Elizabeth I

This episode charts her turbulent early years from age three when her mother was executed and she was declared illegitimate and banished from court, through the dangers she faced due to the machinations of Thomas Seymour and the hatred of her half-sister Mary, to the start of her reign.

For the first 25 years of her reign, Elizabeth never feels secure. Catholic plots abound at home and abroad, and there is the problem about what to do with Mary Queen of Scots. Meanwhile, her councillors want her to marry.

The Spanish Armada. The rise and fall of the Earl of Essex.