 |
Elizabeth I writer Nigel Williams spoke with HBO Online from his home in London about the religious conflicts of the era which affected both the personal and political sides of Elizabeth's life and reign.
 |
|
Portrait of Queen Elizabeth I. |
|
|
|
HBO:
Take us back to the beginning of Elizabeth's life, prior
to her ascension to the throne.
Nigel Williams:
I think it's really important to remember that Elizabeth
is the daughter of Anne Boleyn, one of the many wives
of Henry VIII who was beheaded as part of a court
intrigue. It's always difficult to talk about memory in
relation to historical character, but one must suppose one
of her earliest memories was this huge insecurity. Her
father had her mother executed. She was brought up in
the Protestant religion by some of the great Protestant
minds of the 16th century. She came to womanhood, if
you like, under the rule of her sister, Mary.
So, not only is she brought up with a certain fear of her
father who must have been a terrifying figure to her, she
also comes to maturity under the Catholic rule of her
sister Mary. And during this period her life is so
dangerous because she's a Protestant and Mary is a
Catholic. There's a vile repression of the English
Protestant Church under Mary.
HBO:
This is Mary the 1st of England?
Nigel Williams:
Yes, "Bloody Mary" as we sometimes call her. Not like
the drink, but because she burned a number of eminent
Protestants. She was a very heavy lady indeed, and had
she ended up marrying Philip of Spain, and had she had
a Catholic heir, the whole history of England, and of
America, would have been completely different because
Protestantism, the religion of England in the 16th
century, and indeed of the New World, all the Founding
Fathers of the U. S. are of course Protestants at war with
that Catholic strand in English life.
So Mary is a very dangerous creature, and during her
rule, Elizabeth is confined to the Tower of London under
suspicion of plotting against her, and is really in fear for
her life. So, Elizabeth only comes to the throne after an
incredibly risk-fraught childhood, and strong danger of
official execution and a period of house imprisonment.
And indeed literal imprisonment in the Tower.
So the background of her coming to power is out of
somebody who probably never expected to become
queen. It's only a remarkable series of accidents: the
early death of Mary, and nobody else deciding to
intervene on behalf of the Catholic faith that brings her
to the throne at all. And that's terribly important to
remember because her incredibly acute political sense is
borne out of an awareness of how quickly power and
vanity and pomp and circumstance can disappear, and
how very easy it is to move from being a King to being a
victim, a prisoner.
HBO:
So Elizabeth's mother is put to death by her father?
Nigel Williams:
Yes, by Henry VIII. There was an alleged conspiracy.
It's a complex collection of things. Number one, she
gave birth to a girl. What Kings wanted in Tudor
England was a male heir to secure the succession. And
you can't understand Elizabeth's reign without that. A
male heir to secure the succession means that you're not
going to have every Tom, Dick and Harry deciding that
maybe he'll be the next person to step in. And a girl is
just not good enough. So, number one, Anne Boleyn
doesn't deliver an heir.
Number two, there seems to have been some evidence of
sexual problems between her and Henry VIII, and of a
possible affair. Either way she becomes the victim of
him wanting a new wife, and of a breakdown in the
relationship. And she is beheaded.
Henry was not an easy guy. He had six wives, and they
were all either divorced or beheaded up until the last one
who managed to be lucky enough to outlive him. So he
was a terrifying individual and you can imagine
Elizabeth's very early childhood; being sent away from
London; being the daughter of this executed traitor. But
he was her father, and she did keep a picture of him in
front of her private apartments in the palace. And there
is an element of her father's crazy temper in her.
HBO:
Explain how the Protestant movement came about.
Nigel Williams:
Two things happened: Henry VIII has a famous
disagreement with the Pope on the question of his
marriage. So, he divorces and wants to get rid of
Catherine of Aragon, who's a posh Catholic, a potent,
European potentate. And he wants a child and he wants
to get rid of her. And when the Pope won't give him a
divorce, he just says, alright, screw you. I'll go it on my
own. And he creates the English Church. He sacks the
monasteries, gets rid of the monks, gets rid of the
apparatus of Catholic power and the universal power of
the Pope.
