Mary’s biography is enormously dramatic, packed with romance, betrayal, imprisonment and violence. Unsurprisingly, it has proved irresistible to film-makers, recreating a time when two queens vied for power - Mary in Scotland and Elizabeth I in England. Their relationship was blighted with mistrust, plotting and espionage.
Suzannah Lipscomb is joined by Dr Joanne Paul, author of ‘The House of Dudley: A New History of Tudor England’; Jessie Childs author of "God’s Traitors - Terror and Faith in Elizabethan England"; historian and screenwriter Alex von Tunzelmann; and Prof. Sarah Churchwell, cultural historian and literary scholar. Together they unpick the fact from the fiction and dig into some of the big questions: did Mary and Elizabeth ever meet, what really happened at Mary’s execution, how did the entangled sexual politics play out, and is it ever possible to cram all of Mary’s chaotic action-packed life into a single movie?
As ever in one of our 'Not Just the Tudors…Lates' episodes, the stage is set for frank, hilarious and revealing conversation.
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