5. Good Queen Bess

An exciting moment! Anne Boleyn's daughter, bright as her mother, in sharpness of mind as well as redness of hair, has made it to the throne. She's sick of all those quarrels between Protestants and Catholics, and decides that there's no need to pick fights with any Catholic subject who's discreet about his beliefs and remains loyal to the throne. The trouble is that the Pope keeps making life difficult for her, by denying her legitimacy and therefore her right to the throne. Can she therefore count on Catholic subjects who owe allegiance to the Pope as well as to herself?

And what about her cousin, Mary Queen of Scots? She's openly Catholic. And, with French connections herself, she's Queen in a nation that sees itself as close to England's enemy France. When she falls out with her own people and has to take refuge in England, how should Elizabeth react?

Episode 5 will tell you.

The illustration is a later engraving of her chief adviser William Cecil urging Elizabeth to take action against Mary Queen of Scots.
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Music: Bach Partita #2c by J Bu licensed under an Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives (aka Music Sharing) 3.0 International License.