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Queen Elizabeth I. | 0:00:02 | 0:00:04 | |
Conqueror of the Spanish Armada. | 0:00:04 | 0:00:06 | |
Tudor Defender of the Protestant Faith. | 0:00:06 | 0:00:09 | |
The headstrong Virgin Queen who refuses to marry. | 0:00:09 | 0:00:12 | |
But of all her challenges, | 0:00:14 | 0:00:16 | |
her most gruelling battle is with another woman. | 0:00:16 | 0:00:20 | |
Her own cousin, Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots. | 0:00:20 | 0:00:24 | |
I am a free princess in that I am | 0:00:24 | 0:00:26 | |
not responsible to you or any other. | 0:00:26 | 0:00:28 | |
Elizabeth will not face a more relentless threat to her crown. | 0:00:30 | 0:00:34 | |
Or her life. | 0:00:34 | 0:00:35 | |
With black ingratitude she tries to kill me, | 0:00:37 | 0:00:40 | |
who so often saved her life! | 0:00:40 | 0:00:41 | |
Elizabeth never forgives Mary for the fact that she has | 0:00:43 | 0:00:47 | |
laid claim to her throne. She never forgets it. | 0:00:47 | 0:00:49 | |
So long as I live, there shall be no other Queen in England but I. | 0:00:49 | 0:00:54 | |
There is no other Queen of England but I. | 0:00:55 | 0:00:59 | |
Both claim the English throne. | 0:01:01 | 0:01:03 | |
Two queens on opposite sides of the greatest conflicts of their time, | 0:01:03 | 0:01:08 | |
Protestant and Catholic, | 0:01:08 | 0:01:10 | |
Tudor and Stuart | 0:01:10 | 0:01:11 | |
and that most ancient of rivalries, | 0:01:11 | 0:01:14 | |
English and Scottish. | 0:01:14 | 0:01:16 | |
When rude Scotland vomits up a poison, | 0:01:17 | 0:01:22 | |
must fine England lick it up for a restorative? | 0:01:22 | 0:01:25 | |
Their combat will last from 1561 to 1587... | 0:01:27 | 0:01:32 | |
..ending in one final, fatal decision. | 0:01:33 | 0:01:37 | |
And yet, in nearly three decades of obsession with each other, | 0:01:43 | 0:01:48 | |
they would never actually meet. | 0:01:48 | 0:01:50 | |
That explosive relationship is played out entirely through letters... | 0:01:52 | 0:01:56 | |
..written with an intimacy and passion that still burns through the paper. | 0:01:57 | 0:02:02 | |
Beneath those elegant phrases swirls this dark, deadly current | 0:02:03 | 0:02:09 | |
which is going to drag one of the writers down. | 0:02:09 | 0:02:12 | |
Here for the first time on television, dramatised purely | 0:02:13 | 0:02:17 | |
from the words of the two queens and their courtiers, | 0:02:17 | 0:02:20 | |
is the faithful story of Elizabeth and Mary. | 0:02:20 | 0:02:24 | |
No more tears. | 0:02:26 | 0:02:28 | |
I will think upon revenge. | 0:02:29 | 0:02:31 | |
Would that we, being two queens so near of kin, | 0:02:44 | 0:02:49 | |
neighbours living in one isle, | 0:02:49 | 0:02:51 | |
should be friends and live together like sisters, | 0:02:51 | 0:02:55 | |
than by some strange means divide ourselves to the hurt of us both. | 0:02:55 | 0:02:59 | |
I assure you, I be fully resolved to live with you | 0:02:59 | 0:03:02 | |
in the knot of friendship, as we are in that of nature and blood. | 0:03:02 | 0:03:07 | |
I am glad to hear of your goodwill towards us | 0:03:07 | 0:03:09 | |
and good inclination to peace and friendship. | 0:03:09 | 0:03:12 | |
God could not have blessed these two kingdoms with greater felicity | 0:03:15 | 0:03:18 | |
than if one of us had been a king and married the other. | 0:03:18 | 0:03:22 | |
1561. | 0:03:24 | 0:03:26 | |
Mary Stuart's arrival in Scotland has the two queens | 0:03:26 | 0:03:29 | |
brimming over with goodwill. | 0:03:29 | 0:03:33 | |
She is 18, Elizabeth 27. | 0:03:33 | 0:03:37 | |
The fact that with Mary and Elizabeth | 0:03:37 | 0:03:39 | |
we have two young women who are queens is extraordinary. | 0:03:39 | 0:03:44 | |
This is not an era of female rulers and now we have two of them | 0:03:44 | 0:03:49 | |
and their kingdoms border each other. | 0:03:49 | 0:03:52 | |
As two young queens on one island, surrounded by a sea of male rulers, | 0:03:54 | 0:03:59 | |
they seem to be drawn to one another. | 0:03:59 | 0:04:02 | |
Yet their characters couldn't be more different. | 0:04:03 | 0:04:06 | |
Elizabeth's godson, Sir John Harington, said of her | 0:04:08 | 0:04:11 | |
that when she smiled, "It was like pure sunshine". | 0:04:11 | 0:04:15 | |
But then he continued, he said, | 0:04:15 | 0:04:17 | |
"Anon would come a storm" and then thunderous weather would fall upon them all. | 0:04:17 | 0:04:21 | |
THUNDER RUMBLES | 0:04:21 | 0:04:22 | |
At one point, she actually broke one of her maid's fingers | 0:04:22 | 0:04:25 | |
by slamming a candlestick down on it. | 0:04:25 | 0:04:28 | |
She would smash things, she could say very unkind things. | 0:04:28 | 0:04:32 | |
Elizabeth has survived prison and death threats | 0:04:33 | 0:04:36 | |
to become Queen only two years earlier. | 0:04:36 | 0:04:39 | |
Mary has been Queen of Scots since she was six days old. | 0:04:39 | 0:04:44 | |
She's been raised in the luxury of the French court. | 0:04:44 | 0:04:47 | |
Mary loved life. | 0:04:47 | 0:04:50 | |
She loved dancing, she loved hunting, | 0:04:50 | 0:04:52 | |
she loved sewing, she loved people. | 0:04:52 | 0:04:55 | |
She would have danced all night if she could. | 0:04:55 | 0:04:57 | |
She'd been raised the pampered princess in France. | 0:04:59 | 0:05:03 | |
She was very vulnerable, she was volatile. | 0:05:03 | 0:05:06 | |
She was alluring, but she was impulsive and she was impatient, | 0:05:06 | 0:05:09 | |
and these were seen as quite dangerous qualities | 0:05:09 | 0:05:12 | |
in a queen in the 16th century. | 0:05:12 | 0:05:14 | |
'If you're a man looking at this from the 21st century backwards,' | 0:05:14 | 0:05:18 | |
you think if you want a good date, you're going to choose | 0:05:18 | 0:05:20 | |
Mary every time, you're never going to choose Elizabeth. | 0:05:20 | 0:05:23 | |
Mary Stuart hasn't chosen to come to Scotland. | 0:05:24 | 0:05:27 | |
The death of her husband, the King of France, | 0:05:28 | 0:05:31 | |
just left her with no role at the French court. | 0:05:31 | 0:05:33 | |
She's sort of unmoored when she arrives in Scotland | 0:05:35 | 0:05:38 | |
and she's got these big, brash, Scottish lords who are really | 0:05:38 | 0:05:43 | |
not too sure about having this "bonnie wee lassie" as their queen. | 0:05:43 | 0:05:46 | |
To Mary, Scotland must seem like Afghanistan. | 0:05:48 | 0:05:51 | |
A mountainous country of feuding clans, | 0:05:51 | 0:05:54 | |
warlords and religious fanatics. | 0:05:54 | 0:05:57 | |
She's a Catholic but many of them are fiercely Protestant. | 0:05:57 | 0:06:01 | |
Her indifference is an insult to these men | 0:06:03 | 0:06:06 | |
and will prove to be a dangerous mistake. | 0:06:06 | 0:06:09 | |
Instead, her ambition makes her look south | 0:06:10 | 0:06:14 | |
to England and Elizabeth's crown. | 0:06:14 | 0:06:16 | |
She has been forced back to Scotland and when she's there, | 0:06:18 | 0:06:22 | |
when she arrives, | 0:06:22 | 0:06:24 | |
she nags on about being recognised | 0:06:24 | 0:06:27 | |
as Elizabeth's successor. | 0:06:27 | 0:06:29 | |
I am the nearest kinswoman she has, being both of us | 0:06:31 | 0:06:34 | |
of one house and stock. | 0:06:34 | 0:06:36 | |
As the great-granddaughter of Henry VII, Mary has a strong claim | 0:06:38 | 0:06:42 | |
to be named Elizabeth's successor. | 0:06:42 | 0:06:45 | |
So the English Queen has every reason to be wary. | 0:06:45 | 0:06:48 | |
If it became known who would succeed me, I would never think myself secure. | 0:06:53 | 0:06:58 | |