So, Henry becomes as he said on his coin, "defender of
the faith." He executes Thomas More, the first martyr of
the Catholic Church in England who says, "No you can't
do this." And he says, "I am the supreme head of the
Church." It's a fantastic nationalist statement. And it's a
very radical and dangerous thing to do as far as
Catholicism is concerned because almost every single
crowned head of Europe is Catholic, and in league with
the Pope.
HBO:
How then does Elizabeth become queen?
Nigel Williams:
Well, what happens is Mary proves to be an extremely
unpopular and unsuccessful ruler of England. She dies
young, and since succession was through the children of
Henry VIII, the only logical successor is Elizabeth. So,
this happens in 1559 when Elizabeth is 25. She's a
young and extremely vulnerable woman. And I think
probably everybody thinks when she ascends to the
throne that she's not going to last. And one of the first
things that happens is everybody says, well she's gotta
get married. I mean, how can you have a single woman
on the throne of England?
HBO:
Which creates enormous personal and political
difficulties for Elizabeth throughout her life and reign.
Nigel Williams:
Yes. You've got to understand that if you are a royal
person-and I think it's as true in the 21st century as it
was in the 16th, but it was even more true in the 16th-
you're marriage was a very important political
statement. It was a way of creating an alliance, and of
deciding which way the fortunes of the country would
go. So, for example, a marriage with the Duke of Anjou,
who is the brother of the King of France, but thought to
be sympathetic to the Protestant cause, because you
can't understand these events without remembering
things like the Bartholomew's Day Massacre, a very
famous and hideous massacre of Protestants in Paris.
And it was thought that the Duke of Anjou was more
sympathetic to the Protestants.
There was some doubt about that in Elizabeth's mind
and her advisors, but in getting together with the Duke
of Anjou, Elizabeth would tie England to the Royal
House of France, and therefore, secure itself against the
threat of Spain, who was a most dangerous and powerful
figure in Europe with an avowed hatred of heresy and
heretics such as Elizabeth, and indeed her father Henry
VIII. And you would, at a stroke get, rid of the risk of
war. So ran the theory.
So, the issue of the French marriage became an issue of
politics on the one hand, and of her own tempestuous
feelings on the other. And there was a case for saying
that it would be dangerous for English Protestants like
the Earl of Leicester who was also most certainly
Elizabeth's lover. It might have meant his death. So it's
incredibly risky business. It's like Stalin; it's really
heavy, heavy duty. But ultimately the decision to wed or
not to wed is the queen's.
HBO:
She appears that she wanted to wed Anjou. What went
wrong?
Nigel Williams:
I think she did actually. I think, there's a lot of
performance and pet names, and sort of acting, will I go
this way, will I go that way for the benefit of European
politics. But there is also strong evidence that she really
did find Anjou an attractive and interesting person. He
was a very personable guy. And you've got to remember
that marriage for somebody in her situation--it's a bit
like Lady Di. There are only one or two people your
family will allow you to marry.
And so there's suddenly the possibility of real sexual
love and sexual politics, and it's only in realizing the
upsurge of Protestant hatred against Catholic Europe
that makes her realize that she just can't do this. Her
feelings are secondary. She's a queen first, and a woman
second.
By marrying this guy, she was in danger of going
against Protestant feeling in the country. So this is a bit
like a pop star alienating their audience. Do my fans still
love me, you know what I mean? And the mood of the
population is very, very important to gauge. So, I think
when she realized that this was not a popular marriage,
there wasn't really anywhere for her to go. And so it
doesn't work out.
HBO:
What were the political ramifications of that?
Nigel Williams:
Well, when the French marriage dissolves, combined
with the execution Mary Queen of Scots, it means that a
conflict with Spain is more or less inevitable. So both
these things are incredibly personal, but also incredibly
political. She doesn't want to execute Mary, although
it's proved that Mary is plotting against her, and very
keen to overthrow her, and the whole of Catholic Europe
wants to overthrow her, but she doesn't want to execute
Mary, but in the end, she's forced into a position where
she has to.
