History Film / Elizabeth

** [[spoiler: Robert Dudley]] is actually villainised by this, with his conversion to Catholicism being treated as his StartOfDarkness and eventual betrayal of Elizabeth. In point of fact, not only did he ''never'' betray Elizabeth, he would have been outraged by this portrayal as he was a staunch Protestant and Puritan all his life.

** [[spoiler: Robert Dudley]] is actually villainised by this, with his conversion to Catholicism being treated as his StartOfDarkness and eventual betrayal of Elizabeth. In point of fact, not only did he ''never'' betray Elizabeth, he would have been outraged by this portrayal as he was a staunch Prostestant and Puritan all his life.

** [[spoiler: Robert Dudley]] is actually villainised by this, with his conversion to Catholicism being treated as his StartOfDarkness and eventual betrayal of Elizabeth. In point of fact, not only did he ''never'' betray Elizabeth, he would have been outraged by this portryaal as he was a staunch Prostestant and Puritan all his life.

** In the film, England sends young and untrained soldiers, including children, to fight in Scotland against the French Queen Regent Mary of Guise- whom we are told is plotting to invade England- because the Catholic Bishops spoke in the pulpits against raising a professional army. In truth, Mary of Guise was not planning on invading England, but was crushing a Protestant revolt amongst the Scots; almost ''all'' the English Catholic Bishops had already been thrown in prison before the conflict even began, and the English actually ''did'' send professional soldiers to fight in Scotland- these soldiers were defeated in battle not because they were untrained children but because they were simply out-played by the French. It is basically just nationalistic propaganda to suggest that the English armies only lost because they were sabotaged by traitorous Catholic clergy.

** In the film, England sends young and untrained soldiers, including children, to fight in Scotland against the French Queen Regent Mary of Guise- whom we are told is plotting to invade England- because the Catholic Bishops spoke in the pulpits against raising a professional army. In truth, Mary of Guise was not planning on invading England, but was crushing a Protestant revolt amongst the Scots; almost ''all'' the English Catholic Bishops had already been thrown in prison before the conflict even began, and the English actually ''did'' send professional soldiers to fight in Scotland- these soldiers were defeated in battle not because they were untrained children but because they were simply out-played by the French. It is basically just nationalistic propaganda to suggest that the English armies only lost because were sabotaged by traitorous Catholic clergy.

** In the film, England sends young and untrained soldiers, including children, to fight in Scotland against the French Queen Regent Mary of Guise- whom we are told is plotting to invade England- because the Catholic Bishops spoke in the pulpits against raising a professional army. In truth, Mary of Guise was not planning on invading England, but on crushing a Protestant rebellion amongst the Scots; almost ''all'' the English Catholic Bishops had already been thrown in prison before the conflict even began, and the English actually ''did'' send professional soldiers to fight in Scotland- these soldiers were defeated in battle not because they were untrained children but because they were simply out-played by the French. It is basically just nationalistic propaganda to suggest that the English armies only lost because were sabotaged by traitorous Catholic clergy.

** In the film, England sends young and untrained soldiers, including children, to fight in Scotland against the French Queen Regent Mary of Guise- whom we are told is plotting to invade England- because the Catholic Bishops spoke in the pulpits against raising a professional army. In truth, Mary of Guise was not planning on invading England but on crushing a Protestant rebellion in Scotland; the Catholic Bishops had almost ''all'' been thrown in prison before any troops were sent, and the English actually ''did'' send professional soldiers to fight in Scotland - these soldiers were defeated in battle not because they were untrained children but because they were simply out-played by the French. It is basically just nationalistic propaganda to suggest that the English armies only lost because were sabotaged by traitorous Catholic clergy.

** In the film, England sends young and untrained soldiers, including children, to fight in Scotland against the French Queen Regent Mary of Guise- whom we are told is plotting to invade England- because the Catholic Bishops spoke in the pulpits against raising a professional army. In truth, Mary of Guise was not planning on invading England but crushing a Protestant uprising amongst the Scots; the Catholic Bishops had almost ''all'' been thrown in prison before any troops were sent, and the English actually ''did'' send professional soldiers to fight in Scotland- these soldiers were just defeated in battle because the French were better, so it is basically just nationalistic propaganda to suggest that the English armies only lost because were sabotaged by traitorous Catholic clergy.

