Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007) centers on the plot to assassinate Queen Elizabeth I of England, the arrest and execution of Mary, Queen of Scots (Elizabeth’s cousin), and King Phillip II of Spain’s attempt to topple Elizabeth and install a Catholic monarch on the English throne, which culminates in England’s defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588. The film also portrays the complex emotional triangle involving Elizabeth, the English statemen, soldier, and explorer Sir Walter Raleigh, and Elizabeth’s lady-in-waiting, Beth Throckmorton, whom Raleigh marries and has a child with. (The film depicts Elizabeth as enamored with Raleigh). Directed by Shekhar Kapur, from a script by William Nicholson and Michael Hirst, the film is a sequel to Kapur’s Elizabeth (1998). The cast includes Cate Blanchett (Queen Elizabeth I), Clive Owen (Walter Raleigh), Geoffrey Rush (Elizabeth’s spymaster Sir Francis Walsingham), Samantha Morton (Mary, Queen of Scots); Abbie Cornish (Beth Throckmorton); and Jordi Mollà (Phillip II of Spain). In addition to dramatizing this critical and memorable period of English history (albeit with some notable historical inaccuracies), the film provides a window into important and timely legal issues around torture, trial for matters of state, and piracy in Tudor England.  I’m joined by Alka Pradhan, a leading human rights attorney, adjunct professor at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School, and Tudor history buff. (Alka's full bio is here)

Timestamps:

0:00      Introduction

3:38      Queen Elizabeth I and the film’s historical context 

9:14      The Babington assassination plot 

15:38   Mary’s letters and the evidence of guilt

16:53   Torture and torture warrants during Elizabeth I’s reign

22:51   Walsingham, the spy master

24:08   The trial of Mary Queen of Scots

32:38   The Defeat of the Spanish Armada

36:18   The law of piracy

38:24   Elizabeth, Walter Raleigh, and Beth Throckmorton

44:56   More on depicting torture and trials on film 

48:44   What the movie and Tudor history can tell us about contemporary society

 
Further reading:

Cooper, John, The Queen’s Agent: Sir Francis Walsingham in Elizabethan England (2013)

Lewis, Jayne E., The Trial of Mary Queen of Scots: A Brief History with Documents (1999)

Martin, Colin & Parker, Geoffrey, The Spanish Enterprise and England’s Deliverance in 1588 (2023)

Read, Andrew, “Pirates and Privateers in Elizabethan England,” in The Laws of Yesterday’s Wars (Samuel C. Duckett White ed. 2021)

Webb, Simon, A History of Torture in England (2018)

Williams, Kate, Rival Queens: The Betrayal of Mary Queen of Scots (2021)

Law on Film is created and produced by Jonathan Hafetz. Jonathan is a professor at Seton Hall Law School. He has written many books and articles about the law. He has litigated important cases to protect civil liberties and human rights while working at the ACLU and other organizations. Jonathan is a huge film buff and has been watching, studying, and talking about movies for as long as he can remember.
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