In 1603, Elizabeth I first, the last Tudor lay on her deathbed at Richmond Palace.

She was surrounded by her ministers who anxiously pressed her to name her heir before it was too late.

As the previous centuries had proven, a kingdom without a clear successor was chaos.

I'll have none but him, she said, after naming her cousin, James I of Scotland.

Elizabeth died not long after, and thus the Tudors peacefully gave way to the Stuarts.

You've probably heard this account before, the story of the end of the Tudor dynasty. You might even

be able to surmise why Elizabeth would wait until the very end to name her heir. But did you

know that these words and this version of events is a work of fiction based on a heavily edited source.

What's left behind when this is stripped away is a much darker tale full of treachery and deceit.

I'm Tracy Borman and over the next four episodes we're going to explore the real story behind the end of the Tudor dynasty and the rise of the Stuarts.

We'll reveal how the Elizabethan succession was a race to the finish line for a long list of rival claimants,

and ultimately, we'll question how James won the race.

What might have been different had the Tudor Crown gone to another?

Join me next Thursday as we dive into the history of the Stolen Tudor Crown.