Character: Queen Elizabeth I

Directed by: Tom Hooper

Written by: Nigel Williams

Produced by: Barney Reisz

Cast Members: Jeremy Irons, Patrick Malahide, Toby Jones, Hugh Dancy

Released date: September 29, 2005

Genre: Biography, Drama, History

Approaching middle age, Queen Elizabeth is conscious that she has never produced an heir to continue her line. Her advisers see plots and treachery all around her, most of it centered around her cousin, Mary, Queen of Scots. Her advisers have a plan that they believe will secure the British throne and weaken their deadliest enemy, Spain. They propose that she marry the Duke of Anjou, brother to the King of France. This would preclude an alliance between France and Spain and drive a wedge through the Catholic world. She reluctantly agrees, even accepting the advice of the Earl of Leicester, a lover she had at one time banished from her court. The Duke's sudden death leads to the Franco-Spanish alliance they had feared. When the Spanish Armada is defeated England is safe but the Queen suffers a tragic personal loss.

Character’s Quotes

• If you can’t read my silence, you’re nothing.
• The hardest thing to govern is the heart.
• I know that I have the body of a weak and feeble woman, but I have the heart and stomach of a King! And a King of England, too!
• Bacon, people who compliment me on my breasts, even in Latin, run the risk of being thought impertinent.
• I lack the assurance of youth. I question everything.
• Princes never cheat at cards. They simply have the rules altered to suit their needs.
• The only thing that will kiss in this affair are lawyers pens and lawyers papers.
• Come ladies, we are going to watch the Earl of Essex at his favourite pastime, which is trying to kill people.
• I want to hear no more of this… but someone is to give me an account of it when it is done.
• I will die at a time of my own choosing, and not before.