15:32 > 0:15:34who was popularly understood to stand next in line
0:15:34 > 0:15:36to her brother's throne.
0:15:36 > 0:15:39Mary's sex had compromised her standing
0:15:39 > 0:15:41as his heir in her father's eyes,
0:15:41 > 0:15:44but the fact that she was female could hardly be used against her
0:15:44 > 0:15:45by supporters of Queen Jane.
0:15:47 > 0:15:48Still, the fact remained
0:15:48 > 0:15:52that Northumberland controlled the formidable machinery of government,
0:15:52 > 0:15:54and it wasn't clear what Mary could do to oust him.
0:16:00 > 0:16:03Sinister whispers had reached Mary
0:16:03 > 0:16:06that Northumberland was planning to arrest her
0:16:06 > 0:16:08and imprison her in the Tower.
0:16:09 > 0:16:13Mary fled to her estates in East Anglia,
0:16:13 > 0:16:16and then made her way to her castle of Framlingham in Suffolk,
0:16:16 > 0:16:19with its moated defences.
0:16:23 > 0:16:27Mary was safe, but she was far from the centre of political action,
0:16:27 > 0:16:30and her enemies controlled the capital.
0:16:32 > 0:16:36She seemed to be a woman alone, and her chances of becoming queen
0:16:36 > 0:16:38were written off even by her allies.
0:16:40 > 0:16:44Her chief supporter overseas was her cousin Charles V.
0:16:44 > 0:16:47As the King of Spain and Holy Roman Emperor,
0:16:47 > 0:16:50he was one of the most powerful men in Europe.
0:16:52 > 0:16:55And his ambassador told him Mary stood no chance.
0:16:57 > 0:17:00"All the forces of the country are in the Duke's hands,
0:17:00 > 0:17:05"and my lady has no hope of raising enough men to face him."
0:17:08 > 0:17:10As a female heir to the throne,
0:17:10 > 0:17:14Mary found that her judgment was questioned and her claim dismissed
0:17:14 > 0:17:16because she couldn't lead her own troops to enforce it.
0:17:16 > 0:17:20But what they hadn't taken into account was Mary herself.
0:17:24 > 0:17:29And that was a misjudgment on a massive scale.
0:17:29 > 0:17:33Mary was determined she would be queen.
0:17:35 > 0:17:39She sent letters to noblemen and gentry around the country,
0:17:39 > 0:17:42summoning them to come to their rightful queen's defence.
0:17:44 > 0:17:47They answered Mary's call in their thousands.
0:17:47 > 0:17:49The men who mustered their troops here,
0:17:49 > 0:17:52at her castle of Framlingham in Suffolk,
0:17:52 > 0:17:53were loyal to the old religion,
0:17:53 > 0:17:56or more simply, to the lineage of Henry VIII.
0:17:56 > 0:18:01And their confidence in the justice of their mission was palpable.
0:18:02 > 0:18:06The same wasn't true of Mary's opponents.
0:18:06 > 0:18:11Northumberland wasn't popular, and he had misjudged his reach.
0:18:11 > 0:18:14Just because he had proclaimed Jane queen
0:18:14 > 0:18:17didn't mean the country would accept it.
0:18:19 > 0:18:24At Framlingham, Mary's forces now counted 10,000 and rising.
0:18:26 > 0:18:29Northumberland marched his men out of London to meet them,
0:18:29 > 0:18:32but on the 18th of July,
0:18:32 > 0:18:35Mary heard that he had stopped short at Cambridge
0:18:35 > 0:18:39in shock at the overwhelming strength of her position.
0:18:39 > 0:18:42And in his absence, the other lords of the council
0:18:42 > 0:18:45collapsed into panic and recrimination,
0:18:45 > 0:18:48claiming Northumberland had prevented them
0:18:48 > 0:18:50from declaring their loyalty to Mary.
0:18:53 > 0:18:56On Wednesday the 19th of July,
0:18:56 > 0:18:58Mary Tudor was proclaimed Queen of England.
0:18:58 > 0:19:02Jane's proclamation had been greeted with uneasy silence.
0:19:02 > 0:19:08Now London's streets erupted in a wild explosion of joy and relief.
0:19:08 > 0:19:12In the Tower, the girl who'd been queen for just nine days
0:19:12 > 0:19:16relinquished a crown that she'd always believed was Mary's by right.
0:19:17 > 0:19:20Jane had reigned, fleetingly and powerlessly,
0:19:20 > 0:19:24but now Mary faced the reality of ruling England.
0:19:30 > 0:19:33In just nine days, Mary had routed her enemies.
0:19:33 > 0:19:37She ordered a traitor's death for the Duke of Northumberland.
0:19:40 > 0:19:41And Jane Grey,
0:19:41 > 0:19:45who had entered the Tower of London to prepare for her coronation,
0:19:45 > 0:19:47now remained there as a prisoner.
0:19:49 > 0:19:51But Mary refused to order the execution
0:19:51 > 0:19:54of a girl she saw as a wronged innocent.
0:19:56 > 0:19:59Mary's own right to the throne had been vindicated
0:19:59 > 0:20:02with overwhelming popular recognition.
0:20:03 > 0:20:04But as a woman,
0:20:04 > 0:20:09her right to exercise power as she saw fit was another matter.
0:20:11 > 0:20:14Mary's cousin, the Emperor Charles V,
0:20:14 > 0:20:18had no doubt of the constraints her sex would impose on her rule.
0:20:18 > 0:20:20Just three days into her reign,
0:20:20 > 0:20:25he sent his ambassadors some advice to pass on to the new queen.
0:20:25 > 0:20:27"Let her be in all things what she ought to be -
0:20:27 > 0:20:31"a good Englishwoman, and avoid giving the impression
0:20:31 > 0:20:33"that she desires to act on her own authority."
