Elizabeth I - The Virgin Queen

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Movie
German title Elizabeth I - The Virgin Queen
Original title The Virgin Queen
Country of production Great Britain
original language English
Publishing year 2005
length 236 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Coky Giedroyc
script Paula Milne
production Paul Rutman
music Martin Phipps
camera David Odd
cut Joe Walker
occupation

Elizabeth I - The Virgin Queen is a historical television film by the BBC in 4 episodes that aired in January and February 2006.

action

episode 1

England in the 16th century: Queen Maria suspects her Protestant half-sister Elisabeth of conspiracy. Although Elisabeth protests her innocence, she and her governess Kat Ashley and her relatives and lady-in-waiting Lettice Knollys are taken to the same cell in the Tower of London where her mother Anne Boleyn once spent her last days. Here she is interrogated by Stephan Gardiner regarding the Wyatt conspiracy . Her only consolation is the presence of her childhood friend Robert Dudley . Only at the request of her brother-in-law Philip II is she released from prison and instead placed under house arrest, separated from her wives. Here she receives visits from her loyal William Cecil , who secretly provides her with news from the court. Queen Maria believes she is pregnant, but instead her condition turns out to be the result of a tumor from which she eventually dies. Elisabeth is proclaimed the new queen and brings Robert Dudley to court.

Episode 2

Elizabeth's intimacy with Robert Dudley arouses the jealousy of her relative, Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk , who does not feel appreciated enough and deeply envies Dudley. Dudley's sick wife Amy Robsart also suspects a love affair between her husband and the queen. Foreign ambassadors and suitors began to spread rumors. Elisabeth herself defended her relationship with Dudley to Kat Ashley by saying that nothing dishonorable had happened between them. In doing so, she does not notice how her friend and lady-in-waiting Lettice Knollys herself begins to develop feelings for Dudley. Amy, already seriously ill, takes her own life in the hope that her death will dissuade Dudley from his dangerous love affair. As a widower, Dudley solicits the queen, but she refuses to marry him. After surviving severe smallpox, she informed the council of her decision to live and die as a virgin. The pressure on Elisabeth grows when her rival Maria Stuart gives birth to a son. Norfolk agrees to a plot of Mary against Elizabeth, but is convicted. Unbeknownst to everyone, Lettice begins an affair with Dudley.

Episode 3

Despite her vow not to marry, Elisabeth still accepts courtship from abroad. Still, she can never bring herself to marriage because she still loves Dudley. The situation between the two escalates when it is discovered that Dudley has secretly married Lettice Knollys and is the real father of their son. Beside herself with anger, Elisabeth Lettice banished from the court. In the meantime, Cecil threads a plot against the captured Queen Maria Stuart. With the help of bogus letters he gets Maria to sign a letter that stamps her as a traitor. Finally, Elisabeth grudgingly forces herself to have Maria executed. Robert Dudley is called back to court. A short time later, Elisabeth received the news that Philip II was sailing to England with the Spanish Armada . She personally travels to the camp of her troops and gives a fiery speech that motivates her men. The Armada is crushed. Not long afterwards, Dudley dies of an illness. In her grief, Elisabeth withdraws for a long time until one day at a ball she meets Dudley's son - Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex .

Episode 4

Robert Devereux is used by his bitter mother, Lettice Knollys, to gain Elisabeth's trust. The aging queen succumbs to his charm and treats him with far more indulgence than any other courtier. He tries to reconcile her with his mother. Elisabeth agrees to meet her former lady-in-waiting, but gives Lettice little more than a quick look. It quickly becomes apparent that Devereux suffers from depression and is sometimes prone to delusions. Nevertheless, he always succeeds in softening the queen. She gives him various commands, but Devereux fails miserably. Morbidly jealous of Cecil's influence on the Queen, Devereux begins to believe in a conspiracy. He starts an uprising, supposedly to save Elisabeth from her vicious advisors. The Londoners do not heed his call, however, and Devereux is arrested and executed as a traitor. The elderly Elisabeth never got over his death completely and behaved increasingly strangely. Eventually she dies after not wanting to go to bed for days. When the council wanted to hand over her signet ring to her successor, King James I , it turned out that Elisabeth had a tiny picture of her officially ostracized mother Anne Boleyn in it.

background

Differences from historical events

In contrast to other film adaptations, the film is characterized by a very precise reproduction of historical facts. Still, there were little things that were changed, left out or said in the script, although they could never be proven.

Remarks

Awards

BAFTA Award

Nominated:

  • Best Actress: Anne-Marie Duff

DVD publications

  • In 2010 the episodes appeared in a double DVD box on NewKSM.

Soundtrack

  • Martin Phipps worked with Mediæval Bæbes and the London Bulgarian Choir on the soundtrack .

Web links