Tensions between Catholics and Protestants | 0:07:00 | 0:07:03 | |
are worsening across Europe. | 0:07:03 | 0:07:05 | |
Many people fear that just the presence of Queen Mary | 0:07:05 | 0:07:09 | |
could inflame the passions of English Catholics. | 0:07:09 | 0:07:12 | |
One reason England had become Protestant | 0:07:14 | 0:07:17 | |
was so that Henry VIII could marry Anne Boleyn, | 0:07:17 | 0:07:20 | |
Elizabeth's mother. | 0:07:20 | 0:07:22 | |
English Catholics had a settled hatred for Anne Boleyn. | 0:07:25 | 0:07:28 | |
They always favoured Mary, Queen of Scots's claim over Elizabeth's. | 0:07:28 | 0:07:32 | |
They called her "bastardised Elizabeth". | 0:07:32 | 0:07:35 | |
In the eyes of Catholic Europe, Mary, the good Catholic that she is, | 0:07:36 | 0:07:41 | |
is the rightful heir to the English throne. | 0:07:41 | 0:07:44 | |
Catholic Europe could back Mary | 0:07:46 | 0:07:48 | |
if she tried to seize the English throne. | 0:07:48 | 0:07:50 | |
A threat that obsessed Elizabeth's Chief Minister, Lord Burghley. | 0:07:50 | 0:07:55 | |
The Queen of Scots is and always will be | 0:07:57 | 0:08:00 | |
a dangerous person to your estate. | 0:08:00 | 0:08:03 | |
She cannot forbear from her continual ardent desire | 0:08:03 | 0:08:07 | |
to possess the crown of this realm. | 0:08:07 | 0:08:10 | |
He thinks he's the man appointed, almost by God, | 0:08:10 | 0:08:14 | |
to save Elizabeth from herself. | 0:08:14 | 0:08:17 | |
Burghley is constantly dripping poison | 0:08:19 | 0:08:22 | |
in Elizabeth's ear about Mary. | 0:08:22 | 0:08:24 | |
Not to be neglected, trusted, nor pardoned. | 0:08:24 | 0:08:29 | |
He saw Mary almost as the Antichrist. | 0:08:30 | 0:08:34 | |
There was no way he was going to allow that woman | 0:08:34 | 0:08:37 | |
to get anywhere near the throne of England. | 0:08:37 | 0:08:40 | |
Mary is aware of Burghley's opposition. | 0:08:41 | 0:08:44 | |
I know how near I am descended of the blood of England. | 0:08:45 | 0:08:49 | |
And what devices have been attempted to make me a stranger from it. | 0:08:49 | 0:08:53 | |
Elizabeth uses elaborate tactics to avoid ever giving | 0:09:00 | 0:09:04 | |
Mary a straight answer about the succession. | 0:09:04 | 0:09:07 | |
In September 1564, Mary's envoy, Sir James Melville, | 0:09:08 | 0:09:14 | |
is sent to speak to Elizabeth to pin her down. | 0:09:14 | 0:09:18 | |
But she bombards him with strangely personal questions. | 0:09:18 | 0:09:21 | |
What colour of hair is reputed best? | 0:09:24 | 0:09:26 | |
Is my hair or your Queen's the best? | 0:09:29 | 0:09:32 | |
Well, which of us is fairer? | 0:09:36 | 0:09:37 | |
Your Majesty is the fairest Queen in England. | 0:09:38 | 0:09:41 | |
And ours is the fairest Queen in Scotland! | 0:09:41 | 0:09:43 | |
Your Majesty is the whiter. | 0:09:45 | 0:09:48 | |
But our Queen is very lovely. | 0:09:48 | 0:09:51 | |
And who is taller? | 0:09:51 | 0:09:52 | |
Er, my Queen is, Your Majesty. | 0:09:53 | 0:09:55 | |
Then she is too high. | 0:09:56 | 0:09:58 | |
I am neither too high, nor too low. | 0:09:58 | 0:10:01 | |
What Elizabeth does is intelligent and subtle. | 0:10:04 | 0:10:08 | |
She simply does not want to have the conversation that Melville has | 0:10:08 | 0:10:12 | |
travelled to her court to try and have with her. | 0:10:12 | 0:10:14 | |
She refuses to do it. | 0:10:14 | 0:10:16 | |
And what she does is she invokes femininity to simply evade | 0:10:16 | 0:10:20 | |
this conversation. | 0:10:20 | 0:10:22 | |
And he is climbing the walls with frustration. | 0:10:22 | 0:10:24 | |
But then he goes back to Mary and he is not fooled at all. He says you cannot trust Elizabeth. | 0:10:29 | 0:10:34 | |
There are nothing but jealousies and suspicion. | 0:10:36 | 0:10:39 | |
But the two women hide their suspicions behind a charm offensive. | 0:10:41 | 0:10:47 | |
We shall present to the world such friendship as has never been seen. | 0:10:47 | 0:10:51 | |
They seem to compete in their declarations of love. | 0:10:55 | 0:10:59 | |
Elizabeth sends Mary a diamond ring but Mary goes one better. | 0:10:59 | 0:11:03 | |
'Mary sends Elizabeth her portrait. | 0:11:06 | 0:11:11 | |
'It's a miniature portrait in a heart-shaped diamond ring' | 0:11:11 | 0:11:15 | |
and she sends it with Petrarchan, almost love lyrics, | 0:11:15 | 0:11:19 | |
and it's this sort of sense that she is wooing Elizabeth. | 0:11:19 | 0:11:22 | |
She wants to meet her. | 0:11:22 | 0:11:24 | |
Mary's most comfortable writing in French. | 0:11:25 | 0:11:28 | |
Mary's obsession with being recognised as Elizabeth's heir | 0:11:44 | 0:11:47 | |
to the English throne made her easy to manipulate. Elizabeth could deal with this. | 0:11:47 | 0:11:53 | |
She's dealing with someone who wants what only Elizabeth can give. | 0:11:55 | 0:11:58 | |
It's marvellous. | 0:11:58 | 0:11:59 | |
But Elizabeth avoids actually meeting her cousin. | 0:12:02 | 0:12:05 | |
Mary was renowned for her charisma, for her charm. | 0:12:07 | 0:12:12 | |
It was said that anyone who came within ten feet | 0:12:12 | 0:12:14 | |
of the Queen of Scots would fall in love with her. | 0:12:14 | 0:12:16 | |
Now, I think Elizabeth had heard that and she believed it | 0:12:16 | 0:12:20 | |
and she feared it. | 0:12:20 | 0:12:22 | |
She didn't want to like Mary. | 0:12:22 | 0:12:23 | |
Having failed to meet and charm Elizabeth, | 0:12:27 | 0:12:30 | |
Mary tries a new scheme to strengthen her claim to the Crown - marriage. | 0:12:30 | 0:12:36 | |
But Elizabeth is not about to let her cousin marry | 0:12:36 | 0:12:39 | |
one of her powerful European rivals. | 0:12:39 | 0:12:41 | |
I recommend some fit nobleman within the island, | 0:12:44 | 0:12:48 | |
but I declare no child of France, Spain or Austria will be acceptable. | 0:12:48 | 0:12:54 | |
And your right and title to the English Crown will depend much on your marriage. | 0:12:56 | 0:13:01 | |
The root problem is Elizabeth regards herself as the superior queen | 0:13:02 | 0:13:06 | |
and she regards Mary as a satellite queen | 0:13:06 | 0:13:09 | |
and no Scot, then or now, | 0:13:09 | 0:13:13 | |
would accept that. | 0:13:13 | 0:13:14 | |
Elizabeth isn't like other queens. | 0:13:20 | 0:13:22 | |
She has little interest in marriage. | 0:13:22 | 0:13:25 | |
That would mean handing power to a husband. | 0:13:25 | 0:13:28 | |
No husband means no chance of an heir, | 0:13:28 | 0:13:31 | |
no matter how much Burghley badgers her. | 0:13:31 | 0:13:33 | |
God send our mistress a husband | 0:13:34 | 0:13:37 | |
and by him a son that we may hope our posterity | 0:13:37 | 0:13:41 | |
shall have a masculine succession. | 0:13:41 | 0:13:43 | |
I am already bound unto a husband, which is the Kingdom of England. | 0:13:44 | 0:13:48 | |
As many as are English are my children. | 0:13:49 | 0:13:52 | |
If I am to disclose to you what I prefer | 0:13:56 | 0:13:59 | |
if I follow the inclination of my nature, | 0:13:59 | 0:14:02 | |
I will tell you it is this - | 0:14:02 | 0:14:05 | |
beggar woman and single far rather than Queen and married. | 0:14:05 | 0:14:09 | |
I think the reason Elizabeth chose not to marry had an awful lot | 0:14:11 | 0:14:14 | |
to do with the examples from which she had learned in childhood. | 0:14:14 | 0:14:18 | |
So, of course, it's not a great role model, | 0:14:18 | 0:14:20 | |
the fact that her mother, Anne Boleyn, | 0:14:20 | 0:14:22 | |
is executed by her father, | 0:14:22 | 0:14:24 | |
but I think it went further than that for Elizabeth. | 0:14:24 | 0:14:27 | |
There had been a number of scandals surrounding her. | 0:14:27 | 0:14:31 | |
