Was Elizabeth I England's Greatest Monarch?

Tom Holland (0:09)

Hello, everyone, it is Tom here. And because we love you and because we want to give you as much sensational material as possible, I'm here to say that we are giving you an extra bonus. And the talk you're about to hear is from The Rest Is History Festival at Hampton Court Palace. And as such, I think a very appropriate place to talk about Elizabeth I, which is what I did with my very good friend, the wonderful historian Helen Castor, who joined me on the stage to talk about the life and career of the Virgin Queen. And so we thought this would be a kind of a perfect postscript, the series that we've been doing on the Tudor Cold War, Elizabeth I against the Catholic world, culminating, of course, in the execution of Mary Queen of Scots. So we'll be talking about that in a conversation with Helen. And also we have a look forward to everything that follows Spanish Armada, the last years of Elizabeth Reign, the challenges over the succession and all of that. So I had a wonderful time talking to Helen as I always do. And I hope that you as well will enjoy this episode.

Ladies and gentlemen, we are of course here at Hampton Court Palace. Yesterday we celebrated that by looking at Henry VIII and his various wives. Now we are going to look at the greatest of the two demonic, Elizabeth I, the Virgin Queen, Gloriana, the Queen who defeated the Spanish Armada, who kept England safe from the religious carnage that overwhelmed so much of continental Europe, the Queen who presided over the Golden Age of Shakespeare and Raleigh and Drake. And right at the beginning of this podcast, we had a vote, we ran a kind of a campaign to discover who England's greatest monarch was, an amazingly Athelstan one.

I'm starting to ponder whether actually Elizabeth I wasn't the greatest queen after all, certainly the greatest monarch. And to help persuade me, we have the wonderful Helen Castor, the great historian of medieval and Tudor queenship, and a very, very dear friend. So please, a big hand for Helen Castor.

Helen Castor (2:51)

Thank you.

Tom Holland (2:57)

I can't, I can't.

Helen Castor (3:01)

Thank you. This is the right seat for me.

Tom Holland (3:09)

So Helen, Elizabeth I, how great was she? Was she greater than Athelstan?

Helen Castor (3:14)

You know I'm going to say yes.

Tom Holland (3:15)

That's fine, that's fine.

Helen Castor (3:18)

I think we've got to make room for Athelstan. We've got to make room for Alfred. The last time you and I were debating this question on stage, you were making a speech in favor of Alfred. And I have to admit, you made some very, very good points. But I think the length of the reign, the ability of the woman, and the fact that like Ginger Rogers, if you're talking about her and Fred Astaire, she did everything he did but backwards and in heels.

I think there's a good case to be made for Elizabeth.

Tom Holland (3:51)

Okay. So should we begin at the beginning? Obviously, she has the advantage that she is the daughter of a king, namely Henry VIII.

But that comes with quite a few disadvantages as well, doesn't it? So just how bad a legacy does Henry leave her as a father?

Helen Castor (4:12)

It's pretty hard to think how it could be worse. Elizabeth, when she's born, is the heir to England's throne, but she's already gone wrong. The documents that are produced to announce her birth have been produced in advance by the Queen. Anne Boleyn is sending out these documents to announce the birth of a prince.

And when Elizabeth arrives and she turns out to be the wrong sex, they have to quickly add in an S to make it a princess. You can see on the documents it's been squished in. So she's already wrong. The idea is, of course, she will be followed by a brother, but she isn't. And that means that before she's three, her father has ordered the judicial murder of her mother.

Tom Holland (4:59)

That's not a good start, is it, to anyone's life?

Helen Castor (5:02)

Not to anyone's life. And she is no longer Princess of England. She is instead a bastard.

And not only the king's bastard, but the king's second bastard girl, behind Mary, the daughter of his first marriage. And Mary, who's had a really bad time, is, of course, half Spanish. So she's got these very powerful relatives on the continent, to whom Henry will have to answer if he touches a hair on her head. That won't necessarily stop him. But Elizabeth has got no one.