0:20:33 > 0:20:36No king could have tolerated the prospect
0:20:36 > 0:20:39that he shouldn't "act on his own authority."
0:20:39 > 0:20:42But Mary was being told she couldn't do that
0:20:42 > 0:20:44AND be a "good Englishwoman."
0:20:46 > 0:20:49For the time being, however,
0:20:49 > 0:20:53it seemed that Mary would play the "good Englishwoman" to perfection.
0:20:55 > 0:20:57Three days before her coronation,
0:20:57 > 0:21:02Mary made a remarkable appeal to the members of her council.
0:21:02 > 0:21:05'Sinking to her knees before them,
0:21:05 > 0:21:07'she spoke at length about her responsibility
0:21:07 > 0:21:09'to God and her people,'
0:21:09 > 0:21:13and then implored them to do their duty as her councillors,
0:21:13 > 0:21:14because, she said,
0:21:14 > 0:21:19she had entrusted her affairs and person to them.
0:21:19 > 0:21:24The imperial ambassador reported that these great men of the realm
0:21:24 > 0:21:25were moved to tears.
0:21:25 > 0:21:30"Amazed as they all were by this humble and lowly discourse,
0:21:30 > 0:21:34"so unlike anything ever heard before in England."
0:21:36 > 0:21:40How much of this public performance was heartfelt,
0:21:40 > 0:21:42and how much was strategy?
0:21:42 > 0:21:45Mary was conservative by temperament,
0:21:45 > 0:21:48but she was also highly intelligent, and like all the Tudors,
0:21:48 > 0:21:50had a formidable will.
0:21:50 > 0:21:53And whether or not she genuinely believed that, as a woman,
0:21:53 > 0:21:56she needed help in governing her kingdom,
0:21:56 > 0:22:00it was certainly the case that this display of female frailty
0:22:00 > 0:22:01proved an effective way
0:22:01 > 0:22:05of uniting a fractious and divided council around her.
0:22:12 > 0:22:17And with the backing of her council, Mary was about to achieve something
0:22:17 > 0:22:20no woman before her had ever managed.
0:22:20 > 0:22:22Jane may have been proclaimed England's queen
0:22:22 > 0:22:27for a fleeting moment, but she was never crowned.
0:22:27 > 0:22:32On the 30th of September 1553, Mary became the first Queen of England
0:22:32 > 0:22:34to be crowned in her own right.
0:22:37 > 0:22:39At her coronation in Westminster Abbey,
0:22:39 > 0:22:43like all previous kings, she wore crimson robes
0:22:43 > 0:22:47to receive the orb, sceptre, ring, spurs and sword
0:22:47 > 0:22:50that represented the powers of kingship.
0:22:55 > 0:22:58And she was anointed with holy oil, like a king,
0:22:58 > 0:23:01before the crown of England was placed on her head.
0:23:11 > 0:23:14But the triumph of this ceremony was soon overshadowed
0:23:14 > 0:23:17by the prospect of another - Mary's marriage.
0:23:17 > 0:23:21She might be a crowned sovereign, but she was still a woman,
0:23:21 > 0:23:24and the consensus was that she needed a husband.
0:23:27 > 0:23:31At the age of 17, Mary had been declared a bastard.
0:23:31 > 0:23:35This toxic status had made her un-marriageable,
0:23:35 > 0:23:41but now, 20 years later, she was the most eligible woman in Europe.
0:23:41 > 0:23:43And the question of Mary's marriage
0:23:43 > 0:23:47would dominate the first year of her reign.
0:23:47 > 0:23:49It would bring into open discussion
0:23:49 > 0:23:54whether a woman could be both a ruler and a wife.
0:23:56 > 0:23:58Her cousin, the Emperor Charles V,
0:23:58 > 0:24:01had advised that she needed a husband
0:24:01 > 0:24:05so that she could be "supported in the labour of governing,
0:24:05 > 0:24:10"and assisted in matters that are not of ladies' capacity."
0:24:10 > 0:24:14Mary remained calm in the face of such patronising advice
0:24:14 > 0:24:19because she agreed that she needed a husband, and quickly,
0:24:19 > 0:24:21but for a very different reason.
0:24:21 > 0:24:25Mary was 37, and she wanted a Catholic heir.
0:24:29 > 0:24:33Everyone agreed, then, that the queen should marry without delay,
0:24:33 > 0:24:34but it was much harder to decide
0:24:34 > 0:24:37which husband in particular she should take.
0:24:37 > 0:24:40At the heart of the problem was the unresolved question
0:24:40 > 0:24:43of the balance of authority between husband and wife
0:24:43 > 0:24:45when the wife wore a crown.
0:24:45 > 0:24:49If Queen Mary took a husband, would England acquire a king?
0:24:51 > 0:24:56Many of Mary's subjects believed that she should marry an Englishman,
0:24:56 > 0:24:59fearing that if she married a European prince or king,
0:24:59 > 0:25:02England would be subjected to foreign rule.
0:25:04 > 0:25:06The leading candidate,
0:25:06 > 0:25:10qualified by his Catholic faith and his royal descent,
0:25:10 > 0:25:14was a nobleman named Edward Courtenay, Earl of Devon.
0:25:16 > 0:25:20Just a month after her coronation, in November 1553,
0:25:20 > 0:25:24a parliamentary delegation visited the queen
0:25:24 > 0:25:27to tell her why Courtenay should be her husband.
0:25:28 > 0:25:32They lectured Mary at length about all the disadvantages,
0:25:32 > 0:25:36dangers and difficulties that could be imagined or dreamt of
0:25:36 > 0:25:39in the case of her choosing a foreign husband.
0:25:40 > 0:25:44Mary might kneel before her council when she chose,
0:25:44 > 0:25:46but if they thought she would simply do what she was told,
0:25:46 > 0:25:48they were very much mistaken.
