On the 10th of October 1562, Elizabeth I

first walks briskly in the gardens of Hampton Court Palace.

Having just taken a bath, she hopes a walk will shake the aches in her limbs

and the feelings of fever that are beginning to linger.

After all, she has letters to write and state business to attend to. A queen doesn't have

time to be ill. It's just four years into her reign and from the beginning, the 29-year-old

Elizabeth has tenaciously declared her intention to remain unmarried.

Her privy counsel believed that they have time to persuade her otherwise, but it soon becomes

apparent that they don't. In spite of her best efforts, Elizabeth falls perilously ill with smallpox, one of the deadliest

diseases of the time. The whispers at court are reporting that it won't be long until

she draws her last breath. Many are already in mourning. The Queen's Privy Council gathers in a panic as a

succession crisis looms over them. Elizabeth has no heir. So who will take the crown?

Elizabeth I did not die at Hampton Court in 1562. She went on to rain for another 40 years.

But her brush with death early in her rain brought her succession to the foreground and

once there it would not recede to the shadows.

It would dog her entire reign, causing treachery, deceit and death.

And yet, in 1603, the Tudor dynasty peacefully gave way to the Stuarts,

when James the 6th of Scotland took the English throne.

But was this succession really the done deal we have been led to believe, or were there other

forces at play here? Why was it James who succeeded Elizabeth when there were other arguably

stronger blood claimants.

And how did James' succession shape the end of the Tudor dynasty?

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