-QUEE
When Young Gallants Died for the Aging Elizabeth,
Were They Serving Woman or Ruler? Was She Seeking
England’s Good or to Graiify Her Own Powerful Whims?
... Screen Gives the Answer in “Fire Over England’;
A Sequel to “The Private Life of Henry VIII”
WHAT was Queen Elizabeth's
strange hold over the hot
blooded, adventure-loving youth of
her day?
Did the Virgin Queen let them
adore her out of feminine whim, or
to mask shrewd policies of state?
Was it a need of her nature to
have them protest their devotion—
even to death? And was her co-
quetry merely an instrument where
by to force the young men to death-
defying deeds that older heads would
shrink from?
Queen Elizabeth's reign is strewn
with incredible loyalties by strip-
lings who revered her. Boys in their
teens were fascinated by this woman,
and henceforth dedicated their lives
to her. She had. her favorites, and
they were replaced with the years.
But there was always a generation of
.young men anxious for the privilege
of laying down their lives for her.
A smile from her, a word of praise,
and they were her slaves. Men like
Drake, Hawkins, and Frobisher,
scoured the Spanish Main tb bring
back rich frigates and golden galleons
in their free-booting expeditions.
They knew that if they mischanced
and were captured, the worst, most
brutal tortures ever conceived awaited
them. They took the risk because
of their burning desire to deserve
well of Queen Bess. And by their
doughty sea deeds they won the skill
which made them admirals ready to
attack the large fleet of the Armada.
It was this aspect in the Queen's
“character, no less than the colorful
aspect of the whole Elizabethan era,
that has now persuaded Alexander
Korda to devote his most ambitious.
costume film produced for him by
Erich Pommer, to this liveliest of all
rulers. Good Queen Bess, he rea-
soned, was a worthy successor to
* Henry VIII, whose daughter she was.
The film is “Fire Over England,”
with Flora Robson as Queen Eliza-
beth——an aging woman, but still cap-
able of calling forth the utmost devo-
tion from the gallants in her court.
There was no doubt that Elizabeth
had an eye for comely ycuth. The
way to glory and wealth lay in be
ing praised by her But once they
were noticed by her, they had to de-
serve. her faith. Otherwise, the
Tower of London awaited them for
a single blunder.
He Shook a Lively Leg
The haughty Queen saw a lad,
Christopher Hatton, and liked the
way he disported himself in dancing.
Forthwith, titles were heaped on him.
He became Lord Chancellor, was re-
warded with land. and became a
‘power ‘over the Queen.
Then, tiring, she transferred her
favors on Robert Dudley. He even
presumed to hope she would marry
him, and plotted and intrigued in this
direction. He was a dashing young
fellow who knew how to wear his
gay silks or bright armor with an air,
turn a pretty phrase, or resent an
insult. He was equally at home in
the ballroom, the boudoir, the tilt
yard, and the hunting field. Com-
mon gossip linked their names to’
gether as lovers, and the affair be
came the greatest , scandal of the
times. Dudley, become Lord Robert,
had an insatiable ambition to be the
first man in England. It is said that
many of the bitterest intrigues at
Court and the many efforts expended
to getting. Elizabeth ~marriéd, rose.
from the desire of his rivals to end
The court of Queen Elizabeth, as
Mr. Pommer “sets out to show in his
Queen | Elizabeth. ..a Contemporary Portrait
“Fire Over England,” was a
court, and every man was out
They were anxious to daz
zle the impressionable Queen, whose
throne was surrounded by a bewild-
ering maze of waving plumes, per
fumed beards, jewelled swords ]
gaudy-colored hose.
Th:se young men wanted power,
command over ships and soldiers, the
right to earn her gratitude by their
exploits on the field. They paid her
extravagant compliments
swallowed. They played on her
feminine weakness.
hind the woman was the Queen; ‘who
knew how to exact loyalty, devotion.
and. sacrifice.
which she
But always be-
Raleigh’s Gesture
The gesture thes worked was als
ways sure to make a man powerful
at Court. “Evervone
2, 1937
man's
for
ang
of Raleigh who threw his mantle on
the ground to help the Queen walk
dry-shod over a puddle. His tall and
handsome person, his caressing man-
ners and quick wit pleased the
Queen, who showered rewards on
him. He was knighted, lands were
transferred to him, and he received
grants permitting him to colonize
Virginia. Then disgrace befell him,
and another favorite took his place.
Sir Francis Drake, the English ad-
‘miral, also owed his favor to the
Queen. At twenty he was already a
freebooter, having obtained a regular
privatecring commission from Queen
Elizabeth. He inflicted much damage
to shipping and towns along the
Spanish Main, brought back booty,
and presented it to his Queen. She
knighted him. He, was the first Eng-
lishman to circumnavigate the globe.
On hearing that the Spaniards were
building an’ Armada, designed for
England, he went to Lisbon with a
fleet of thirty sail, then penetrated
the ba of Cadiz and burnt upwards
of ten thousand tons of shipping—
the feat which he humorously called
“‘singeing the King of Spain's beard.”
He was one of the bravest of Eliza-
heth's young men, and managed nev-
er to fall out of favor.
Most important of her favorites, at
Dever-ux, Earl of Essex. The Queen
and he were never apart. She was
fifty-three and he was not yet twenty.
Within ten years, he rose to be the
power in the land second only to her.’
Destruction. of the Spanish Armada... Scene from “F
But he, too, fell with a crash into
disgrace, because he believed he could
sway the Queen and command her.
the end of her reign, was Robert
According to Lytton Strachey in
his “Elizabeth and Essex,” men felt,
when they came near her, “that they
were in a superhuman presence. No
reverence was too great for such a di-
Raymond Massey As Phi
Bs 2
lip of Spain Jad
vinity. . . . The affairs of State went:
on in a fandango of sighs, ecstasies;’
and protestations.” Ie adds that
“she eagerly absorbed the elaborate
adorations of her lovers, and, in the
same instant, by a final stroke of luck
and cunning, converted them—Ilike:
everything else she had anything to
do with—into a paying concern.”
She was a great ruler, and it is no
wonder that countless books have
been written to attempt to explain
her. She could be stern. shrewd,
suspicious, and the next instant pos-
ture and coquette like any light-head-
ed girl just feeling her oats with men.
The Great Armada
A lover of spectacle, of the mass-
ing of great forces, Erich Pommer
has in the drama of the Armada a
superb subject for his powers. It
represents the supreme duel for pow-
er between England and Spain. King
Philip of Spain finally wakes up to
the fact that unless he clips the wings
of England, she will continue to plun=
der his proud ships. He spends 2.-
800,000 ducats to outfit the Armada.
All Bngland awaits the oncoming
of the 131 vessels. If Spain should:
ire Over England”
conquer, England would become a
mere vassal. Elizabeth would be-
come a prisoner; perhaps her life
would be forfeit.
A wind scattered the mighty fleet,
pursued by the English. Fire ships
spread havoc in the running fight of
ten days up the Channel. The Eng-
lish boats were lighter, their com-
manders had greater sea skill. The
Spanish ships were bulky and antiqu-
ated for the new style of sea fight»
ing.
The Spaniards cut loose and sought:
safety by sailing north, in the hope
of making west and then tacking
back’to Spain. Only half of the fleet
ever returned to Spain. The rest
perished, and their crews, landing on
the coasts of Scotland and Ireland,
were put to the sword.
It was Spain’s last gesture as a
world power. After that was the
decline, slow but sure.
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