** [[spoiler: Robert Dudley]] is actually villainised by this, his conversion to Catholicism being treated as his StartOfDarkness and eventual betrayal of Elizabeth. In point of fact, not only did he ''never'' betray Elizabeth, he would have been outraged by this portryaal as he was a staunch Prostestant and Puritan all his life.

** [[spoiler: Robert Dudley]] is actually villainised by this, his conversion to Catholicism being treated as his StartofDarkness and eventual betrayal of Elizabeth. In point of fact, not only did he ''never'' betray Elizabeth, he would have been outraged by this portryaal as he was a staunch Prostestant and Puritan all his life.

** [[spoiler: Robert Dudley]] is actually villainised by converting to Catholicism, the start of his betrayal of Elizabeth. In point of fact, not only did he ''never'' betray Elizabeth, he was a staunch Puritan until the day he died, and would never have dreamed of converting to the Catholic faith (the Puritans' whole point was purging Anglican belief of Catholic vestiges).

* HistoricalVillainUpgrade: Pretty much the entire [[ChristianityIsCatholic Catholic Church]] and Catholics in general get this overhaul in the film. Both Bloody Mary and the Pope live in small, dark, spartan rooms where they give orders to crazed and murderous fanatics. Bloody Mary herself is depicted as a deranged toad of a woman attended by a creepy dwarf maid. This is in contrast to Elizabeth, who is beautiful, brave, stately, and tolerant.

** A subtle and arguable one with Elizabeth and Walsingham kneeling under a gigantic portrait of UsefulNotes/HenryVIII and wondering what he, her father, would have done, and if she'd ever live up to his reputation. That is: the reputation of the man who had her mother beheaded so he could marry somebody else, routinely executed his closest advisers and allies, and possibly had as many as 10,000 people put to death during his reign.

** A subtle and arguable one with Elizabeth and Walsingham kneeling under a gigantic portrait of UsefulNotes/HenryVIII and wondering what he, her father, would have done, and if she'd ever live up to his reputation. The reputation of the man who had her mother beheaded so he could marry somebody else, routinely executed his closest advisers and allies, and possibly had as many as 10,000 people put to death during his reign.

* RaceLift: Álvaro de la Quadra, the Spanish Ambassador to England, is portrayed by James Frain who is very, very English.

* WomanInWhite: Elizabeth twice, notably at the end and as well when she is taken into the Tower for questioning. That one is actually historically true as Elizabeth is recorded as wearing a pure white gown when being questioned.

* EverythingsBetterWithPrincesses: Elizabeth is addressed as 'Princess Elizabeth' before being thrown in the tower. In reality she was disinherited at age 3 and was only titled "Lady Elizabeth;" although Henry VIII later restored her to the succession, he did not restore her princess title.

* PrincessProtagonist: The film tells the story of the early life of UsefulNotes/ElizabethI. In real life she was disinherited at a young age and would not have been called a princess, but she was the daughter of the king and she is addressed as a princess in the film.

** [[spoiler: Robert Dudley]] is actually villainised by converting to Catholicism, the start of his betrayal of Elizabeth. In point of fact, not only did he ''never'' betray Elizabeth, he was a staunch Puritan until the day he died, and would never have dreamed of converting to the Catholic faith.

** Father John Ballard is given the EstablishingCharacterMoment of beating the young Sir Thomas Elyot to death with a rock, an event that never occurred (not least because Elyot died before Elizabeth even came to the throne, at the age of 55-56). He was not in England to assassinate Elizabeth (at least, not directly as the movie shows), although he initiated the Babington plot to overthrow her (the movie uses both this and the separate Ridolfi plot and treats them as one scheme). In RealLife he also had the cover story of being a soldier and well-dressed swashbuckler, while the movie portrays him as merely a drab, humourless fanatic. His death- hung, drawn and quartered alive, along with some of the other conspirators- was also so shocking and brutal to witnesses that Elizabeth forbade that method being used again.

* IcyBlueEyes: Elizabeth and John Ballard each have a set.
** Which makes it another case of [[HollywoodHistory Hollywood History]]: Elizabeth (rather famously) had her mother Anne's dark brown eyes. They're visible in nearly every single portrait painted of the Queen.

* LadyOfWar: Elizabeth wears armor and gives a RousingSpeech to her troops in the sequel.
** But she did not dress up like a [[UsefulNotes/JoanOfArc French saint]].

