The Life of Elizabeth I (Pt 2) | Was Elizabeth I a Traitor?

From History Calling

The life of Elizabeth I entered its MOST DANGEROUS PHASE after her sister Mary became the first Queen of England in 1553. In this week’s History Calling video (the 11th in my Tudor monarchs’ series) we’ll take an in-depth look at the five years during which Elizabeth was the heir to the throne. During this time she faced pressure from her sister to convert to Catholicism and came close to death after being accused of treasonous involvement in Wyatt’s rebellion in 1554, which aimed to depose Mary and replace her with Elizabeth. This led to Elizabeth’s life echoing that of her great uncles (the Princes in the Tower) by becoming the Princess in the Tower, after the Queen had her 20 year old sister imprisoned. This video will cover Elizabeth’s time there (in the same rooms her mother, Anne Boleyn, had been held in before her execution in 1536) and explain how she avoided the grisly fate of so many others who were sent there during Mary’s reign, including Lady Jane Grey. It will look at this incident and another in 1556 to answer the question, was Elizabeth I a traitor sister to Mary, or was she wrongly accused? It will also explain the reasons for the long-standing tensions between Elizabeth and Mary Tudor and look at the early interactions of the future Elizabeth I and Philip II of Spain, her brother-in-law and future foe in the Spanish Armada. This will include Philip’s attempts to marry her off to one of his relations against her will. This young woman’s experiences may be taken as a masterclass in how to survive Tudor England, but above all, the early life of Elizabeth I shows us how a younger daughter went from virtual royal cast-off after her mother’s demise, to Queen of England.