0:25:48 > 0:25:51"Parliament was not accustomed to use such language
0:25:51 > 0:25:53"to the kings of England," she blazed back,
0:25:53 > 0:25:57"nor was it suitable or respectful that they should do so."
0:25:57 > 0:26:00And what angered her more than anything was the suggestion
0:26:00 > 0:26:03that she should marry one of her own subjects.
0:26:06 > 0:26:09The difficulty was that a good Christian wife, as Mary said,
0:26:09 > 0:26:12should "wholly love and obey" her husband.
0:26:13 > 0:26:17But she was a queen, so how could she obey a husband
0:26:17 > 0:26:19who was also her subject?
0:26:22 > 0:26:26Her authority as a female sovereign could only be safeguarded, Mary believed,
0:26:26 > 0:26:30if she married a man whose status was the equal of her own,
0:26:30 > 0:26:34and that, by definition, meant that he couldn't be an Englishman.
0:26:34 > 0:26:37And marrying a foreigner would also allow her
0:26:37 > 0:26:39to separate her private responsibilities as a wife
0:26:39 > 0:26:43from her public duties as England's queen.
0:26:43 > 0:26:47She would wholly love and obey her husband, she said,
0:26:47 > 0:26:50but if he wished to encroach in the government of the kingdom,
0:26:50 > 0:26:52she would be unable to permit it.
0:26:57 > 0:27:00And Mary already had a suitable candidate in mind.
0:27:03 > 0:27:06Her first thought had been of her widowed cousin
0:27:06 > 0:27:10and her greatest supporter in Europe - Emperor Charles V.
0:27:10 > 0:27:16But he was 53, immobilised by gout, catarrh and haemorrhoids,
0:27:16 > 0:27:19and he had no appetite for another marriage.
0:27:21 > 0:27:24In his place, he proposed his son, Philip,
0:27:24 > 0:27:27who was already ruling Spain on his behalf.
0:27:29 > 0:27:33While Mary's councillors were arguing for an English husband,
0:27:33 > 0:27:36she had already committed herself to this Spanish match.
0:27:39 > 0:27:41Mary's decision to marry Philip
0:27:41 > 0:27:44has been seen as the defining mistake of her reign.
0:27:44 > 0:27:49And with hindsight, it's certainly clear that it had profound and destructive drawbacks.
0:27:49 > 0:27:52But there are good grounds for thinking
0:27:52 > 0:27:55that he was the best of the very limited choices available to her
0:27:55 > 0:27:58as a female monarch in search of a husband
0:27:58 > 0:28:01who wouldn't compromise her power in her kingdom.
0:28:05 > 0:28:07By making an alliance with Spain,
0:28:07 > 0:28:10one of the most powerful countries in Europe,
0:28:10 > 0:28:13Mary was following in her own father's footsteps.
0:28:15 > 0:28:18Henry VIII had married Mary's mother, Catherine of Aragon,
0:28:18 > 0:28:20as a matter of political strategy.
0:28:22 > 0:28:25Mary applied the same hard-headed calculations to her own match.
0:28:26 > 0:28:31But the reaction of the country to Mary's Spanish choice was very different.
0:28:38 > 0:28:40As soon as the news began to spread
0:28:40 > 0:28:43that the ruler of Spain was coming to England to marry the queen,
0:28:43 > 0:28:47a plot was hatched to save England's autonomy
0:28:47 > 0:28:49by removing Mary from the throne.
0:28:58 > 0:29:02Under the leadership of a Kentish gentleman named Sir Thomas Wyatt,
0:29:02 > 0:29:083,000 men marched on London in February 1554,
0:29:08 > 0:29:13intending to make a new and safely English queen out of Jane Grey,
0:29:13 > 0:29:15or Mary's sister Elizabeth.
0:29:16 > 0:29:23But, once again, Mary showed that a female sovereign could lead her people in time of crisis -
0:29:23 > 0:29:27not by fighting, but by talking.
0:29:27 > 0:29:31She rode to the heart of the City of London to rally her subjects.
0:29:33 > 0:29:35It was at London's Guildhall
0:29:35 > 0:29:38that Mary declared her dedication to her realm
0:29:38 > 0:29:42by playing on her double identity as a sovereign and a woman.
0:29:42 > 0:29:47She showed the people her coronation ring, signifying her marriage to her kingdom,
0:29:47 > 0:29:50which, she told them, never left her finger.
0:29:51 > 0:29:55And she wasn't only the wife, but the mother of the nation.
0:29:55 > 0:29:59She said, "If a prince and governor may as naturally and earnestly
0:29:59 > 0:30:02"love her subjects as the mother does love the child,
0:30:02 > 0:30:06"then assure yourselves that I, being your lady and mistress,
0:30:06 > 0:30:10"do as earnestly and tenderly love and favour you."
0:30:12 > 0:30:18When the rebels finally arrived in London during the night of the 6th of February,
0:30:18 > 0:30:23the queen stayed at Westminster, believing her capital would hold firm.
0:30:24 > 0:30:25And she was right.
0:30:26 > 0:30:28By morning, the rebellion had collapsed.
0:30:31 > 0:30:37It was a triumph for Mary, but a disaster for Jane Grey.
0:30:37 > 0:30:41Jane's very existence would always be a focus for Protestant opposition,
0:30:41 > 0:30:46and Mary reluctantly agreed to her execution.
0:30:46 > 0:30:48Less than a week later, Jane was led to the scaffold
0:30:48 > 0:30:51within the precincts of the Tower.
0:30:51 > 0:30:54With extraordinary composure,
0:30:54 > 0:30:59she admitted her fault in accepting the crown she had never wanted,
0:30:59 > 0:31:01before her head was severed from her body.