At the age of just 13, the first major scandal erupted. | 0:14:31 | 0:14:35 | |
Her stepfather Thomas Seymour came into Elizabeth's bedroom early | 0:14:39 | 0:14:43 | |
in the morning and, basically, you might say, he sexually touched her. | 0:14:43 | 0:14:47 | |
His wife Catherine was actually complicit in this | 0:14:50 | 0:14:53 | |
and there is one occasion described where she held Elizabeth down | 0:14:53 | 0:14:57 | |
while her husband cut Elizabeth's gown into 100 pieces. | 0:14:57 | 0:15:02 | |
I could not do withal for she held me while the Lord Admiral cut it. | 0:15:02 | 0:15:06 | |
I've thought about this for over 30 years | 0:15:08 | 0:15:10 | |
and I now think that Elizabeth had probably pretty much | 0:15:10 | 0:15:13 | |
decided that she never would marry and I think the reason for this is | 0:15:13 | 0:15:18 | |
simply those teenage experiences, | 0:15:18 | 0:15:20 | |
when she had seen how men could behave. | 0:15:20 | 0:15:23 | |
The one exception is Lord Robert, | 0:15:23 | 0:15:26 | |
Lord Robert Dudley, | 0:15:26 | 0:15:27 | |
and she was in love with him. | 0:15:27 | 0:15:29 | |
There's absolutely no question that he was the only man | 0:15:29 | 0:15:32 | |
she ever truly loved. | 0:15:32 | 0:15:34 | |
My true opinion is that she will never marry. | 0:15:38 | 0:15:40 | |
I know Her Majesty as well or better than anyone else. | 0:15:42 | 0:15:45 | |
We were friends before she was eight years old. | 0:15:45 | 0:15:48 | |
She has always said she would never do so. | 0:15:49 | 0:15:51 | |
But, if by chance she should change her mind, | 0:15:54 | 0:15:58 | |
I am practically assured she would choose no-one else but me. | 0:15:58 | 0:16:02 | |
She told me so herself quite openly on more than one occasion. | 0:16:02 | 0:16:05 | |
But even love is just a pawn in the Queen's game. | 0:16:08 | 0:16:12 | |
Elizabeth is willing to sacrifice Lord Robert. | 0:16:12 | 0:16:15 | |
She knows he'll always be loyal to her. | 0:16:15 | 0:16:17 | |
If I had ever wanted to take a husband | 0:16:21 | 0:16:22 | |
I would have married him myself. | 0:16:22 | 0:16:25 | |
But being determined to end my life in virginity, | 0:16:25 | 0:16:29 | |
I wish that my sister should marry him. | 0:16:29 | 0:16:31 | |
Being matched with him would remove out of my mind | 0:16:33 | 0:16:36 | |
all fear of usurpation before my death. | 0:16:36 | 0:16:38 | |
He is so loving, trusty, that he | 0:16:40 | 0:16:42 | |
would never suffer such a thing to be attempted. | 0:16:42 | 0:16:45 | |
Mary is insulted by Elizabeth's suggestion that she should | 0:16:47 | 0:16:50 | |
marry Lord Robert. He's not even a very high aristocrat. | 0:16:50 | 0:16:54 | |
He is the son of a traitor and he is | 0:16:54 | 0:16:57 | |
Elizabeth's discarded suitor. | 0:16:57 | 0:17:00 | |
Do you think it might stand with my honour to marry a subject? | 0:17:00 | 0:17:05 | |
Being assured of me, you might let me marry where I best like. | 0:17:07 | 0:17:11 | |
Elizabeth has this sort of weird idea that they will have a | 0:17:13 | 0:17:17 | |
sort of a menage a trois at Elizabeth's court. | 0:17:17 | 0:17:20 | |
It's very strange. | 0:17:20 | 0:17:22 | |
If the Queen, my sister, is pleased to live with me in household | 0:17:22 | 0:17:26 | |
I will gladly bear the charges of the family | 0:17:26 | 0:17:28 | |
as shall one sister do for another. | 0:17:28 | 0:17:31 | |
I do mind to use my own choice in marriage. | 0:17:31 | 0:17:34 | |
I will no longer be fed with yea or nay | 0:17:35 | 0:17:38 | |
and depend on uncertain dealings. | 0:17:38 | 0:17:40 | |
The sisterly pretence is over. | 0:17:44 | 0:17:47 | |
Mary decides on her own potential husband, | 0:17:47 | 0:17:50 | |
an Englishman and a Catholic, | 0:17:50 | 0:17:52 | |
her cousin Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley. | 0:17:52 | 0:17:57 | |
Darnley is actually a really good bet for Mary. He's got royal blood, | 0:17:57 | 0:18:00 | |
which strengthens her own claim to the English throne. | 0:18:00 | 0:18:04 | |
Moreover, he represents something extremely unusual for elite | 0:18:04 | 0:18:07 | |
women in the 16th century and particularly queens. | 0:18:07 | 0:18:10 | |
He's young, he's handsome, he's desirable. | 0:18:10 | 0:18:13 | |
He is the lustiest and best proportioned tall man | 0:18:15 | 0:18:20 | |
that I have ever seen. | 0:18:20 | 0:18:21 | |
Mary's desire scandalises her court. | 0:18:23 | 0:18:27 | |
The gossip gets back to Elizabeth through her ambassador, | 0:18:27 | 0:18:30 | |
Thomas Randolph. | 0:18:30 | 0:18:31 | |
She is seized in love | 0:18:33 | 0:18:35 | |
in more fervent passions | 0:18:35 | 0:18:37 | |
than is comely | 0:18:37 | 0:18:38 | |
for any mean personage. | 0:18:38 | 0:18:39 | |
Some report she is bewitched. | 0:18:41 | 0:18:43 | |
Shame is laid aside. | 0:18:44 | 0:18:46 | |
Darnley is but a pawn, | 0:18:49 | 0:18:51 | |
but he may well checkmate me if he is promoted. | 0:18:51 | 0:18:54 | |
I think Elizabeth was very suspicious of Mary's motives | 0:18:56 | 0:19:00 | |
when it came to Lord Darnley | 0:19:00 | 0:19:02 | |
because Darnley, too, had royal blood. | 0:19:02 | 0:19:06 | |
In fact he was one of the strongest claimants to the English throne, | 0:19:06 | 0:19:09 | |
so she undoubtedly saw this | 0:19:09 | 0:19:12 | |
as an aggressive move on Mary's part, | 0:19:12 | 0:19:14 | |
that she was considering marriage to this man. | 0:19:14 | 0:19:17 | |
A Catholic couple on the Scottish throne could attract | 0:19:18 | 0:19:22 | |
the support of England's enemies, France and Spain. | 0:19:22 | 0:19:25 | |
So, Elizabeth simply puts any question of succession on hold. | 0:19:26 | 0:19:31 | |
Elizabeth turns round and says that she will not name her successor | 0:19:32 | 0:19:36 | |
until she decides whether she'll marry. | 0:19:36 | 0:19:39 | |
Nothing shall be done until I shall be married | 0:19:39 | 0:19:43 | |
or shall notify my determination never to marry. | 0:19:43 | 0:19:46 | |
This is heartbreaking for Mary. She feels played. | 0:19:47 | 0:19:50 | |
All the letters, the gifts, the petitions, | 0:19:50 | 0:19:53 | |
it feels completely wasted. | 0:19:53 | 0:19:56 | |
It shall turn to your discredit more than my loss. | 0:19:56 | 0:19:59 | |
I will not fail in any good offices towards you | 0:19:59 | 0:20:02 | |
but to rely or trust much from henceforth in you... | 0:20:02 | 0:20:04 | |
..I will not. | 0:20:07 | 0:20:08 | |
She gets up, she goes out, she has a good cry and then she goes to see Darnley. | 0:20:11 | 0:20:16 | |
On July 29, 1565, | 0:20:18 | 0:20:21 | |
Mary marries Darnley without Elizabeth's permission. | 0:20:21 | 0:20:24 | |
'When she went ahead, quite rightly, and married Lord Darnley,' | 0:20:27 | 0:20:31 | |
Elizabeth was incandescent with rage. | 0:20:31 | 0:20:35 | |
Mary can't see the problem. | 0:20:35 | 0:20:36 | |
She thinks she's upheld her side of the bargain, effectively. | 0:20:36 | 0:20:39 | |
She's married an Englishman as Elizabeth had wanted, | 0:20:39 | 0:20:43 | |
so what's the problem? | 0:20:43 | 0:20:45 | |
You can never persuade me that I have failed you | 0:20:45 | 0:20:48 | |
but you have failed me. | 0:20:48 | 0:20:49 | |
I have found your proceedings of late very strange. | 0:20:50 | 0:20:53 | |
You forget yourself marvellously. | 0:20:55 | 0:20:57 | |
The naming of your husband King | 0:20:59 | 0:21:01 | |
shall not give him any authority to do anything. | 0:21:01 | 0:21:03 | |
Her Majesty desires her good sister to meddle no further. | 0:21:05 | 0:21:10 | |
