Britain at the time of Queen Elizabeth I was divided, unstable and violent. Despite this, Elizabeth stayed in power for over 40 years. This secret of her incredible reign is hidden in this portrait: detailed in the folds of her dress – these eyes and ears represent a spy network: the world’s first secret service run by a father and son team, both exceptionally intelligent and given the job of protecting Queen and Country. This series tells their story over five decades and reveals how the secret state was born. Elizabeth I’s Secret Agents, BBC 2017
Over the course of her reign there were 14 assassination attempts on her life. ibid.
Cecil’s genius was to create the world’s first spy network. ibid.
The traitor [‘40’] was the Duke of Norfolk. ibid.
She was living in constant danger. Plots against Elizabeth keep coming. ibid.
They know that it is not enough for Mary to be the figurehead of a conspiracy, they must catch her red-handed in a plot to kill the Queen. ibid.
‘Elizabeth was ineffably different, she’s exceptional, she’s holy, she’s magical.’ Elizabeth I’s Secret Agents II, Lisa Hilton
The Spanish armada has just been defeated but there is still the fear they might try again. ibid.
Robert Cecil: ‘He is trained to do the dirty work, he is clever, cunning, feeble, rich, lonely.’ ibid.
He inherited his father’s spy network. ibid.
The Earl of Essex was everything Cecil wasn’t: he was handsome, an expert swordsman and a war hero. ibid.
His father masterminded the execution of Mary Queen of Scots. ibid.
Cecil has larger forces there waiting for him [Essex]. ibid.
For a few hours Elizabeth contemplates forgiving Essex. ibid.
The Gunpowder Plot: Cecil’s job to stop it. ibid.
James has a reputation for being obsessed with the occult, for promiscuity and extravagance. Elizabeth I’s Secret Agents III
The priest behind the kidnap plot is hunted down by Cecil’s men. ibid.
A year into his reign King James begins to reveal the scale of his ambitions. ibid.
Cecil’s doubts about union are shared by the English parliament. ibid.
A splinter cell in the Catholic underground: it contains five young men, among them a mercenary Guy Fawkes. John Gerard has just set in motion the gunpowder plot. ibid.
Cecil can connect Percy to the men he thinks are behind the plot. ibid.
A time when England embraced the whole world. Dr Ian Mortimer, The Time Traveller’s Guide to Elizabethan England I: The Common People, BBC 2013
A continual struggle to survive. ibid.
Everyone in Elizabethan England hates atheists. ibid.
The famine devastates the country. ibid.
There are just so many diseases you can catch. ibid.
One in twelve of the population dies of flu. ibid.
Witchcraft ... is recognised in law ... Even the clergy employ witches. ibid.
This is a world of distress, disease and deprivation. Dr Ian Mortimer, The Time Traveller's Guide to Elizabethan England II: The Rich
Those who have the most also have the most to lose. ibid.
A labourer in Elizabeth’s reign can expect to earn 4d per day – not enough for food for his family and himself, let alone clothes and other requirements. ibid.
Fashions become steadily more lavish. ibid.
The Progresses form a vital part of Elizabeth’s queenship. ibid.
From the ranks of the gentry the magistrates and sheriffs are drawn. ibid.
Careless words are your Achilles’ heel; there are informers everywhere. ibid.
The Star Chamber is an elite court made up of members of the Privy Council. ibid.
It is Elizabethans that pioneered state-authorised torture. ibid.
She was our most infamous queen. The second wife of Henry VIII tried on his orders for crimes of adultery and treason. Anne Boleyn was led from her rooms at the Tower of London to her death by an executioner’s sword. The Boleyns: A Scandalous Family, BBC 2021
Thomas Boleyn: the ambitious patriarch; George, the fearless son; the sisters Mary, the reluctant mistress; Anne, the calculating courtier, and their brutal uncle Thomas Howard. The family played a dangerous game and paid the ultimate price. But they left a remarkable legacy. ibid.
But neither Thomas Boleyn or Thomas Howard can match the meteoric rise of the third Thomas – Thomas Wolsey, who has won himself a seat in one of the highest circles of court, the Royal Council. ibid.
But in his daughter Anne he has raised a woman whose ambitions will soon outstrip even her father’s. ibid.
Henry VIII has been on the throne for seventeen years. The Boleyns are one of many ambitious families jostling for power at the Tudor court. Led by Thomas Boleyn this is a dynasty on the make. The Bolyens: A Scandalous Family II
‘I think we can sense that Henry is the one that falls in love first, he is attracted, but Anne does what all Boleyns do and makes use of good opportunity.’ ibid. historian
To help to end his marriage, Henry turns to Wolsey, the most senior churchman in England. ibid.
The deposing of Wolsey is the Boleyn family’s greatest victory so far. ibid.
George and Anne think the absolute power enjoyed by the pope should be challenged. The Boleyns: A Scandalous Family III
The family are seen as dangerous iconoclasts, prepared to smash a thousand years of religious tradition to get what they want. ibid.
The ambitious middle classes ... are on the rise. Dr Ian Mortimer, The Time Traveller’s Guide to Elizabethan England III: Brave New World
A wholesale change in living standards. ibid.
Multitudes flock to the capital to make their fortune. ibid.
The most terrifying thing you’ll encounter in Elizabethan England – the Plague. ibid.
For the first time people can read the Word of God in their own homes. ibid.
If you’re a smoker, you’ll have to visit after 1573. ibid.
The profound changes of the Elizabethan era radically alter the lives of the new metropolitan classes. ibid.
The pinnacle of Elizabeth’s England – the theatre. ibid.
From this day in 1830 nothing would be the same again. This is where the modern world begins. Locomotion: Dan Snow’s History of Railways, BBC 2013
One billion passengers still travel these lines each year. ibid.
By the early 1800s British was at the centre of a world-wide trading web. ibid.
The people fell in love with them. ibid.
The Stockton & Darlington became world famous. ibid.
The Railways came along and changed everything. ibid.
The find of a lifetime ... The true extent of the Hoard soon became clear. ibid.
In the late 1830s a great swathe of Victorian London was ripped apart. The railway had arrived in the capital. Locomotion: Dan Snow’s History of Railways II
Hills was being mined and blasted, valleys were being bridged. ibid.
Trains could already hit fifty miles an hour. ibid.
The working classes got their first taste of the railway … cheap excursions were being offered. ibid.
As the investors vowed never to gamble on the railways again, the whole banking system teetered on the edge. The government had to step in. ibid.
Britain begins to export the railways to the rest of the world. ibid.