0:31:04 > 0:31:08The events of February 1554 were a dramatic demonstration
0:31:08 > 0:31:12of Mary's strengths and her vulnerabilities as queen.
0:31:12 > 0:31:17She'd seen off the rebels with a bravura display of her queenly authority.
0:31:17 > 0:31:23But the failure of the revolt didn't dispel fears that her idealised marriage to her kingdom
0:31:23 > 0:31:28might be compromised by her actual marriage to Philip of Spain.
0:31:32 > 0:31:36Fears or not, Mary was determined that the wedding should go ahead.
0:31:36 > 0:31:39On the 25th of July 1554,
0:31:39 > 0:31:43she and Philip were married with pomp and ceremony
0:31:43 > 0:31:45here at Winchester Cathedral.
0:31:48 > 0:31:50They appeared an odd couple.
0:31:50 > 0:31:53Philip was 27, elegantly dressed,
0:31:53 > 0:31:57lantern-jawed and utterly inscrutable.
0:31:57 > 0:32:01His bride was 11 years older, short and thin,
0:32:01 > 0:32:05her face lined with anxiety, an ambassador ungallantly reported.
0:32:08 > 0:32:10Mary was delighted with her marriage,
0:32:10 > 0:32:14but England now faced a double challenge -
0:32:14 > 0:32:20a woman intent on ruling with a foreign king as her husband by her side.
0:32:21 > 0:32:24What would this mean for her kingdom?
0:32:26 > 0:32:30This great seal of 1554 brilliantly illustrates
0:32:30 > 0:32:35the complicated sexual politics of this royal relationship.
0:32:35 > 0:32:36The couple are on horseback,
0:32:36 > 0:32:39Mary riding ahead, holding a sceptre,
0:32:39 > 0:32:42and looking back at Philip on her left -
0:32:42 > 0:32:45the traditional position of a royal consort.
0:32:45 > 0:32:49So Mary is the dominant partner here,
0:32:49 > 0:32:52but Philip has a sword unsheathed in his hand.
0:32:52 > 0:32:56The vital function of king as warrior is one she can't fulfil,
0:32:56 > 0:32:59so her husband is there to do it for her.
0:32:59 > 0:33:05But even this apparently neat division of labour was fraught with difficulties.
0:33:05 > 0:33:08If Philip were to lead his armies in England's defence,
0:33:08 > 0:33:11would England be subjected to the military power of Spain?
0:33:14 > 0:33:18These difficulties and contradictions were so powerful
0:33:18 > 0:33:21that the treaty hammered out to set the terms of their marriage
0:33:21 > 0:33:27went to great lengths to prevent Philip from intervening in the government of England at all.
0:33:27 > 0:33:30England would take no part in his wars,
0:33:30 > 0:33:33Mary would not leave the country,
0:33:33 > 0:33:37and Philip would have no claim to the throne after her death.
0:33:38 > 0:33:44In effect, Philip would have the title of king in England, but none of the authority.
0:33:46 > 0:33:49Mary had got what she wanted.
0:33:49 > 0:33:54By marrying a foreigner, she kept all her power in England intact.
0:33:55 > 0:34:01And just four months later, there was another reason for her to be jubilant.
0:34:01 > 0:34:04On the 28th of November 1554,
0:34:04 > 0:34:07the news was made public that Mary was pregnant.
0:34:11 > 0:34:13By Easter 1555,
0:34:13 > 0:34:17England waited expectantly for the arrival of an heir.
0:34:17 > 0:34:21The queen retreated here to Hampton Court Palace for her confinement,
0:34:21 > 0:34:25with an exquisitely carved cradle standing ready by her bed.
0:34:27 > 0:34:32On the 30th of April, news reached London that Mary had given birth to a boy.
0:34:33 > 0:34:36The city erupted in celebration.
0:34:36 > 0:34:38But it proved to be rumour,
0:34:38 > 0:34:43running wilder than the bonfires in the streets, and was quickly denied.
0:34:44 > 0:34:47May came and went and, by July,
0:34:47 > 0:34:51when the queen re-emerged in public with no further comment,
0:34:51 > 0:34:54it was clear that she was not, after all, pregnant.
0:34:59 > 0:35:02For Mary, it was a personal tragedy.
0:35:02 > 0:35:05She'd been elated at the prospect of giving birth to an heir.
0:35:05 > 0:35:10And though it wasn't easy for doctors then to confirm a pregnancy beyond question,
0:35:10 > 0:35:15her growing belly had left her confident that she was about to become a mother.
0:35:16 > 0:35:21But her symptoms turned out to be those of a phantom pregnancy, not a real one.
0:35:21 > 0:35:25The consequences were not only grief and humiliation,
0:35:25 > 0:35:28but a new political vulnerability.
0:35:30 > 0:35:35Mary knew that she needed an heir to put an end to the unsettling question of the succession.
0:35:37 > 0:35:40But now her hopes of conceiving one were diminished
0:35:40 > 0:35:43by the fact that her husband couldn't stay indefinitely by her side.
0:35:47 > 0:35:50Philip had waited for the delivery that never was,
0:35:50 > 0:35:53but, in August 1555,
0:35:53 > 0:35:57he left England to deal with his own royal duties on the Continent.
0:36:00 > 0:36:0418 months later, he returned to England for a short visit,
0:36:04 > 0:36:06and in January the following year,
0:36:06 > 0:36:11Mary announced the good news that she was seven months pregnant.
0:36:13 > 0:36:15She had waited so long, she said,
0:36:15 > 0:36:19because this time she wanted to be certain of her condition.
0:36:19 > 0:36:22But it was the same story again.
0:36:22 > 0:36:24Once again, there was no baby,
0:36:24 > 0:36:28and by May, the subject was no longer mentioned.
0:36:29 > 0:36:34Despite all Mary's hopes, at 42, she now faced the certainty
0:36:34 > 0:36:38that her marriage had not brought her the heir she needed.