Mary now has both a Catholic husband | 0:21:14 | 0:21:17 | |
and a stronger claim to the English throne. | 0:21:17 | 0:21:19 | |
The Queen of Scots is delighted. | 0:21:21 | 0:21:23 | |
Suddenly, probably for the first time, | 0:21:25 | 0:21:28 | |
Mary really has the upper hand in this relationship. | 0:21:28 | 0:21:31 | |
Madame, ma soeur, | 0:21:32 | 0:21:34 | |
I understand you are offended without just cause | 0:21:34 | 0:21:38 | |
against the king, my husband, and myself. | 0:21:38 | 0:21:41 | |
Mary's marriage to Darnley doesn't just offend Elizabeth. | 0:21:43 | 0:21:47 | |
The Scottish lords are horrified. | 0:21:47 | 0:21:51 | |
Darnley, he was awful. | 0:21:51 | 0:21:53 | |
The Protestant lords couldn't bear him. | 0:21:53 | 0:21:55 | |
He may have had Scottish blood. | 0:21:55 | 0:21:57 | |
He may even have had Stuart blood | 0:21:57 | 0:21:59 | |
but to them he was this effete, bisexual, beardless Englishman. | 0:21:59 | 0:22:05 | |
One contemporary even called him a great cock chick. | 0:22:05 | 0:22:09 | |
This is not the kind of guy that they want telling them | 0:22:09 | 0:22:12 | |
what to do in Scotland. | 0:22:12 | 0:22:14 | |
He's unfaithful to Mary from very early on. | 0:22:14 | 0:22:17 | |
He's a terrible drinker. He's a big whisky drinker. | 0:22:17 | 0:22:21 | |
He goes into uncontrollable rages. | 0:22:21 | 0:22:23 | |
-THOMAS RANDOLPH: -'I know for certain that Queen Mary repents her marriage | 0:22:24 | 0:22:28 | |
'and that she hates him.' | 0:22:28 | 0:22:29 | |
She is so much altered, her wits are not what they were. | 0:22:30 | 0:22:33 | |
Her beauty another. | 0:22:33 | 0:22:34 | |
Her cheer and countenance changed. | 0:22:34 | 0:22:38 | |
A woman more to be pitied than any I ever saw. | 0:22:38 | 0:22:41 | |
Once he's married, that's it. He is King. | 0:22:41 | 0:22:44 | |
He thinks that she should be a submissive wee wife | 0:22:44 | 0:22:47 | |
and do exactly as he tells her. | 0:22:47 | 0:22:49 | |
Then comes big news. | 0:22:51 | 0:22:53 | |
Mary is pregnant. | 0:22:53 | 0:22:55 | |
If it's a boy he'll strengthen the Stuart claim to the English Crown. | 0:22:56 | 0:23:01 | |
But some wonder if Darnley is the father, | 0:23:01 | 0:23:04 | |
or one of Mary's courtiers, | 0:23:04 | 0:23:06 | |
David Rizzio. | 0:23:06 | 0:23:08 | |
David Rizzio is an Italian musician and he's Catholic, | 0:23:08 | 0:23:13 | |
so, of course, he has to be a papal spy. | 0:23:13 | 0:23:15 | |
He is everything that the Protestant lords can't bear. | 0:23:15 | 0:23:18 | |
He seems to have inveigled himself into Mary's intimacies, | 0:23:18 | 0:23:22 | |
into her familiarity. | 0:23:22 | 0:23:23 | |
Jealous of the influence the Italian has over Mary, | 0:23:26 | 0:23:29 | |
Darnley goes after him. | 0:23:29 | 0:23:31 | |
There are practices in hand that David, with the consent of the King, | 0:23:31 | 0:23:35 | |
shall have his throat cut within these ten days. | 0:23:35 | 0:23:38 | |
The attack comes suddenly. | 0:23:40 | 0:23:42 | |
Darnley and Lord Ruthven, a Scottish Lord, came in. | 0:23:42 | 0:23:46 | |
They tried to detach Mary from Rizzio | 0:23:46 | 0:23:48 | |
but she was shielding him. | 0:23:48 | 0:23:50 | |
He hid behind her skirts. | 0:23:50 | 0:23:52 | |
They dragged Rizzio away and they stabbed him. | 0:23:52 | 0:23:55 | |
It was like a cell block shanking. | 0:23:55 | 0:23:57 | |
He was stabbed 56 times, Mary recalled. | 0:23:57 | 0:24:00 | |
With her friend lying in a pool of blood at her feet, | 0:24:03 | 0:24:07 | |
Mary could take no more of Darnley. | 0:24:07 | 0:24:10 | |
You have taken your last of me | 0:24:14 | 0:24:17 | |
and your farewell. | 0:24:17 | 0:24:18 | |
No more tears. | 0:24:31 | 0:24:32 | |
I will think upon revenge. | 0:24:34 | 0:24:37 | |
'She despises her husband now | 0:24:40 | 0:24:43 | |
'and this makes her into a decisive, | 0:24:43 | 0:24:46 | |
'fearsome, strong ruler.' | 0:24:46 | 0:24:49 | |
The sort of Queen that Elizabeth already is | 0:24:49 | 0:24:53 | |
and Mary now seizes the initiative. | 0:24:53 | 0:24:55 | |
Fearing that Darnley will try to push her off the throne, | 0:24:58 | 0:25:02 | |
Mary writes directly to Elizabeth asking for support. | 0:25:02 | 0:25:05 | |
Praying you remember your honour and our nearness of blood. | 0:25:07 | 0:25:11 | |
The word of God commands that all princes should defend the just | 0:25:15 | 0:25:21 | |
actions of other princes as well as their own. | 0:25:21 | 0:25:25 | |
For once, Elizabeth shows solidarity with her sister Queen. | 0:25:27 | 0:25:31 | |
She wears her portrait around her waist | 0:25:31 | 0:25:35 | |
and she seems genuinely sympathetic towards Mary at this time. | 0:25:35 | 0:25:39 | |
Do you think the Queen of Scotland has been well treated? | 0:25:40 | 0:25:44 | |
If it had been me, | 0:25:44 | 0:25:46 | |
I would have taken her husband's dagger and stabbed him with it. | 0:25:46 | 0:25:49 | |
'What she doesn't know is that Burghley | 0:25:51 | 0:25:54 | |
'had advance notice of the Rizzio plot' | 0:25:54 | 0:25:56 | |
and didn't bother to tell his own Queen | 0:25:56 | 0:25:59 | |
because he knew that this would bring about turmoil in Scotland | 0:25:59 | 0:26:03 | |
and this would help to destabilise Mary. | 0:26:03 | 0:26:06 | |
But on June 19, 1566, | 0:26:10 | 0:26:13 | |
Mary Stuart does something Elizabeth will never do. | 0:26:13 | 0:26:17 | |
She gives birth to a male heir, James. | 0:26:17 | 0:26:21 | |
But Mary is still miserable, shackled to her husband. | 0:26:23 | 0:26:26 | |
Unless I am quit of the King by one means or another | 0:26:28 | 0:26:31 | |
I can never have a good day for the rest of my life. | 0:26:31 | 0:26:33 | |
I could wish to be dead. | 0:26:38 | 0:26:39 | |
Elizabeth may despise Darnley | 0:26:43 | 0:26:46 | |
but she never sends a single soldier to defend her cousin. | 0:26:46 | 0:26:49 | |
Instead, Mary turns to another violent man. | 0:26:51 | 0:26:55 | |
'At the moment that Mary is at her most vulnerable, somebody steps forward. | 0:26:55 | 0:26:59 | |
'In this case it's the Earl of Bothwell.' | 0:26:59 | 0:27:01 | |
Yes, he will help Mary. | 0:27:01 | 0:27:03 | |
He will be her protector but he wants something back. | 0:27:03 | 0:27:06 | |
She doesn't know that yet. | 0:27:06 | 0:27:08 | |
Bothwell. Violently malicious beyond measure. | 0:27:08 | 0:27:12 | |
Treacherous and dishonest as the devil. | 0:27:12 | 0:27:15 | |
It isn't long before an explosion destroys Darnley's bedroom, | 0:27:19 | 0:27:23 | |
as seen in illustrations from the time. | 0:27:23 | 0:27:26 | |
Blown in the air with such vehemence | 0:27:36 | 0:27:38 | |
that the whole lodging walls and other... | 0:27:38 | 0:27:42 | |
There is nothing remaining, no. | 0:27:42 | 0:27:44 | |
Not a stone above another, | 0:27:46 | 0:27:48 | |
but all carried away or dashed in dross to the very ground. | 0:27:48 | 0:27:53 | |
Mysteriously, Darnley's half naked body | 0:27:55 | 0:27:58 | |
is found 60 paces from the house, strangled. | 0:27:58 | 0:28:02 | |
Many Scots suspect that Mary and Bothwell are behind it. | 0:28:02 | 0:28:06 | |
Killing a king is considered the worst crime in the Christian world. | 0:28:09 | 0:28:13 | |
With public opinion turning against Mary, | 0:28:13 | 0:28:16 | |
Elizabeth is losing patience with her cousin. | 0:28:16 | 0:28:19 | |
She procured her husband's murder. | 0:28:20 | 0:28:23 | |
Bothwell, the chief murderer, was protected by her. | 0:28:23 | 0:28:26 | |
But Mary is adamant that she has nothing to do with it. | 0:28:30 | 0:28:34 | |
I lament the tragedy of my husband's death more than | 0:28:36 | 0:28:38 | |
