In this first episode David Starkey examines Elizabeth I's life before her coronation. If her reign was full of glorious victories, her earlier life was a perilous journey. Her father would kill her mother and Elizabeth would be…
David Starkey explores the tensions created by Elizabeth I's reluctance to marry, which strained the political and religious machinations of her reign. The self-styled 'Virgin Queen' - devoted only to her country - signified a new era of…
In July 1588 beacons were lit across England to warn of the arrival of the Spanish Armada. Elizabeth I's darkest fears had come true. Having successfully avoided open war for 20 years, she found herself bound up in a costly and…
After the Armada was defeated Elizabeth I ushered in a golden age in English society. With a flourishing of literature, an age of prosperity and a sense that England was at last a nation to be reckoned with in Europe, national pride was…
