Elizabeth and Essex

One of the most famous and baffling romances in history-between Elizabeth I Queen of England and Robert Devereux Earl of Essex-began in May of 1587 when she was fifty-three and he was just shy of twenty. Their relationship continued until 1601 when the Earl of Essex was beheaded for treason. And in a succession of brilliant scenes Strachey portrays the Queen's and the Earl's compelling attraction for on another their impassioned disagreements and their mutual contest for power which led to a final tragic confrontation. Here we also have superb portraits of influential people of the time: Francis Bacon Robert Cecil Walter Raleigh and other figures of the court who struggled to assert themselves in a kingdom that was primarily defined by her sovereign and so now seen through history's lens as Elizabethan England. <br>