any of my subjects can do. | 0:28:38 | 0:28:40 | |
I had never knowledge, art, nor part thereof. | 0:28:41 | 0:28:44 | |
For the love of God, Madam, use such sincerity | 0:28:46 | 0:28:49 | |
and prudence in this case that all the world may feel | 0:28:49 | 0:28:52 | |
justified in believing you innocent of so enormous a crime, | 0:28:52 | 0:28:57 | |
which if you are not | 0:28:57 | 0:28:59 | |
would be good cause for degrading you from the rank of princes. | 0:28:59 | 0:29:02 | |
All of Scotland cried out upon the foul murder of the King. | 0:29:04 | 0:29:07 | |
Everybody suspected Bothwell. | 0:29:07 | 0:29:09 | |
Now Bothwell calls in Mary's debt. | 0:29:11 | 0:29:14 | |
He abducts her for 12 days | 0:29:14 | 0:29:17 | |
and some think he rapes her to force her into marriage. | 0:29:17 | 0:29:21 | |
I cannot dissemble that he has used me as I would have wished or deserved at his hand. | 0:29:23 | 0:29:28 | |
'There are people that have tried to defend Mary, | 0:29:30 | 0:29:33 | |
'who have said that she was raped by Bothwell. | 0:29:33 | 0:29:36 | |
'I don't agree with that, actually, | 0:29:36 | 0:29:37 | |
'because the one thing that everyone knew Mary for' | 0:29:37 | 0:29:40 | |
was that she stood on her grandeur as a former Queen of France. | 0:29:40 | 0:29:42 | |
She was not going to marry a man who had raped her, | 0:29:42 | 0:29:44 | |
so I think that she was talked round. | 0:29:44 | 0:29:49 | |
May 14, 1567, | 0:29:49 | 0:29:53 | |
Mary marries Bothwell in the middle of the night. | 0:29:53 | 0:29:56 | |
They have so little support now only a few people attend. | 0:29:56 | 0:30:00 | |
The news soon reaches Elizabeth. | 0:30:00 | 0:30:04 | |
How could a worse choice be made for your honour, | 0:30:08 | 0:30:10 | |
than in such haste, | 0:30:10 | 0:30:13 | |
to marry a subject, who besides other notorious lacks, | 0:30:13 | 0:30:18 | |
public fame has charged with the murder of your late husband? | 0:30:18 | 0:30:21 | |
Burghley and the Scottish lords used Darnley's assassination | 0:30:22 | 0:30:27 | |
to accuse Mary and Bothwell of adultery and murder, | 0:30:27 | 0:30:31 | |
declaring them morally unfit to rule. | 0:30:31 | 0:30:34 | |
She feigned herself | 0:30:36 | 0:30:37 | |
to be forcibly taken by him | 0:30:37 | 0:30:40 | |
and then married this murderer, | 0:30:40 | 0:30:42 | |
giving him greater estates than ever she gave her own husband. | 0:30:42 | 0:30:46 | |
She could now be completely rubbished as a woman of any status, | 0:30:48 | 0:30:55 | |
any pretentions or rights to royalty. | 0:30:55 | 0:30:59 | |
She's a whore, she's a murderess, she's an adulteress. | 0:31:00 | 0:31:03 | |
You know, what more do you want? | 0:31:03 | 0:31:05 | |
Scots think their nation dishonoured, the Queen shamed | 0:31:05 | 0:31:07 | |
and country undone. | 0:31:07 | 0:31:10 | |
She is now in utter contempt of her people | 0:31:10 | 0:31:12 | |
and so far in doubt of them herself, | 0:31:12 | 0:31:15 | |
that without speedy redress, worse is to be feared. | 0:31:15 | 0:31:18 | |
With the Scottish lords gathering their armies against her, | 0:31:20 | 0:31:24 | |
Mary realises she has no chance. | 0:31:24 | 0:31:27 | |
She surrenders herself in order to save Bothwell. | 0:31:27 | 0:31:31 | |
Perhaps she did love him after all. | 0:31:31 | 0:31:34 | |
It basically ends with Bothwell offering to fight | 0:31:34 | 0:31:37 | |
the lords in single combat. | 0:31:37 | 0:31:38 | |
At the last moment, Mary stops it. | 0:31:38 | 0:31:40 | |
She wants to try and end the thing with non-violence, | 0:31:40 | 0:31:43 | |
so she proposes that Bothwell be allowed to escape | 0:31:43 | 0:31:47 | |
and not to return. And she will go with the lords. | 0:31:47 | 0:31:51 | |
Bothwell flees to Norway and Mary is paraded, as a trophy, | 0:31:54 | 0:31:58 | |
through Edinburgh. | 0:31:58 | 0:32:00 | |
She's brought back to Edinburgh as a captive, | 0:32:00 | 0:32:04 | |
dressed in very ordinary clothes, not the great robes of a queen, | 0:32:04 | 0:32:08 | |
with the Edinburgh mob howling at her. | 0:32:08 | 0:32:12 | |
"Burn her." | 0:32:12 | 0:32:14 | |
"Burn her." | 0:32:14 | 0:32:17 | |
"She's not worthy to live." | 0:32:17 | 0:32:19 | |
"Kill her." | 0:32:19 | 0:32:22 | |
"Drown her." | 0:32:22 | 0:32:24 | |
Or so I'm told. | 0:32:24 | 0:32:27 | |
Of course, Burghley is, of course just rubbing his hands with glee. | 0:32:27 | 0:32:31 | |
Now Scotland is in chaos. | 0:32:31 | 0:32:33 | |
But in England, Elizabeth is having none of it. | 0:32:34 | 0:32:37 | |
First, she throws her support behind Mary. | 0:32:37 | 0:32:41 | |
You have a good neighbour, a dear sister and a faithful friend. | 0:32:41 | 0:32:46 | |
You shall not lack my friendship or power for the preservation | 0:32:48 | 0:32:52 | |
of your honour in quietness. | 0:32:52 | 0:32:54 | |
'You don't rebel against an anointed queen.' | 0:32:54 | 0:32:58 | |
That's a red line for Elizabeth. | 0:32:58 | 0:33:00 | |
So she's always going to support Mary, against the lords | 0:33:00 | 0:33:03 | |
who are undermining her sovereignty. | 0:33:03 | 0:33:06 | |
Then Elizabeth threatens war against the Scottish lords. | 0:33:07 | 0:33:11 | |
You have no warrant, by God's or man's law, to act as superiors, | 0:33:11 | 0:33:16 | |
vindicators or judges over your prince, | 0:33:16 | 0:33:20 | |
whatever disorders you gather against her. | 0:33:20 | 0:33:24 | |
If you continue to keep her in prison or touch her life or person, | 0:33:24 | 0:33:29 | |
I will not fail to revenge it to the uttermost. | 0:33:29 | 0:33:32 | |
Rather than fight Elizabeth, | 0:33:35 | 0:33:37 | |
the Scottish lords imprison Mary on an island in Loch Leven | 0:33:37 | 0:33:41 | |
and force her to abdicate. | 0:33:41 | 0:33:43 | |
They show her the documents, she reads it through, | 0:33:45 | 0:33:49 | |
she doesn't want to sign it, | 0:33:49 | 0:33:51 | |
they threaten to slit her throat. | 0:33:51 | 0:33:53 | |
If I did not sign this letter, they would have taken me from Loch Leven... | 0:33:58 | 0:34:03 | |
..and as they were crossing the lake, would've thrown me into it. | 0:34:04 | 0:34:08 | |
Or secretly conveyed me to some island in the middle of the sea, | 0:34:10 | 0:34:15 | |
there to be left unknown for the remainder of my life. | 0:34:15 | 0:34:19 | |
They advised me to sign... | 0:34:23 | 0:34:25 | |
..for if I did not... | 0:34:27 | 0:34:29 | |
..they would cut my throat. | 0:34:31 | 0:34:34 | |
'You don't imprison a woman like that and expect her just to, you know, keep her composure.' | 0:34:42 | 0:34:47 | |
So they just brutally wear her down. | 0:34:47 | 0:34:51 | |
Of course, she also has to fear... She's fearing for her son. | 0:34:51 | 0:34:55 | |
You know, what will happen to him? | 0:34:55 | 0:34:57 | |
They do, of course, say he will be crowned King. | 0:34:57 | 0:35:00 | |
Mary will never see her infant son, James, again. | 0:35:01 | 0:35:05 | |
But she can ensure he'll be King. | 0:35:05 | 0:35:07 | |
On July 24th 1567, Mary signs the letter of abdication. | 0:35:08 | 0:35:14 | |
She is now a queen without a country. | 0:35:14 | 0:35:17 | |
'Mary was in a pretty bad mental state. | 0:35:18 | 0:35:23 | |
'It's a reminder of the problem of Mary's character all along.' | 0:35:23 | 0:35:28 | |
She's not got that quality of toughness, of steel, | 0:35:28 | 0:35:32 | |
that enables monarchs to rule in very difficult circumstances. | 0:35:32 | 0:35:36 | |
She panicked, hared off down to Galloway, and fled to England. | 0:35:40 | 0:35:48 | |
