Elizabeth (1998)

Elizabeth (1998), a British biographical period drama film directed by Shekhar Kapur and written by Michael Hirst, tells the story of Catholic Queen Mary I of England’s death in 1558. The forty-two year old daughter of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon is believed to have died from a cancerous tumor in her womb. With Mary gone, her twenty-five year old half sister Lady Elizabeth, daughter of Henry and Anne Boleyn, is released from house arrest for suspected involvement in Thomas Wyatt the Younger’s rebellion. As the new Queen of England, Elizabeth inherits a kingdom facing numerous challenges such as debts, deteriorating infrastructure, hostile neighbors and disloyal nobles within her own administration. Sir William Cecil, her adviser, stresses the importance of Elizabeth marrying quickly to produce an heir and secure her rule.

Elizabeth puts off making a choice about her suitors and opts to maintain her affair with Lord Robert Dudley, her childhood friend. In order to protect and advise Elizabeth, Cecil selects Francis Walsingham, a Protestant exile recently returned from France. Meanwhile, Mary of Guise, acting as regent for her young daughter Mary, Queen of Scots, brings an additional 4,000 French soldiers to neighboring Scotland. Despite being unfamiliar with military strategy and being pressured by Norfolk at the war council, Elizabeth orders a military response that ultimately proves disastrous against the well-trained French troops. Walsingham informs Elizabeth that Catholic lords and priests deliberately deprived her army of skilled soldiers and used their defeat as a case for removing her from power.