And that leads as night follows day into the Spanish
Armada, which is one of the riskiest moments in
England's history--a moment of absolute decision and
absolute drama. And it comes directly out of these
events. And as we see, they win. England is victorious,
and we have the famous scene where all the flags are
draped behind her at St. Paul's. But the conflicts aren't
over.
HBO:
What happens then?
Nigel Williams:
I think what happens to Elizabeth in the second half of
her reign--and we see it all the time with politicians--that
from the moment of supreme power and supreme
authority when she seemed absolutely unchallengeable,
that's when things start to slip. And the story of the last
ten years of her reign is one of faction, and of conflict,
and of somebody trying to hold on to the glory of her
court, and the glory of that Armada victory, and it all
turning sour; especially via the Earl of Essex who is
almost a replay of her relationship with the Earl of
Leicester, who is a Protestant patron and indeed almost
certainly Elizabeth's lover. It's an attempt to keep
something warm, something alive and yet, not being
able quite to do it really.
HBO:
What were the other elements at play during that time
period?
Nigel Williams:
Well, I think what happened was that there was a sort of
split between the Essex faction and her traditional
advisors like Lord Burghley and Robert Cecil who
are very experienced politicians who are constantly
cautioning prudence and saying, watch it, don't do this,
don't do that, and the more extreme Protestant element
led by Leceister. And of course, what happens is the
older and wiser politicians are the ones who win out.
And indeed it's Cecil who goes on to survive into James
I reign after Elizabeth dies.
The second part of the movie is all about Elizabeth and
Essex which is one of the great doomed love stories of
all time for my money. An older woman infatuated with
a younger man, but unable to hold on to him. She holds
onto her power, but she loses him.
HBO:
And in terms of the Protestant Church at that last stage,
how strong was it?
Nigel Williams:
I think the centrist Protestant Church represented by
Henry and Elizabeth was being threatened on both sides.
On the one side by Catholicism, on the other the
Puritans who in the next century go off on the
Mayflower because they're in such violent conflict with
James and Charles, the Founding Fathers of America.
The Puritan Church is attacking her from the other side.
So she's trying to hold onto the center really. You know,
the central fact of the Protestant revolution in England
really being about the authority of the monarchy and the
control of the monarchy, and she's trying to hold onto
that, which of course her successors don't manage to do
because by the middle of the 17th century, that's when
we execute our King.
HBO:
What is Elizabeth's legacy in terms of her effect on the
history of England?
Nigel Williams:
I think she is a fantastically interesting intellectual
figure. Wonderful writer, wonderful poet. Wonderful
speaker. Incredibly intelligent. And by the standards of
the time, incredibly merciful. She doesn't shed blood
willingly, she's not a cruel woman like Mary, she's a
politician with, I think, real compassion and feeling for
the ordinary people of her nation.
She's a woman with a sense of humor, and a sense of
tolerance. And I think she is the focus of a sort of
nationalism that's not too crude and jingoistic, but rather
sympathetic. William Byrd, one of the great Tudor
composers, was a Catholic. She tolerated him. She was
fascinated by artists and writers, not only Shakespeare
who is one example, but there are many others. She left
a legacy of tolerance and cultural passion and
positiveness that I think for everybody is very, very
enriching really.
If you look at the settlements in Virginia or the speeches
of the early colonists, her influence stretches beyond
England to America. The influence of her language and
her passion and her feelings are for all time.
There's a great dignity about somebody who takes those
risks, who is the boss, who makes those decisions. She
isn't a mere figurehead. She is the queen in every sense
of the word, and she's also a woman of the 16th century.
I still stop and really think about that. Surrounded by
men, she was absolutely extraordinary. All you need to
do is look at the pictures of her red hair, her incredibly
mobile face, eyes that could scare you or inflame you to
make you feel that this was a very remarkable woman
indeed. So, I think her principal legacy is herself as a
model of how to behave as a monarch. You know, she
could be vulgar and stupid the way anybody can be. But
in the case of Elizabeth, that seems to me to be an aspect
of her humanity, not a portrait of weakness.
|
|
|
|
|