* OminousWalk: A Catholic priest. Done in SlowMotion for extra points.
** And in the sequel where King Philip, his daughter and their retinue are walking along a shipyard where the Armada is being built.
* OneSteveLimit: The first film has Mary Tudor, Elizabeth's sister and Mary of Guise, as well as a mention of Mary, Queen of Scots. The second addresses this with Elizabeth's lady-in-waiting Bess - nicknamed so because she has the same name as the Queen.

* ThePurge: Elizabeth, through Walsingham, has all her enemies like the Duke of Norfolk and Mary of Guise assassinated in the end of the film.
** The same goes for inner enemies like Mary Stuart in the sequel.

* TokenGoodTeammate: The Earl of Arundel from the first film. He bore the Queen no ill will but was devoutly Catholic.
** He's heavily implied to have been this to Mary as well, since we're [[EstablishingCharacterMoment first introduced]] to him offering reasonable advice, being deeply apologetic when attempting to get a confession from Elizabeth and then offering his cloak to her when she's sent to the Tower, not out of pity, but because he didn't want her [[NiceGuy to be cold]].

* AgeLift: Sir William Cecil, as noted under HollywoodHistory, was only 13 years older than Elizabeth. In the film he's in his fifties at least. On the flip side, Kat Ashley was much older than Elizabeth (31 years older, having acted as her governess and a surrogate mother since Elizabeth was 4 years old). Here she's portrayed to be similar in age to her.
** The Duke of Norfolk, Thomas Howard, was ''3 years younger'' than Elizabeth in RealLife as opposed to roughly a decade older (his age is unstated here, but Creator/ChristopherEccleston was roughly 34 when filming his part, and his character is depicted as being in his 30s). There ''may'' be some CompositeCharacter at play, here - Howard's father ''would have'' been 41 when Elizabeth was crowned, but [[UsefulNotes/HenryVIII her dear old dad]] had him executed in early 1547; in turn, ''his'' father (the 3rd Duke of Norfolk, also named Thomas Howard) [[OutlivingOnesOffspring outlived him]], but only because ''his'' execution happened to be scheduled on ''the day that Henry VIII died''. Howard Snr. was released later that year, helped [[UsefulNotes/MaryTudor Mary I]] ascend after her half-brother Edward's death in 1553, and when he died in 1554 his grandson succeeded him as 4th Duke of Norfolk until his death in 15''72''.

* CallBack: When Elizabeth is taken to the Tower of London, one of the men interrogating her offers her his cloak. She responds "I shall not forget this kindness". Later when he is one of the men in on the plot against her, before his execution she says "all your many kindnesses are remembered".

* DaddysGirl: Elizabeth appears to be so.

* EverythingsBetterWithPrincesses: Elizabeth is addressed as 'Princess Elizabeth' before being thrown in the tower. In reality she was disinherited and declared illegitimate at age 3 - and was only ever referred to as 'Lady Elizabeth' afterwards.
** Though her father did reinstate both Mary and Elizabeth as legitimate just before his death, which is why Mary, who'd been declared illegitimate even earlier than Elizabeth, could still inherit the throne.

* ArrangedMarriage: Averted, perhaps unsurprisingly given Elizabeth was remembered by history as the Virgin Queen. In the film many attempts are made at marrying off Elizabeth to ensure an heir to the throne, but none succeed. Indeed the film's CrowningMomentOfAwesome and AwesomeMomentOfCrowning, from which the page quote arises, is a TakeThat to the constant attempts of Lord Burghley to force Elizabeth into precisely this.

* RealityIsUnrealistic: Presumably the reason why the second film [[HollywoodHistory claims]] that several English ships were destroyed during the Spanish Armarda, when in reality, England didn't lose a ''[[CrowningMomentOfAwesome single]]'' ship in the entire battle!

* HistoricalBeautyUpdate: Kat Ashley, played by the young and pretty Emily Mortimer. In reality she was 31 years older than Elizabeth and had been her governess.

** In the sequel: Clive Owen is relatively close in age to Cate Blanchett (he's five years older), but the real Sir Walter Raleigh was 20 years younger than Elizabeth.

** Inverted with Sir William Cecil who is aged up considerably (in reality he was almost exactly 13 years her senior; Richard Attenborough was nearly ''46'' years Cate Blanchett's). Ditto for Philip II of Spain who was blond and handsome in real life.

* UsefulNotes/TheHouseOfTudor: It's the historical setting of the film.