0:36:55 > 0:36:56For all monarchs,
0:36:56 > 0:36:59the need to produce an heir and carry on the royal bloodline
0:36:59 > 0:37:01was of the utmost importance.
0:37:03 > 0:37:06But for Mary, there was the added weight of her Catholic faith.
0:37:09 > 0:37:13Her sister Elizabeth was next in line to the throne,
0:37:13 > 0:37:16but Elizabeth was a Protestant.
0:37:16 > 0:37:20Now all Mary could do was to try in her own lifetime
0:37:20 > 0:37:25to make sure that Catholicism was firmly re-established in England.
0:37:31 > 0:37:35After Edward's Protestant regime, many had welcomed Mary's commitment
0:37:35 > 0:37:40to the traditional forms of religious practice.
0:37:40 > 0:37:44Altars were restored and images retrieved from their hiding places.
0:37:45 > 0:37:48But Mary's religious reform went deeper.
0:37:49 > 0:37:54She wanted to stamp out all traces of Protestant belief as well as practice.
0:37:55 > 0:38:00In November 1554, she had reinstated the old heresy laws,
0:38:00 > 0:38:03and over the next four years,
0:38:03 > 0:38:08almost 280 English Protestants died in Catholic flames.
0:38:12 > 0:38:17And it was that ferocity on the part of England's first sovereign queen
0:38:17 > 0:38:23that gave rise to the most explicit condemnation yet formulated of the whole concept of female rule.
0:38:30 > 0:38:32From his exile in Geneva,
0:38:32 > 0:38:38John Knox, a Scotsman who had served as chaplain at Edward's Protestant court,
0:38:38 > 0:38:43watched in horror as Mary undid Edward's Protestant reformation.
0:38:44 > 0:38:50Knox responded in 1558 by publishing this book, the gloriously titled
0:38:50 > 0:38:57First Blast Of The Trumpet Against The Monstrous Regiment - meaning regimen or rule - Of Women.
0:38:57 > 0:39:02And it's clear from the first page that Knox was not about to mince his words.
0:39:02 > 0:39:09"To promote a woman to bear rule, superiority, dominion or empire above any realm, nation or city
0:39:09 > 0:39:13"is repugnant to nature, contumely to God,
0:39:13 > 0:39:17"a thing most contrarious to his revealed will and approved ordinance
0:39:17 > 0:39:20"and, finally, it is the subversion of good order,
0:39:20 > 0:39:22"of all equity and justice."
0:39:22 > 0:39:29According to Knox, women's rule was monstrous - that is, unnatural and abominable -
0:39:29 > 0:39:33because women were subordinate to men by the laws of God and nature.
0:39:33 > 0:39:40For Knox, Mary's "spiritual fornication and whoredom" made her "the uttermost of God's plagues."
0:39:43 > 0:39:46This is a piece of thunderingly misogynist polemic.
0:39:47 > 0:39:52But behind Knox's ranting lay a much deeper and wider cultural unease
0:39:52 > 0:39:56about the very idea of women holding political power.
0:39:58 > 0:40:02And there was an intractable catch 22 at work here.
0:40:02 > 0:40:06Women were soft and weak, hence unfit to rule.
0:40:06 > 0:40:09But a woman who showed herself to be strong
0:40:09 > 0:40:13was not the equivalent of a man, but a monster, a crime against nature.
0:40:17 > 0:40:21This double-bind stood at the heart of Knox's portrayal of Mary.
0:40:23 > 0:40:29He declared that she was "unworthy, by reason of her bloody tyranny, of the name of woman".
0:40:30 > 0:40:35History would echo Knox's verdict by dubbing this Catholic queen Bloody Mary.
0:40:37 > 0:40:41Mary's desire to be both a female king and a wife
0:40:41 > 0:40:44proved just how difficult this combination could be.
0:40:45 > 0:40:49England had been drawn into Philip's war against the French,
0:40:49 > 0:40:54and Calais, England's last territory in France, had been lost.
0:40:56 > 0:40:57Mary was distraught.
0:40:58 > 0:41:02It was later said she'd declared that, when she died,
0:41:02 > 0:41:06the words Philip and Calais would be found inscribed on her heart.
0:41:09 > 0:41:14In the summer of 1558, a lethal flu epidemic took hold of England.
0:41:15 > 0:41:17The fever laid thousands low,
0:41:17 > 0:41:21and many did not rise again from their beds.
0:41:22 > 0:41:25That autumn, Queen Mary was among them.
0:41:27 > 0:41:29In the first week of November,
0:41:29 > 0:41:32knowing that she wasn't expected to survive,
0:41:32 > 0:41:35Mary sent to acknowledge Elizabeth as her heir,
0:41:35 > 0:41:38asking only, hopelessly, that her sister should,
0:41:38 > 0:41:43"Maintain the old religion as the queen has restored it."
0:41:43 > 0:41:47She held on for ten more days, slipping in and out of consciousness,
0:41:47 > 0:41:51but on the 17th of November 1558, Mary died.
0:41:52 > 0:41:54CHURCH BELLS RING
0:42:01 > 0:42:05This time there was no question who would succeed
0:42:05 > 0:42:07and no protest that she was a woman.
0:42:08 > 0:42:11On January 14th, 1559,
0:42:11 > 0:42:1725-year-old Elizabeth was carried in a litter draped with cloth of gold,
0:42:17 > 0:42:20in a triumphant progress through the streets of London.
0:42:21 > 0:42:25The next day, she was crowned Queen of England in Westminster Abbey.
0:42:26 > 0:42:29When she was presented to her people,
0:42:29 > 0:42:32the new queen was greeted with roars of approval,
0:42:32 > 0:42:35fanfares of trumpets and ringing of bells.