'Her Majesty lost all courage. | 0:35:50 | 0:35:53 | |
'And took so great fear that she never rested till' | 0:35:53 | 0:35:55 | |
she was in England, thinking herself of refuge there. | 0:35:55 | 0:36:00 | |
Mary will never return to Scotland. | 0:36:02 | 0:36:05 | |
Her last hope is with Elizabeth, | 0:36:05 | 0:36:07 | |
a woman she has never met. | 0:36:07 | 0:36:10 | |
I am now completely forced out of my kingdom... | 0:36:12 | 0:36:15 | |
..and driven to such straits, that next to God... | 0:36:17 | 0:36:21 | |
..I have no hope, but in you. | 0:36:24 | 0:36:27 | |
'She believed Elizabeth when she'd offered her support, | 0:36:29 | 0:36:33 | |
'when she'd expressed her love for her sister queen.' | 0:36:33 | 0:36:37 | |
And so she took her at her word and the result was disaster for Mary. | 0:36:37 | 0:36:42 | |
Instead of a royal welcome, Mary runs straight into a trap. | 0:36:46 | 0:36:50 | |
Burghley has her immediately placed under house arrest. | 0:36:51 | 0:36:55 | |
'Burghley makes sure that Mary's locked up straight away.' | 0:36:55 | 0:36:59 | |
And around her are put people whom he knows are loyal to the | 0:36:59 | 0:37:03 | |
Protestant cause and to him. | 0:37:03 | 0:37:06 | |
When rude Scotland vomits up a poison, | 0:37:06 | 0:37:10 | |
must fine England lick it up for a restorative? | 0:37:10 | 0:37:14 | |
From the moment Mary sets foot in England, he wants her dead. | 0:37:14 | 0:37:18 | |
Mary tries to meet Elizabeth, face to face, | 0:37:21 | 0:37:25 | |
so she can clear her name. | 0:37:25 | 0:37:28 | |
If it please you that I come to you in private, | 0:37:28 | 0:37:31 | |
I can tell you the truth against all their lies. | 0:37:31 | 0:37:35 | |
When it is proposed, yet again, that Elizabeth and Mary meet, | 0:37:35 | 0:37:40 | |
the English Queen gives the excuse that she cannot meet her cousin, | 0:37:40 | 0:37:47 | |
because Mary is still embroiled | 0:37:47 | 0:37:49 | |
in the scandal of Lord Darnley's murder. | 0:37:49 | 0:37:53 | |
And until her name has been cleared, once and for all, | 0:37:53 | 0:37:56 | |
the English Queen cannot be seen to meet her. | 0:37:56 | 0:38:00 | |
If you find it strange not to see me, | 0:38:00 | 0:38:04 | |
you will see that it would be malaise of me | 0:38:04 | 0:38:06 | |
to receive you before your justification. | 0:38:06 | 0:38:10 | |
But once honourably acquitted of this crime, | 0:38:10 | 0:38:13 | |
I swear to you, before God, | 0:38:13 | 0:38:14 | |
among all worldly pleasures, meeting you will hold the first rank. | 0:38:14 | 0:38:20 | |
Now that Mary is actually in England, Elizabeth isn't so friendly, | 0:38:23 | 0:38:27 | |
as Mary realises. | 0:38:27 | 0:38:31 | |
I see how things frame evil for me. | 0:38:32 | 0:38:36 | |
I have many enemies about the Queen, my good sister, | 0:38:40 | 0:38:43 | |
who do all they can to keep me from her. | 0:38:43 | 0:38:46 | |
She is reduced to making empty threats. | 0:38:49 | 0:38:53 | |
I have made great wars in Scotland | 0:38:54 | 0:38:58 | |
and I pray God I make no trouble in other realms also. | 0:38:58 | 0:39:05 | |
Have some consideration for me, | 0:39:05 | 0:39:08 | |
rather than always thinking of yourself. | 0:39:08 | 0:39:11 | |
I assure you, I will do nothing to hurt you, | 0:39:12 | 0:39:15 | |
but rather honour and aid you. | 0:39:15 | 0:39:19 | |
The question becomes, what's to be done with her? | 0:39:19 | 0:39:23 | |
And for this, of course, Burghley needs some evidence. | 0:39:23 | 0:39:27 | |
Burghley's spies intercept encrypted letters | 0:39:29 | 0:39:32 | |
from Mary's Catholic supporters, | 0:39:32 | 0:39:34 | |
which show that they are plotting to put her on the throne. | 0:39:34 | 0:39:38 | |
Now Mary really is a potential threat. | 0:39:38 | 0:39:41 | |
Now, whether or not she is trying to get Elizabeth's throne, | 0:39:41 | 0:39:45 | |
other people are trying to get it. | 0:39:45 | 0:39:47 | |
And put her on it. | 0:39:47 | 0:39:49 | |
Mary denies any part of it. | 0:39:49 | 0:39:52 | |
I never wrote anything concerning that matter to any creature | 0:39:53 | 0:39:56 | |
and if any such writings be, they are false and feigned, | 0:39:56 | 0:40:00 | |
invented only by themselves to my dishonour and slander. | 0:40:00 | 0:40:04 | |
I am no enchantress, but your sister and natural cousin. | 0:40:04 | 0:40:08 | |
But Mary's protests fall on deaf ears. | 0:40:13 | 0:40:16 | |
The queens are caught up in a battle bigger than themselves. | 0:40:16 | 0:40:20 | |
'Catholics and Protestants are dying on both sides, in the Netherlands, in France.' | 0:40:20 | 0:40:24 | |
And what happens with Elizabeth and Mary is that, | 0:40:24 | 0:40:28 | |
privately moderate though they may have been, | 0:40:28 | 0:40:31 | |
they become polarized as figureheads of two sides | 0:40:31 | 0:40:35 | |
in a more and more extreme conflict, | 0:40:35 | 0:40:38 | |
in which their particular conflict with one another | 0:40:38 | 0:40:41 | |
has become emblematic. | 0:40:41 | 0:40:44 | |
To Lord Burghley, the Catholics are a clear and imminent danger. | 0:40:44 | 0:40:49 | |
Their malice is bent against your person. | 0:40:50 | 0:40:54 | |
They will never cease, as long as the Scottish queen lives. | 0:40:54 | 0:40:59 | |
Elizabeth refuses to be bounced into executing Mary, Queen of Scots. | 0:41:00 | 0:41:05 | |
The evidence is not watertight | 0:41:05 | 0:41:08 | |
and also she has this abhorrence at the idea | 0:41:08 | 0:41:11 | |
of executing an anointed queen. | 0:41:11 | 0:41:15 | |
Can I put to death the bird, that to escape the pursuit of the hawk, | 0:41:15 | 0:41:19 | |
has fled to my feet for protection? | 0:41:19 | 0:41:22 | |
Honour and conscience forbid. | 0:41:23 | 0:41:26 | |
Mary's held in castles all over England, | 0:41:28 | 0:41:31 | |
but she never accepts being a prisoner. | 0:41:31 | 0:41:34 | |
Since you have detained me forcibly, if you suspect that | 0:41:34 | 0:41:37 | |
I desire my liberty, I cannot help it. I am a free princess | 0:41:37 | 0:41:41 | |
in that I am not responsible to you or any other. | 0:41:41 | 0:41:44 | |
Months turn into years of confinement. | 0:41:47 | 0:41:51 | |
Mary never tires of writing to Elizabeth. | 0:41:51 | 0:41:54 | |
Tens of thousands of words, demanding her freedom and pleading to meet. | 0:41:54 | 0:42:00 | |
Each word scored into her embittered heart. | 0:42:00 | 0:42:04 | |
I have written to you several times during the last year... | 0:42:05 | 0:42:09 | |
..to lay before your consideration the unworthy treatment which | 0:42:11 | 0:42:16 | |
I have received in this... | 0:42:16 | 0:42:19 | |
..captivity. | 0:42:22 | 0:42:24 | |
'In her more desperate moments in captivity, she becomes, | 0:42:27 | 0:42:30 | |
'increasingly, a prisoner of her own imagination, | 0:42:30 | 0:42:33 | |
'within this claustrophobic world.' | 0:42:33 | 0:42:35 | |
Mary did start sending small gifts to Elizabeth | 0:42:35 | 0:42:39 | |
to attract her attention. | 0:42:39 | 0:42:41 | |
'Elizabeth had a terribly sweet tooth, so Mary would send marzipan, | 0:42:41 | 0:42:46 | |
'she would send nuts.' | 0:42:46 | 0:42:48 | |
She also had a mirror on a chain. She also sent this to Elizabeth as a gift. | 0:42:48 | 0:42:55 | |
'She's trying to open up a line of communication, | 0:42:58 | 0:43:02 | |
'so that, maybe, they can work this out.' | 0:43:02 | 0:43:04 | |
But Elizabeth just stonewalls them all. | 0:43:04 | 0:43:07 | |
I beg you to relieve yourself of the charge which I am to you. | 0:43:11 | 0:43:15 | |
But things only get worse for Mary. | 0:43:17 | 0:43:20 | |
