Elizabeth

Elizabeth

Elizabeth I is a drama based on the history of Britain. The drama is divided into two parts that cover the ending 24 years of Elizabeth's reign which spanned more than 45 years. Part 1 of the series narrows down its focus on the final years of Elizabeth's relationship with the Earl of Leicester while the second part is based on her consequent association with the Earl of Sussex (Hackett, 2009). Both the parts that make up the series celebrate some of the leadership characteristics of Elizabeth who exhibited tremendous confidence and courage in the wake of daunting challenges that she confronted during her reign. In the movie, Elizabeth displays some very strong leadership qualities that allow her to motivate the people around her to meet certain objectives.

Part I is set in the year 1579 and describes a time when Elizabeth has successfully reigned for nearly 20 years. One of the qualities about Elizabeth that is among the first to notice and which strikes as unique is her reluctance to marry (Ford & Mitchell, 2010). As Part I progresses, the audience gets a clearer picture of why Elizabeth refuses to choose from the many courtiers that some to woo her. Lord Burghley and Sir Francis plan to get her married to the Duke of Anjou and Elizabeth accepts. However, the decision is more of a political move than a marriage since it is set to establish an alliance with Spain. However, the Earl of Leicester has strong objections to the match, mainly because of his own unrequited love for the lady. As a result, with mounting negative sentiment against the match, Burghley manages to convince Elizabeth not to marry the Duke of Anjou (Ford & Mitchell, 2010).

Elizabeth's reluctance to marry also stems from a deep sense of loyalty that she has for her country. For instance, she may have reservations regarding marriage mainly because giving her hand in marriage would put the throne of Britain at risk and potentially end her reign (Ford & Mitchell, 2010). Hence, for the sake of her country, she refuses to marry and continues to live the life of a spinster. However, her leadership qualities are strongly reflected in how she responds to the threats of conspiracies (Dolan, 2008). It appears that the Queen of Scots, who is also Elizabeth's Catholic cousin, is conniving behind her back in a bid to have her killed. Mary's plan is to remove Elizabeth from her path so that she is able to usurp the throne for herself (Dolan, 2008). Even after reviewing and scrutinizing all the evidence that goes against Mary, Elizabeth pardons her which is a very important leadership quality that can be seen in her.

There are two reasons why Elizabeth pardons Mary. The first reason has to do with the fact that she is her cousin and she has a strong bond with her which encourages her to pardon her. More importantly, however, she pardons Mary because she foresees a brewing conflict between England and Spain that ...