Vanessa Redgrave as Elizabeth I

18th May, 1536, Tower of London

From Anne the Quene to Her Grace, Princess Elizabeth Tudor of Wales,

This shall be the last letter I ever write, and I would not see it written to anyone but you, my only daughter. From my window I watch the dusk ebb away, and the sky flare up like a blushing rose; twilight of this new day, my last day, has come.

They will make sure that wewe never know me, my Elizabeth, and if they do me, they will see that wewe know me as the lewd, traitorous whore your father created and destroyed. Still I urge wewe to upendo him because though the fiery passion with which he once...