After 17 years in prison, she still hopes her son, James, | 0:43:20 | 0:43:24 | |
the King of Scotland, will negotiate her release. | 0:43:24 | 0:43:28 | |
Elizabeth had the bright idea that Mary might go back to Scotland | 0:43:29 | 0:43:35 | |
and rule jointly with James. | 0:43:35 | 0:43:37 | |
Now, young James grew up to be a very effective king. | 0:43:39 | 0:43:44 | |
James, who's now approaching adulthood... | 0:43:44 | 0:43:49 | |
..decides he's going to ditch his mum. | 0:43:50 | 0:43:52 | |
The last thing he wanted was a discredited mother back, | 0:43:52 | 0:43:57 | |
messing things up and getting in the way. | 0:43:57 | 0:43:59 | |
Was there ever a sight so detestable and impious | 0:44:02 | 0:44:06 | |
before God and man than an only child despoiling his mother | 0:44:06 | 0:44:10 | |
of her crown and royal estate? | 0:44:10 | 0:44:12 | |
There is no king of Scotland... | 0:44:19 | 0:44:21 | |
..nor any queen but me. | 0:44:24 | 0:44:26 | |
'What this does | 0:44:30 | 0:44:31 | |
'is it forces Mary to say, "I've got to get out of here."' | 0:44:31 | 0:44:34 | |
And from this point, she's willing to listen to even desperate plots. | 0:44:34 | 0:44:40 | |
Having lost all hope of regaining her crown | 0:44:41 | 0:44:44 | |
or convincing Elizabeth to help her, | 0:44:44 | 0:44:47 | |
Mary becomes obsessed with getting Elizabeth's crown. | 0:44:47 | 0:44:50 | |
I will not leave my prison save as Queen of England. | 0:44:52 | 0:44:55 | |
Burghley suspects Mary is plotting to have Elizabeth killed | 0:44:58 | 0:45:02 | |
and trying to make England Catholic again. | 0:45:02 | 0:45:04 | |
So he sends his spies out to get proof. | 0:45:06 | 0:45:08 | |
Mary becomes this romanticised figurehead | 0:45:10 | 0:45:13 | |
for a generation of young men educated in the Catholic colleges | 0:45:13 | 0:45:17 | |
in France, in Rome and in the Netherlands, | 0:45:17 | 0:45:20 | |
who want to give their lives for their faith. | 0:45:20 | 0:45:23 | |
It doesn't take long before a young man | 0:45:27 | 0:45:29 | |
writes to Mary. | 0:45:29 | 0:45:30 | |
Burghley's trap is set. | 0:45:32 | 0:45:33 | |
'Anthony Babington is a young and not very bright,' | 0:45:35 | 0:45:39 | |
but enthusiastic Catholic gentleman with too much money | 0:45:39 | 0:45:42 | |
and a lot of time on his hands. | 0:45:42 | 0:45:45 | |
He writes to her and he says that he will help spring her | 0:45:49 | 0:45:52 | |
from her imprisonment and, at the same time, | 0:45:52 | 0:45:55 | |
six gentlemen will do the deed. | 0:45:55 | 0:45:58 | |
They will assassinate Elizabeth. | 0:45:58 | 0:46:00 | |
There be six noble gentlemen, all my private friends, | 0:46:03 | 0:46:06 | |
who, for the zeal they bear the Catholic cause | 0:46:06 | 0:46:08 | |
and Your Majesty's service, | 0:46:08 | 0:46:10 | |
will undertake the execution. | 0:46:10 | 0:46:12 | |
'Everyone's waiting. Burghley's waiting, Babington's waiting for Mary to reply.' | 0:46:17 | 0:46:21 | |
And 12 days later, it comes. | 0:46:21 | 0:46:25 | |
She basically damns herself in that letter. | 0:46:25 | 0:46:28 | |
The affairs being thus prepared and forces and readiness | 0:46:31 | 0:46:34 | |
both without and within the realm, | 0:46:34 | 0:46:37 | |
then shall it be time to put the six gentlemen to work | 0:46:37 | 0:46:41 | |
upon the accomplishing of their design. | 0:46:41 | 0:46:43 | |
Babington's promising her ships and soldiers and there never were any. | 0:46:45 | 0:46:49 | |
There were no ships, there were no soldiers, | 0:46:49 | 0:46:51 | |
there were no loyal Catholics waiting to carry her | 0:46:51 | 0:46:54 | |
to elegance and luxury and freedom, such as she'd known | 0:46:54 | 0:46:57 | |
in her childhood. | 0:46:57 | 0:46:58 | |
It was all a fantasy and what's terribly, terribly sad | 0:46:58 | 0:47:01 | |
is that Mary still believed it. | 0:47:01 | 0:47:04 | |
Burghley's spies bring him a copy of Mary's letter. | 0:47:06 | 0:47:10 | |
But will it be enough to condemn her to death? | 0:47:10 | 0:47:13 | |
I hope that God which hath given us the light | 0:47:14 | 0:47:17 | |
to discover this great conspiracy, | 0:47:17 | 0:47:19 | |
will also give assistance to punish it. | 0:47:19 | 0:47:22 | |
Any sympathy Elizabeth ever had for Mary is gone. | 0:47:24 | 0:47:28 | |
Well, what do you think of your Queen of Scotland? | 0:47:29 | 0:47:32 | |
With black ingratitude and treachery, | 0:47:34 | 0:47:37 | |
she tries to kill me who so often saved her life! | 0:47:37 | 0:47:41 | |
Now I am certain of her evil intent, it may be she will not | 0:47:44 | 0:47:48 | |
have another opportunity to behave like this. | 0:47:48 | 0:47:51 | |
Despite the proof, Elizabeth can't bring herself to condemn Mary. | 0:47:51 | 0:47:56 | |
She felt guilty, she felt terrified that God would judge her on the last day | 0:47:56 | 0:48:04 | |
for putting to death a divine right ruler, | 0:48:04 | 0:48:06 | |
and, you know, she probably felt upset and annoyed | 0:48:06 | 0:48:10 | |
that she'd been boxed into this situation that she never wanted | 0:48:10 | 0:48:13 | |
to be in, that she had managed to avoid for most of her reign. | 0:48:13 | 0:48:17 | |
Instead, she turns her rage on the young plotters. | 0:48:18 | 0:48:21 | |
Babington and his associates were hanged on the gibbet, | 0:48:24 | 0:48:28 | |
they were cut down while still alive | 0:48:28 | 0:48:30 | |
and they had their private parts chopped off in front of them, | 0:48:30 | 0:48:34 | |
they were eviscerated, their entrails were burnt in front of them | 0:48:34 | 0:48:37 | |
and then they were executed, | 0:48:37 | 0:48:40 | |
and then they were quartered. | 0:48:40 | 0:48:41 | |
And what's really gruesome about this is that | 0:48:41 | 0:48:44 | |
'Elizabeth asks Burghley if he could come up with something else. | 0:48:44 | 0:48:48 | |
'And Burghley assures her that if it's done properly - | 0:48:48 | 0:48:51 | |
'ie if they're cut down soon enough so that they can witness' | 0:48:51 | 0:48:54 | |
their own evisceration - | 0:48:54 | 0:48:56 | |
then it would be pain enough. | 0:48:56 | 0:48:57 | |
On October 25th 1586, Mary is pronounced guilty | 0:49:01 | 0:49:06 | |
of conspiring to murder Elizabeth. | 0:49:06 | 0:49:08 | |
I am quite ready and very happy to die. | 0:49:16 | 0:49:18 | |
And to shed my blood for God Almighty, my saviour and my creator. | 0:49:20 | 0:49:24 | |
So, the sentence was proclaimed. But even then, Elizabeth wouldn't do anything. | 0:49:26 | 0:49:32 | |
Why? She just wanted it all to go away. | 0:49:32 | 0:49:35 | |
She didn't want to be the source of... | 0:49:36 | 0:49:38 | |
..the execution of an anointed queen. | 0:49:40 | 0:49:43 | |
If it had pleased God to have made us both milkmaids | 0:49:43 | 0:49:46 | |
with pails on our arms, so that the matter rested between us two | 0:49:46 | 0:49:51 | |
and that I knew she should still seek my destruction, | 0:49:51 | 0:49:54 | |
yet could I not consent to her death. | 0:49:54 | 0:49:57 | |
'This is my own personal speculation, but I think she wanted Mary dead.' | 0:49:58 | 0:50:03 | |
She knew that Mary had to die, but when it came to it, | 0:50:03 | 0:50:08 | |
she couldn't quite bring herself to believe that she was the person | 0:50:08 | 0:50:12 | |
who was striking Mary's head off. | 0:50:12 | 0:50:14 | |
'To bounce Elizabeth into making this decision, | 0:50:40 | 0:50:43 | |
'she is told by Burghley, and this...' | 0:50:43 | 0:50:45 | |
When I first discovered this in the archives, | 0:50:45 | 0:50:47 | |
I could hardly believe it. | 0:50:47 | 0:50:50 | |
