The Death of Elizabeth I

In Our Time

BBC

History

4.6 • 9.2K Ratings

🗓️ 15 October 2009

⏱️ 41 minutes

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Summary

Melvyn Bragg and guests John Guy, Clare Jackson and Helen Hackett discuss the death of Queen Elizabeth I and its immediate impact, as a foreign monarch became King in the face of plots and plague.By the spring of 1603, Elizabeth had been Queen for 44 years, and it was clear that she would leave no heir. Many feared that her death would spark insurrection, led perhaps by Puritans, perhaps by Catholics, possibly with the support of Spain. As it became clear that she was dying, Elizabeth's chief minister, Sir Robert Cecil, put into action his covert strategy to secure the succession of King James the Sixth of Scotland.What follows is a story of plots, plague and high politics, as a foreign monarch brought a thoroughly Continental approach to Kingship to the English throne. James's accession was widely welcomed, but his relationship with Cecil was initially tense, and his long procession south from Edinburgh attracted both celebration and criticism. His treatise on Kingship, published on his succession, became a bestseller in London - at least until an outbreak of plague, which also drove him from the capital not long after he arrived. His coronation was hurried through to circumvent plots against him, but his triumphal entry into London had to be delayed until a year after Elizabeth's death. And, as the high expectations which first greeted James were increasingly frustrated, the English started to invoke the ghost of their dead Queen to criticise their new ruler.John Guy is a Fellow of Clare College, University of Cambridge; Clare Jackson is Lecturer and Director of Studies in History at Trinity Hall, University of Cambridge; Helen Hackett is Reader in English at University College, London.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Thanks for downloading the NRTIME podcast. For more details about NRTIME and for our terms of use, please go to bbc.co.uk forward slash radio for.
0:09.0	I hope you enjoy the program.
0:12.0	Hello, in February 1603, Queen Elizabeth I began to complain of insomnia and loss of appetite. She'd been on the throne for 44 years.
0:21.0	It was clear that she would leave no air and her death had been long expected.
0:26.0	But when its imminence became apparent, there were widespread fears of insurrection, a complex, highly stakes, series of manoeuvres followed, and there are devils in the details.
0:36.0	To some Elizabeth's passing and the arrival of a younger male monarch, James I, with wife and children, seemed as much a liberation as a loss.
0:43.0	And yet in death she became a mythic figure, and remained all too present as her scotish successor began his troubled reign in England.
0:50.0	We'd need to discuss the death of Elizabeth I, John Guy, fellow of Claire College, University of Cambridge, Claire Jackson, lecturer and director of studies in history at Trinity Hall, at the University of Cambridge, and Helen Hackett, reader in English at University College London.
1:05.0	John Guy, by February 1603, when Elizabeth falls, what became terminally ill, people had been expecting her to die.
1:13.0	What do they most fear will happen when she dies?
1:18.0	What they fear will happen is disorder, because she has made no provision for the succession, in that sense she was quite irresponsible, Henry VIII had left a will defining who would succeed him.
1:29.0	She has no child, she has not married.
1:31.0	Now of course there are Catholics who need to be brought into the system, there are Catholic loilers and there are Catholics who oppose her.
1:40.0	How will the succession be handled? People are expecting that James will be an important candidate, but he's 400 miles away.
1:48.0	He's a scot, that is a matter of great concern.
1:53.0	Of course, much of the politicking is happening inside the role palace.
1:59.0	Elizabeth falls sick, essentially, because the counters of Nottingham dies on the 24th of February, and that's what sets the clock ticking in the short term, and then she's ill for a month.
2:15.0	I don't get it, why does the clock tick because the counters of Nottingham die?
2:18.0	In the short term.
2:19.0	In the long term, of course, there have been other considerations, but in the short term, the clock starts ticking then and she can't sleep, she has no appetite.
2:29.0	She can't get to the chapel to hear the service, she has to sit on questions.
2:37.0	The room is outside, you've talked about the Catholics, the Catholics are in touch with Spain, it isn't very long since the Spanish amatic aim, the biggest fleet ever put to see, which because of the wind and the rain of the English skill was dispersed.
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