Elizabeth R - Season 1 (1971)

The fragile succession heralds dangerous times for the young Princess Elizabeth. Having narrowly avoided implication in Sir Thomas Seymour's attempted abduction of her sickly half-brother, the boy King Edward VI, she becomes an unintentional figurehead for a Protestant rebellion led by Thomas Wyatt the Younger when her half-sister Queen Mary I of England, a devout Roman Catholic, succeeds to the throne.

The new Queen Elizabeth I is 25 years old - and unmarried. Her council - particularly the man she trusts most, Sir William Cecil - urges her to marry quickly (to ensure the succession, among other valid reasons). Only Lord Robert Dudley, at first her Master of the Horse, and eventually the Earl of Leicester, seems to interest the queen.

Elizabeth meets her most eligible suitor yet: François, Duke of Alençon, the younger brother of the French king. A marriage will cement France's sought-for alliance with England. Despite the Puritans' rousing opposition in the country (of which her zealously anti-Catholic councillor Sir Francis Walsingham secretly approves), Elizabeth seems taken with the witty and flower-tongued François. As her duties as queen clash with her feelings as a woman, Elizabeth faces her toughest decision.