She's told by Burghley that the Spanish Armada's landed a year early in Wales. | 0:50:50 | 0:50:55 | |
Burghley invents a full-scale invasion to push her into signing. | 0:50:55 | 0:50:58 | |
The realm will be in great danger, principally the person of Your Majesty. | 0:51:00 | 0:51:05 | |
Burghley tells the Queen to double her guards. Who knows what might happen? | 0:51:05 | 0:51:09 | |
'She calls for the warrant and she signs.' | 0:51:11 | 0:51:14 | |
'She signs it after they've been pressuring her and | 0:51:17 | 0:51:20 | |
'pressuring her to do it' | 0:51:20 | 0:51:21 | |
and, suddenly, it's done. | 0:51:21 | 0:51:23 | |
Burghley quickly sends off the executioners. | 0:51:25 | 0:51:28 | |
'But then, almost immediately, | 0:51:29 | 0:51:32 | |
'Elizabeth acts as if she didn't know what she was signing.' | 0:51:32 | 0:51:36 | |
"I was given a whole pile of papers by my secretary. | 0:51:36 | 0:51:39 | |
"He should've told me that top of the pile was the warrant | 0:51:39 | 0:51:44 | |
"for the execution of the Queen of Scots." | 0:51:44 | 0:51:46 | |
So, she blames everybody but herself. | 0:51:46 | 0:51:49 | |
All the time, she's trying to wash her hands of the blood of Mary, | 0:51:49 | 0:51:54 | |
but they are covered in it. | 0:51:54 | 0:51:56 | |
After 19 years of confinement, | 0:51:59 | 0:52:02 | |
Mary is suddenly told that she will die the next morning at | 0:52:02 | 0:52:05 | |
Fotheringhay Castle, February 8th, 1587. | 0:52:05 | 0:52:09 | |
I did not think the Queen, my sister, | 0:52:11 | 0:52:13 | |
would have consented to my death. | 0:52:13 | 0:52:15 | |
But seeing that your pleasure is so, | 0:52:18 | 0:52:21 | |
death shall be to me | 0:52:21 | 0:52:24 | |
most welcome. | 0:52:24 | 0:52:25 | |
Do not accuse me of presumption if on the eve of leaving this world | 0:52:27 | 0:52:32 | |
and preparing myself for a better one, | 0:52:32 | 0:52:35 | |
I remind you that one day you will have to answer for your charge. | 0:52:35 | 0:52:39 | |
Mary had decided that she would die a death that would | 0:52:41 | 0:52:44 | |
always be remembered. | 0:52:44 | 0:52:46 | |
She was going to go for a Catholic martyrdom. | 0:52:46 | 0:52:49 | |
If she couldn't win in life, | 0:52:50 | 0:52:51 | |
she would triumph in death. | 0:52:51 | 0:52:53 | |
'Mary may not have had much sense, but what she did have was great style.' | 0:53:00 | 0:53:06 | |
And right until the end, she kept that up. | 0:53:06 | 0:53:09 | |
'She's dressed in black, she's got a cross in one hand, | 0:53:14 | 0:53:18 | |
'a Latin prayer book in the other, there's a rosary around her wrist.' | 0:53:18 | 0:53:22 | |
I hope you shall make an end to all my troubles. | 0:53:23 | 0:53:27 | |
'She shows charity to her executioner,' | 0:53:27 | 0:53:30 | |
she consoles her weeping ladies. | 0:53:30 | 0:53:33 | |
'Under her outer garment, she's dressed in tawny red - | 0:53:36 | 0:53:39 | |
'the colour of martyrdom.' | 0:53:39 | 0:53:41 | |
There's even sort of gallows humour that you would get, | 0:53:41 | 0:53:44 | |
so she jokes with her executioner that she hasn't had | 0:53:44 | 0:53:48 | |
'such a servant undressing her before and certainly not | 0:53:48 | 0:53:50 | |
'in front of the audience that she had there.' | 0:53:50 | 0:53:53 | |
I have never taken off my clothes before such a company. | 0:53:56 | 0:54:00 | |
IN LATIN | 0:54:08 | 0:54:13 | |
SHE CONTINUES TO PRAY IN LATIN | 0:54:17 | 0:54:20 | |
The first stroke goes right into the back of the neck. | 0:54:37 | 0:54:39 | |
She continues praying, "Into thy hands, O Lord, | 0:54:39 | 0:54:43 | |
"I commend my spirit," in Latin. | 0:54:43 | 0:54:45 | |
The second blow goes really nine tenths of the way, | 0:54:48 | 0:54:51 | |
but he finishes it off using the axe as a meat cleaver. | 0:54:51 | 0:54:55 | |
'The headsman picks up the head, as you do, | 0:54:56 | 0:54:59 | |
'and say "God save the Queen,"' | 0:54:59 | 0:55:00 | |
except that, of course, Mary was wearing a wig, | 0:55:00 | 0:55:03 | |
so the head rolls off the stage like a football. | 0:55:03 | 0:55:05 | |
In a sense, it's a terribly fitting kind of end | 0:55:05 | 0:55:08 | |
because like so much of Mary, Queen of Scots' life, | 0:55:08 | 0:55:12 | |
it's theatrical. | 0:55:12 | 0:55:14 | |
And very good theatre this time. | 0:55:15 | 0:55:17 | |
In my end is my beginning. | 0:55:21 | 0:55:24 | |
"In my end is my beginning." That was so apt. | 0:55:25 | 0:55:29 | |
She's been immortalised after her death in many ways | 0:55:29 | 0:55:32 | |
as the ultimate doomed heroine, | 0:55:32 | 0:55:35 | |
THE damsel in distress. | 0:55:35 | 0:55:37 | |
'Also as a figure of Scots nationalism in a way | 0:55:37 | 0:55:41 | |
'against those beastly English | 0:55:41 | 0:55:42 | |
'and, perhaps above all,' | 0:55:42 | 0:55:45 | |
she is the ultimate Catholic martyr. | 0:55:45 | 0:55:48 | |
We will never be sure what Elizabeth really felt for her cousin. | 0:55:50 | 0:55:53 | |
But Mary's execution marked her forever. | 0:55:53 | 0:55:57 | |
This is something Elizabeth never got over. | 0:55:57 | 0:55:59 | |
She always denied that she'd been responsible for Mary's death. | 0:55:59 | 0:56:03 | |
She lied point-blank to James that she was responsible. | 0:56:03 | 0:56:05 | |
She blamed her councillors. | 0:56:05 | 0:56:07 | |
I would you know, though not felt, | 0:56:08 | 0:56:12 | |
the extreme pain which overwhelms my mind | 0:56:12 | 0:56:16 | |
for that miserable...accident... | 0:56:16 | 0:56:20 | |
far contrary to my meaning! | 0:56:20 | 0:56:22 | |
I beseech you, God and many more | 0:56:22 | 0:56:25 | |
know how innocent I am in this case. | 0:56:25 | 0:56:27 | |
After 26 years of never having met Mary, | 0:56:31 | 0:56:35 | |
Elizabeth now finds she's left it too late. | 0:56:35 | 0:56:38 | |
History will have to decide who won their battle. | 0:56:40 | 0:56:44 | |
'It may seem that the winner is obvious. | 0:56:45 | 0:56:48 | |
'It is Elizabeth, she has put to death Mary, Queen of Scots.' | 0:56:48 | 0:56:51 | |
She's vanquished her rival in the end. | 0:56:51 | 0:56:55 | |
But arguably, Mary has the last laugh | 0:56:55 | 0:56:59 | |
because it's her son James who becomes King of England. | 0:56:59 | 0:57:03 | |
When Elizabeth dies without any children of her own, | 0:57:03 | 0:57:07 | |
without anyone else to leave the throne to, | 0:57:07 | 0:57:09 | |
she's forced to leave it to the son of her greatest rival. | 0:57:09 | 0:57:13 | |
Mary's son James not only went on to rule both Scotland and England, | 0:57:16 | 0:57:21 | |
he ensured that every subsequent British monarch | 0:57:21 | 0:57:24 | |
would carry the blood of Mary, Queen of Scots. | 0:57:24 | 0:57:27 | |
Mary had shaped history as profoundly as she had affected Elizabeth. | 0:57:28 | 0:57:34 | |
Elizabeth was haunted by Mary's ghost | 0:57:34 | 0:57:37 | |
for the rest of her days. | 0:57:37 | 0:57:40 | |
She could never quite get out of her head | 0:57:40 | 0:57:42 | |
the guilt that she felt at putting Mary to death | 0:57:42 | 0:57:46 | |
and it's said that on Elizabeth's own deathbed, | 0:57:46 | 0:57:49 | |
the name that she uttered last was that | 0:57:49 | 0:57:52 | |
of the Queen of Scots. | 0:57:52 | 0:57:53 | |
Would that we being two queens so near of kin... | 0:57:57 | 0:58:02 | |
..neighbours and living in one isle... | 0:58:03 | 0:58:06 | |
..should be friends and live together like sisters... | 0:58:07 | 0:58:11 | |
..than by strange means divide ourselves | 0:58:13 | 0:58:17 | |
to the hurt of us both. | 0:58:17 | 0:58:18 |