0:42:35 > 0:42:38One eyewitness reported that it was
0:42:38 > 0:42:40"as if the world were coming to an end."
0:42:45 > 0:42:49The fresh, young queen revelled in this tumultuous welcome,
0:42:49 > 0:42:54and the contrast with her weary predecessor was stark.
0:42:59 > 0:43:02But behind the pageants and the processions,
0:43:02 > 0:43:07Elizabeth shared more with her sister than first meets the eye.
0:43:07 > 0:43:11Both faced the same challenge - to be, as Mary's funeral oration
0:43:11 > 0:43:17declared, "a queen, and, by the same title, a king, also."
0:43:17 > 0:43:19When Elizabeth came to the throne,
0:43:19 > 0:43:22the two most urgent questions she faced were the very same ones
0:43:22 > 0:43:27that had confronted Mary - her marriage and her country's religion.
0:43:27 > 0:43:30Her advisers in England, and observers abroad,
0:43:30 > 0:43:32assumed that the two questions were one and the same,
0:43:32 > 0:43:36because what would determine England's religion, they thought,
0:43:36 > 0:43:40was not Elizabeth herself, but the identity of her future husband.
0:43:43 > 0:43:47The Spanish ambassador said as much to Philip of Spain
0:43:47 > 0:43:50just four days after Mary's death.
0:43:50 > 0:43:53"The more I think over this business," he said,
0:43:53 > 0:43:55"the more certain I am that everything depends upon
0:43:55 > 0:43:58"the husband this woman may take.
0:43:58 > 0:44:03"If he be a suitable one, religious matters will go on well,
0:44:03 > 0:44:06"but if not, all will be spoilt."
0:44:07 > 0:44:11Once again, it was assumed that the queen would have to marry
0:44:11 > 0:44:12and that the men around her
0:44:12 > 0:44:16would play a decisive role in choosing her husband.
0:44:18 > 0:44:21First among the Catholic candidates was Mary's widower,
0:44:21 > 0:44:24Philip of Spain himself.
0:44:24 > 0:44:28"If she decides to marry out of the country," his ambassador
0:44:28 > 0:44:32wrote confidently, "she will at once fix her eyes on Your Majesty."
0:44:34 > 0:44:36Meanwhile, Elizabeth's Protestant counsellors,
0:44:36 > 0:44:39including her right-hand man, William Cecil,
0:44:39 > 0:44:43who "governs the queen," the Spanish ambassador reported,
0:44:43 > 0:44:46had other ideas -
0:44:46 > 0:44:51the crown prince of Sweden, who sent lavish gifts of gold and horses
0:44:51 > 0:44:55to press his suit, or a small handful of hopefuls
0:44:55 > 0:44:57among the English nobility.
0:45:02 > 0:45:06But within weeks, the men around Elizabeth began to find themselves
0:45:06 > 0:45:08frustrated and confused.
0:45:08 > 0:45:11"The Queen is a woman who is very fond of argument,"
0:45:11 > 0:45:13Philip's ambassador wrote.
0:45:13 > 0:45:16"Everybody thinks that she will not marry a foreigner
0:45:16 > 0:45:19"and they cannot make out whom she favours,
0:45:19 > 0:45:22"so that nearly every day some new cry is raised about a husband."
0:45:22 > 0:45:24Surely, they thought,
0:45:24 > 0:45:27the matter would be settled at her first parliament.
0:45:30 > 0:45:34And so, on February 6th, 1559,
0:45:34 > 0:45:37in the Palace of Westminster, a parliamentary delegation,
0:45:37 > 0:45:41headed by the Speaker of the House of Commons, presented Elizabeth
0:45:41 > 0:45:45with a petition that she should marry and give the kingdom an heir,
0:45:45 > 0:45:48which was, said the Speaker, "the single,
0:45:48 > 0:45:53"the only, the all-comprehending prayer of all Englishmen."
0:45:54 > 0:45:58Elizabeth's reply to her parliament was a masterpiece of oratory
0:45:58 > 0:46:03that demonstrated her determination to be both queen and ruler.
0:46:03 > 0:46:06If she did ever marry, she would only choose a husband
0:46:06 > 0:46:10who would be as careful of her realm as she was herself.
0:46:10 > 0:46:13If she didn't, then God, she was sure,
0:46:13 > 0:46:16would provide an heir to secure England's future.
0:46:16 > 0:46:18And "in the end," she said,
0:46:18 > 0:46:22"this shall be for me sufficient, that a marble stone shall declare
0:46:22 > 0:46:28"that a queen, having reigned such a time, lived and died a virgin."
0:46:29 > 0:46:33This was an extraordinary declaration.
0:46:33 > 0:46:37No king would ever have suggested that he should remain unmarried
0:46:37 > 0:46:40and give up his chance to father an heir.
0:46:40 > 0:46:45But none of her subjects believed she'd meant what she'd said,
0:46:45 > 0:46:48and, unlike Mary, Elizabeth, at 25,
0:46:48 > 0:46:51had the luxury of time to put off her decision
0:46:51 > 0:46:54about who and when to marry.
0:46:55 > 0:46:58Her speechmaking didn't stop the suitors,
0:46:58 > 0:47:04and their diplomatic overtures continued to be met with flirtatious prevarication.
0:47:06 > 0:47:11Her first suitor, Philip of Spain, was the first to lose patience.
0:47:11 > 0:47:16When he married a French princess in April 1559, Elizabeth said sharply
0:47:16 > 0:47:19that he couldn't have been as much in love with her as he'd claimed,
0:47:19 > 0:47:23since he hadn't been prepared to wait four months for her.
0:47:23 > 0:47:27But declarations of love had only ever been a political game.
0:47:27 > 0:47:31What had changed Philip's mind was the realisation that Elizabeth
0:47:31 > 0:47:34would never be a good Catholic wife.
