Elizabeth

Elizabeth is a 1998 British biographical drama film written by Michael Hirst, directed by Shekhar Kapur, and starring Cate Blanchett in the title role of Queen Elizabeth I of England.

Plot
 In 1558, Catholic Queen Mary dies of a uterine tumour. Mary's Protestant half-sister, Elizabeth, under house arrest for conspiracy charges, is freed and crowned the Queen of England. As briefed by her adviser William Cecil, Elizabeth inherits a distressed England besieged by debts, crumbling infrastructure, hostile neighbours and treasonous nobles within her administration, chief among them the Duke of Norfolk. Cecil advises Elizabeth to marry, produce an heir, and secure her rule. Unimpressed with her suitors, Elizabeth delays her decision and continues her secret affair with Lord Robert Dudley while Cecil appoints Francis Walsingham, a Protestant exile returned from France, to act as Elizabeth's bodyguard and adviser.

Drawing inspiration from the divine, Elizabeth cuts her hair and models her appearance after the Virgin Mary. Proclaiming herself married to England, she ascends the throne as "the Virgin Queen".

Cast
Cate Blanchett as Queen Elizabeth I

Geoffrey Rush as Francis Walsingham

Joseph Fiennes as Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester

Richard Attenborough as William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley

Christopher Eccleston as Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk

Kathy Burke as Queen Mary I

Fanny Ardant as Mary of Guise

Vincent Cassel as Henry, Duc d'Anjou

Eric Cantona as Paul de Foix

Emily Mortimer as Kat Ashley

Kelly Macdonald as Isabel Knollys

John Gielgud as Pope Pius V

Daniel Craig as John Ballard

James Frain as Álvaro de la Quadra

Edward Hardwicke as Henry FitzAlan, 19th Earl of Arundel

Jamie Foreman as Earl of Sussex

Terence Rigby as Bishop Stephen Gardiner

Angus Deayton as Waad, Chancellor of the Exchequer

Amanda Ryan as Lettice Howard

Kenny Doughty as Sir Thomas Elyot

George Yiasoumi as King Philip II of Spain

Wayne Sleep as Dance Tutor

Alfie Allen as Arundel's Son

Lily Allen as Lady-in-waiting

follow-up film
Elizabeth: The Golden Age