Elizabeth: The Golden Age

Sir Walter Raleigh is falsely portrayed as a major figure in the defeat of the Spanish Armada, and the film does not credit and other key leaders of the English fleet (a character called "Drake" does appear during the battle with the Spanish; the role is played, uncredited, by actor Malcolm Storry).

Sir Francis Drake

Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester, was lieutenant general at the Armada crisis, but in the film, he is not present at the Tilbury camp, his role having been given to Raleigh. The movie also does not make mention of Dudley's military campaign in the Netherlands.

(then Lord Howard of Effingham, the actual commander of the English fleet), says at one point, "We're losing too many ships." In reality, not a single English ship was lost during the battle.

Charles Howard

The film depicts Elizabeth being advised by Dr John Dee. Historically, Dee was travelling on the European mainland throughout the period depicted and did not return until more than a year after the defeat of the Armada. Elizabeth's actual main advisor and chief minister, , is omitted from the film altogether.

William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley

The portrayed Jesuit leader of the , Robert Reston, is completely fictional, though based on the real-life Jesuit John Ballard, who encouraged Babington to initiate the assassination attempt on Elizabeth, which would subsequently begin the chain of events leading to the Spanish invasion. However, because Ballard was depicted being executed in the previous film for participating in the Ridolfi plot, the role of Reston was created to replace him.

Babington Plot

In the film, Elizabeth is confronted at the altar of by Anthony Babington, who has a pistol charged with powder but no shot. The real Babington Plot was, like preceding plots against Elizabeth, discovered and thwarted by Francis Walsingham's investigative efforts while still in the planning stages, long before there was any actual attempt to kill Elizabeth.

Old St Paul's Cathedral

The film also depicts Babington (and, implicitly, the other conspirators) as having been hanged by , rather than the actual, and more gruesome method of hanging, drawing and quartering.

long drop

In 1585, Elizabeth was 52 (considered too old to bear children). The film shows various suitors being presented to the queen, with a view to marriage and children; the events presented actually took place much earlier in her reign. For instance, abandoned his proposals to marry Elizabeth after his trip to England was interrupted by his father's death in 1560, when Elizabeth was 27. In fact, by 1568, Erik had been deposed from the Swedish throne and died in captivity in 1577. Likewise, marriage negotiations with Charles II, Archduke of Austria were abandoned in 1568 and in 1571, Charles married his niece Maria Anna of Bavaria, with whom he had fifteen children.

Erik XIV of Sweden

Philip II of Spain is depicted at the time of the Armada as an old, sick man. In fact he was just five years older than Elizabeth, and his death did not occur until eight years later, in 1596.

In 1588, is portrayed as a child. In reality, she was 21 by this time.

Infanta Isabel of Spain

William Walsingham is a completely fictitious character. The real William Walsingham was the father of Francis Walsingham.

Mary Walsingham, Walsingham's daughter in the film, died in 1580. was the surviving daughter who married Phillip Sidney.

Frances Walsingham

The lady-in-waiting Bess Throckmorton in fact became pregnant with Walter Raleigh's child in the summer of 1591, three years after the defeat of the Armada, not immediately before. After their secret marriage was inevitably discovered, Elizabeth had them locked up in the Tower of London. While she did eventually release them both, it was not out of any sense of forgiveness as the movie depicts. She released Raleigh because one of his expeditions returned to England with a captured Spanish ship, the Madre de Dios, and his men threatened a mutiny if she did not return Raleigh to them. Bess was released because Elizabeth felt guilty after Bess's baby died of plague while she was incarcerated in the Tower.

The affair between Raleigh and Bess is depicted as beginning when Raleigh consoles Bess after her cousin is executed for his plot to assassinate Elizabeth, but that happened six years before the affair actually took place.

Francis

Mary, Queen of Scots is depicted as having a Scottish accent, when in actuality, she had been raised at the French court from the age of five and did not return to Scotland until she was a young woman.

The film shows Spanish envoys and other members of court wearing swords during their audiences with Elizabeth. Owing to threats of assassination, only members of the were permitted to carry weapons near Elizabeth while she was in court.

Royal Guard

The execution of Mary, Queen of Scots, is portrayed as having happened very swiftly after her arrest, while she was still a young woman. In fact, Mary was held in custody at various places for 19 years before her execution in 1587, at the age of 44.

The film depicts the battle between the English navy and the Spanish Armada as consisting of from the ships of both fleets. In fact, while the English ships were able to fire multiple times during the course of a day, the heavy Spanish guns were so difficult to reload that they were frequently only fired once. Broadsides would accompany later developments in ship design in the first half of the 17th century, the first major actions involving such technology and tactics for the English being the Anglo-Dutch Wars.

broadsides

During the film, Elizabeth spoke German to Charles II, Archduke of Austria. Although Elizabeth there is no evidence that she was taught or spoke German; nor is it likely that they ever met.

spoke several languages

There was no Spanish ambassador in Elizabeth's court in 1585, as Elizabeth had him expelled from England following the discovery of the Throckmorton plot, after Francis Throckmorton claimed under torture that his plot had been sanctioned by the Spanish.

Black legend

Cultural depictions of Elizabeth I

Cultural depictions of Philip II of Spain

Spanish Armada

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