0:47:34 > 0:47:38She had made it plain that she, not any husband she might take,
0:47:38 > 0:47:42would decide the vexed question of England's religion.
0:47:45 > 0:47:49Elizabeth didn't share the dogmatic faith of either of her siblings,
0:47:49 > 0:47:54and she had seen, all too clearly, how the sight of Protestant flesh
0:47:54 > 0:47:59burning in Catholic flames had discredited Mary's government.
0:47:59 > 0:48:03Instead, the main business of her first parliament,
0:48:03 > 0:48:07after the question of her marriage had been raised and dispatched,
0:48:07 > 0:48:10was to establish a new religious settlement in England.
0:48:12 > 0:48:14After weeks of bitter argument
0:48:14 > 0:48:18between Catholics and hardline Protestants,
0:48:18 > 0:48:19Elizabeth adjourned the session.
0:48:22 > 0:48:24And when, on April 3, 1559,
0:48:24 > 0:48:26Elizabeth reassembled her parliament,
0:48:26 > 0:48:30she had come to a decision that gave in to neither side.
0:48:35 > 0:48:40Elizabeth formulated a very English brand of reformed religion.
0:48:40 > 0:48:42As Supreme Governor of the Church of England,
0:48:42 > 0:48:46not Supreme Head, which was too controversial a title for a woman,
0:48:46 > 0:48:50she tried to unite as many of her people as possible
0:48:50 > 0:48:52around her own sovereignty.
0:48:52 > 0:48:56She had no desire, she said, to "make windows into men's souls."
0:48:56 > 0:49:01For this queen, outward obedience to a compromise church was enough.
0:49:03 > 0:49:06No-one believed for a moment that this was the last word
0:49:06 > 0:49:08on England's religion.
0:49:10 > 0:49:13But Elizabeth's subjects were to find that this apparently open-ended
0:49:13 > 0:49:17approach to decision-making was typical of their new queen.
0:49:19 > 0:49:21They were discovering that their queen could be
0:49:21 > 0:49:23baffling as well as brilliant,
0:49:23 > 0:49:26with a silver-tongued capacity to say everything, and nothing,
0:49:26 > 0:49:28at the same time.
0:49:28 > 0:49:32But despite her capriciousness, as the years went on,
0:49:32 > 0:49:34they learned that it wasn't for nothing that Elizabeth's motto
0:49:34 > 0:49:39was "semper eadem" - always the same.
0:49:40 > 0:49:43The queen may have dealt with the question of England's religion
0:49:43 > 0:49:47with a compromise, but with the issue of marriage,
0:49:47 > 0:49:49there was no such middle ground.
0:49:49 > 0:49:53As weeks turned into months and months into years,
0:49:53 > 0:49:54the proposals came and went,
0:49:54 > 0:49:58and her chance of childbearing began to fade.
0:50:00 > 0:50:02There's no way of telling
0:50:02 > 0:50:05whether Elizabeth ever really entertained the idea of marriage.
0:50:05 > 0:50:07She dallied with suitors,
0:50:07 > 0:50:09most famously her favourite, Robert Dudley,
0:50:09 > 0:50:13who extended the castle here at Kenilworth specially for her visit.
0:50:13 > 0:50:16But in the end, with characteristic insight,
0:50:16 > 0:50:20she saw the potential of her status as a virgin queen,
0:50:20 > 0:50:24and by putting off the decision to marry until a perpetual tomorrow,
0:50:24 > 0:50:28she made herself the source of all security for her kingdom.
0:50:32 > 0:50:36And in 1588, Elizabeth's determination that she alone
0:50:36 > 0:50:41would protect her realm would be put to its greatest test.
0:50:42 > 0:50:47That summer, a vast Spanish fleet, sent by Elizabeth's one-time suitor,
0:50:47 > 0:50:50Philip of Spain, lay off the coast of England,
0:50:50 > 0:50:52threatening to invade.
0:50:54 > 0:50:58Philip had tried, and failed, to keep England Catholic,
0:50:58 > 0:51:00first by proposing to marry Elizabeth,
0:51:00 > 0:51:04then by supporting any opposition to her rule.
0:51:07 > 0:51:11Now, he intended to make England Catholic once and for all,
0:51:11 > 0:51:13this time by conquest.
0:51:16 > 0:51:19And confronted by Philip's forces, with no husband to hold
0:51:19 > 0:51:26a sword for her, 54-year-old Elizabeth faced the challenge alone.
0:51:26 > 0:51:30Could a female sovereign defend her kingdom against the might
0:51:30 > 0:51:32of the Spanish Armada?
0:51:34 > 0:51:38An army was mustered at Tilbury in Essex to resist the Spanish
0:51:38 > 0:51:41if they dared to sail up the Thames.
0:51:41 > 0:51:47On the morning of August 9, 1588, Elizabeth rode out on a white horse,
0:51:47 > 0:51:52with a silver breastplate over her white dress, to rally her troops.
0:51:52 > 0:51:55Her courage, and her extraordinary charisma,
0:51:55 > 0:51:58had never been more apparent.
0:51:58 > 0:52:03"I know I have the body of a weak and feeble woman," she said,
0:52:03 > 0:52:06"but I have the heart and stomach of a king,
0:52:06 > 0:52:08"and of a king of England, too."
0:52:09 > 0:52:11Women might be weak,
0:52:11 > 0:52:15but Elizabeth wanted her subjects to know that she was exceptional -
0:52:15 > 0:52:20chosen by God to be king and queen, in one.
0:52:29 > 0:52:31And heaven clearly approved.
0:52:31 > 0:52:35The Armada was shipwrecked by storms in the Atlantic.
0:52:35 > 0:52:40As Elizabeth declared, "God breathed and they were scattered."
