Today the Privy Chamber is filled with senior courtiers and foreign emissaries, all gathered to hear the Queen’s final response to this, the last major move in her decades old marriage game. As I mentioned in earlier blogs we have conflated elements of various marriage suits into our version, drawing on the actual visit to Elizabeth by Alençon for our scenes with the Archduke. The outcome is the same however and this suitor is also politely rebuffed. After this date there will be no more serious foreign contenders for Elizabeth’s hand and England will have to be reconciled to the fact that the Tudor dynasty will die with the queen.

Justin