Elizabeth

PLOT

In 1558, Catholic Queen Mary (Kathy Burke) dies from a cancerous tumour in her womb. Mary's heir, her Protestant half-sister, Elizabeth (Cate Blanchett), under house arrest for conspiracy charges, is freed and crowned the Queen of England.

As briefed by her adviser William Cecil (Richard Attenborough), Elizabeth inherits a distressed England besieged by debts, crumbling infrastructure, hostile neighbours, and treasonous nobles within her administration, chief among them the Duke of Norfolk (Christopher Eccleston). Cecil advises Elizabeth to marry, produce an heir, and secure her rule. Unimpressed with her suitors, Elizabeth delays her decision and continues her secret affair with Lord Robert Dudley (Joseph Fiennes). Cecil appoints Francis Walsingham (Geoffrey Rush), a Protestant exile returned from France, to act as Elizabeth's bodyguard and adviser.

Mary of Guise (Fanny Ardant) lands an additional 4,000 French troops in neighbouring Scotland. Unfamiliar with military strategy and browbeaten by Norfolk at the war council, Elizabeth orders a military response, which proves disastrous when the professional French soldiers defeat the inexperienced, ill-trained English forces. Walsingham tells Elizabeth that Catholic lords and priests intentionally deprived Elizabeth's army of proper soldiers and used their defeat to argue for Elizabeth's removal. Realising the depth of the conspiracy against her and her dwindling options, Elizabeth accepts Mary of Guise's conditions to consider marrying her nephew Henry of France.

To stabilize her rule and heal England's religious divisions, Elizabeth proposes the Act of Uniformity, which unites English Christians under the Church of England and severs their connection to the Vatican. In response to the Act's passage, the Vatican sends a priest to England to aid Norfolk and his cohorts in their growing plot to overthrow Elizabeth. Unaware of the plot, Elizabeth meets Henry of France but ignores his advances in favour of Lord Robert. William Cecil confronts Elizabeth over her indecisiveness about marrying and reveals Lord Robert is married to another woman. Elizabeth rejects Henry's marriage proposal when she discovers he is a cross-dresser and confronts Lord Robert about his secrets, fracturing their idyllic affair and banishing him from her private residence.

Elizabeth survives an assassination attempt, whose evidence implicates Mary of Guise. Elizabeth sends Walsingham to meet with Mary secretly in Scotland, under the guise of once again planning to marry Henry. Instead, Walsingham assassinates Guise, inciting French enmity against Elizabeth. When William Cecil orders her to solidify relations with the Spanish, Elizabeth dismisses him from her service, choosing instead to follow her own counsel.

Walsingham warns of another plot to kill Elizabeth spearheaded by the priest from Rome carrying letters of conspiracy. Under Elizabeth's orders, Walsingham apprehends the priest, who divulges the names of the conspirators and a Vatican agreement to elevate Norfolk to the English crown if he weds Mary, Queen of Scots. Walsingham arrests Norfolk and executes him and every conspirator except Lord Robert. Elizabeth grants Lord Robert his life as a reminder to herself how close she came to danger.

Drawing inspiration from the divine, Elizabeth cuts her hair and models her appearance after the Virgin Mary. Proclaiming herself married to England, she ascends the throne as "the Virgin Queen."

CAST

Cate Blanchett as Elizabeth I

Geoffrey Rush as Francis Walsingham

Joseph Fiennes as Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester

Richard Attenborough as William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley

Christopher Eccleston as Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk

Kathy Burke as Queen Mary I

Fanny Ardant as Mary of Guise

Vincent Cassel as Francis, Duke of Anjou

Eric Cantona as Paul de Foix

Emily Mortimer as Kat Ashley

Kelly Macdonald as Isabel Knollys

John Gielgud as Pope Pius V

Daniel Craig as John Ballard

James Frain as Álvaro de la Quadra

Edward Hardwicke as Henry FitzAlan, 19th Earl of Arundel

Jamie Foreman as Earl of Sussex

Terence Rigby as Bishop Stephen Gardiner

Angus Deayton as Waad, Chancellor of the Exchequer

Amanda Ryan as Lettice Howard

Kenny Doughty as Sir Thomas Elyot

George Yiasoumi as King Philip II of Spain

Wayne Sleep as Dance Tutor

Alfie Allen as Arundel's Son

Lily Allen as Lady-in-waiting

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

based on the early years of Elizabeth's reign