Watch: Magic Grandad - Famous People (Elizabeth I) 1994

Описание: Grandad tells the children a story about a ‘real’ princess, not the fairy-tale one from a book. Through the magic of television, he takes them to the Tower of London, where Queen Elizabeth I was imprisoned by her elder sister, Queen Mary I. Elizabeth later becomes a great queen, but lived and reigned when things were very different from our own times and the life of our Queen Elizabeth II.
Elizabeth, the daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, reigned from 1558-1603. She was third in line of succession, following Edward VI (Henry's son by his third wife Jane Seymour) and Mary (the daughter of Catherine of Aragon, Henry's first wife) to the throne. The young Princess Elizabeth was both intelligent and well educated. She spoke French, Spanish and Italian, and could read Latin and Greek. She was an accomplished musician, and enjoyed riding, hunting and dancing. Children could compare Elizabeth's education and pastimes to their own today.
Elizabeth's early years were times of great personal danger, firstly during the reign of her half-brother, Edward VI, and when her half-sister, Mary, was queen. Mary was a devout Catholic, while Elizabeth was Protestant. Plots to remove Mary from the throne centred on the young princess who was seen as the focus of Protestant hopes for power.
Although Elizabeth was careful to avoid personal involvement, she was suspected of playing a part in a rebellion against Queen Mary. This led to her imprisonment in the Tower of London, the very place where her mother had been executed. The Watch programme focuses on this particular event in Elizabeth's life. The two sisters were finally reconciled and Elizabeth returned to court.
Elizabeth became a great and powerful queen, an image, which she herself carefully promoted through, for example, her portraits from this time. During her long reign, England's emergence as a world power coincided with a flowering of the arts, aspects of which still play a part in our lives today.

Song: Greensleeves