0:52:41 > 0:52:43Even without a husband,
0:52:43 > 0:52:47the virgin queen had seen off England's enemies.
0:52:47 > 0:52:52This dramatic triumph, won by a nation led by a woman,
0:52:52 > 0:52:57served to feed the growing cult of Gloriana.
0:52:57 > 0:53:01Pictures such as this one, in the National Portrait Gallery,
0:53:01 > 0:53:04which was commissioned in 1592 by one of her courtiers
0:53:04 > 0:53:07as an elaborate compliment to the queen,
0:53:07 > 0:53:10show Elizabeth as a unique being,
0:53:10 > 0:53:15armed with an array of images, myths, allegories and symbols.
0:53:20 > 0:53:25Here she stands in all her glory - impassive, imperious,
0:53:25 > 0:53:28her elaborate dress hung with the pearls of virginity,
0:53:28 > 0:53:31now a frame for an icon.
0:53:31 > 0:53:35This queen represents the kingdom beneath her daintily-slippered feet
0:53:35 > 0:53:37as completely as she dominates it.
0:53:37 > 0:53:42She is king, queen, virgin, wife, mother and goddess,
0:53:42 > 0:53:45with a man's heart in a woman's breast.
0:53:45 > 0:53:47Not simply a woman,
0:53:47 > 0:53:51but a woman chosen by God to rise above the limitations of her sex.
0:53:53 > 0:53:57But Elizabeth's power entailed a sacrifice.
0:53:57 > 0:53:59It had to be exercised alone.
0:53:59 > 0:54:02She could only be wife and mother to her kingdom
0:54:02 > 0:54:04if she were wife and mother to no-one else.
0:54:06 > 0:54:09The virgin queen could dominate her country's present,
0:54:09 > 0:54:15but only by giving up any stake in its future.
0:54:15 > 0:54:17It was a high price to pay.
0:54:17 > 0:54:24In February 1603, when Elizabeth was 69, her health began to fail.
0:54:24 > 0:54:27At her palace of Richmond, restless with fever,
0:54:27 > 0:54:31she couldn't eat or sleep, but still she did everything she could
0:54:31 > 0:54:34to stave off the moment when her kingdom would go on without her,
0:54:34 > 0:54:38refusing to make a will or to name an heir,
0:54:38 > 0:54:41or even to move from the floor cushions on which she lay.
0:54:41 > 0:54:44A courtier told her she must go to bed.
0:54:44 > 0:54:47"Little man, little man," she said,
0:54:47 > 0:54:50"the word 'must' is not to be used to princes."
0:54:51 > 0:54:56CHORAL SINGING
0:54:56 > 0:55:01But the flattering rhetoric and the ageless portraits couldn't save her.
0:55:01 > 0:55:05Even Gloriana wasn't immortal.
0:55:05 > 0:55:10On March 24, 1603, Elizabeth died,
0:55:10 > 0:55:14and with her died the Tudor dynasty - the family line
0:55:14 > 0:55:18that her own father had gone to such lengths to continue.
0:55:20 > 0:55:23The consequences were immediately clear.
0:55:23 > 0:55:28As Elizabeth breathed her last, horsemen raced north to Edinburgh,
0:55:28 > 0:55:32to tell James VI, the Stuart King of Scotland,
0:55:32 > 0:55:34that he was now also King of England,
0:55:34 > 0:55:38the first of a new dynasty of English kings.
0:55:38 > 0:55:44CHORAL SINGING
0:55:48 > 0:55:51Elizabeth had ruled England for 45 years.
0:55:51 > 0:55:55She had shown not just that female rule was possible,
0:55:55 > 0:55:57but that it could be glorious.
0:55:57 > 0:56:01But still she couldn't do what every king saw as his birthright -
0:56:01 > 0:56:05to pass on the crown to an heir of his own bloodline.
0:56:05 > 0:56:08It's a telling reminder that, for a queen,
0:56:08 > 0:56:11there was no neutral in the exercise of power.
0:56:11 > 0:56:16Power was male, and a women who sought to rule faced compromises
0:56:16 > 0:56:20and criticism of a kind that would never have applied to a man.
0:56:28 > 0:56:31All the women who sought to rule medieval
0:56:31 > 0:56:34and Tudor England, from Matilda
0:56:34 > 0:56:36to Elizabeth I, found from bitter experience
0:56:36 > 0:56:40that power wasn't shaped for female hands.
0:56:42 > 0:56:45When they did pursue power as a man might,
0:56:45 > 0:56:49they were accused of being unfeminine and unnatural -
0:56:49 > 0:56:51of being she-wolves.
0:56:55 > 0:56:58Now it seems straightforward, even natural,
0:56:58 > 0:57:01that Great Britain has a queen.
0:57:01 > 0:57:04Elizabeth II has been able to wear her crown
0:57:04 > 0:57:07without facing the difficult choices that confronted
0:57:07 > 0:57:10her namesake four centuries ago.
0:57:12 > 0:57:15But there's a reason for this.
0:57:15 > 0:57:19Unlike her medieval and Tudor predecessors,
0:57:19 > 0:57:22our queen reigns, rather than rules.
0:57:22 > 0:57:27When she comes here, to the House of Lords, to open a parliament,
0:57:27 > 0:57:31she speaks her government's words, not her own.
0:57:31 > 0:57:35My government's legislative programme will be based upon
0:57:35 > 0:57:39the principles of freedom, fairness and responsibility.
0:57:41 > 0:57:46A woman with real power is still the exception to the rule.
0:57:46 > 0:57:49If we examine our instincts, and our institutions,
0:57:49 > 0:57:54power still looks, sounds and feels overwhelmingly male.
0:57:54 > 0:57:58So in the end, is the culture of power in the modern world
0:57:58 > 0:58:02less different from the medieval past than we'd care to admit?
0:58:27 > 0:58:30Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd