Elizabeth I

Elizabeth I was a Queen of England during the 16th and early 17th centuries, and a spouse of the Tenth Doctor. She presided over the eponymous Elizabethan era. Her dynasty was founded by her grandfather Henry Tudor, who claimed the crown of England at the Battle of Bosworth by defeating Richard III of England — or, rather, an out-of-time William Shakespeare whose similar looks allowed him to be mistaken for Richard. (AUDIO: The Kingmaker)

Biography


Elizabeth was the daughter of King Henry VIII of England and his second wife Anne Boleyn, who was executed on 19 May 1536. (AUDIO: Recorded Time) Her immediate predecessor was her elder half-sister Mary I, a devout Catholic who sought to "wipe the Protestant scourge from every corner of England." (AUDIO: The Marian Conspiracy)

Elizabeth had multiple sobriquets, including "the Virgin Queen" and "Good Queen Bess". (AUDIO: The Marian Conspiracy)

In 1555, a Protestant priest, the Reverend Thomas Smith, attempted to install Elizabeth on the throne in place of her Catholic half-sister Mary. His then-gestating son John Whiteside-Smith would grow up to be one of Queen Elizabeth's advisors; the pair were distant ancestors of the Sixth Doctor's companion Evelyn Smythe. (AUDIO: The Marian Conspiracy)

In 1562, the Tenth Doctor had a picnic with Elizabeth in a glade and proposed to her, but he believed her acceptance of it and everything he is saying proof that she was Zygon. In fact, it was his horse that his shapeshifter DNA-detecting device was picking up as Zygon: Elizabeth really did accept his proposal. The Zygon soon took Elizabeth's form, but the Doctor's attempt to identify the real one was interrupted by the arrival of the Eleventh Doctor. Once separated from the Doctor, the two Elizabeths got into a fight, and the true one managed to kill the Zygon. The rest of the Zygons accepted her as their leader, not even bothering to consider that she might be the real article and not their own commander. Elizabeth proceeded to incarcerate the Doctors, now joined by the War Doctor, in the Tower of London. After the Doctors were "rescued" by Clara Oswald, Elizabeth introduced them to the rest of the Zygons and revealed the details of their plan to enter stasis inside a series of Time Lord paintings until Earth was ready for conquest. With the Zygons neutralised of their own accord, she agreed to bring the Doctor's TARDIS to them, but first she insisted the Tenth Doctor fulfil his promise to marry her. After the Doctors and Clara departed, she had the paintings locked up in a secret part of the National Gallery, the Undergallery. She then left instructions (which eventually wound up in the hands of UNIT) that the Doctor be appointed Curator of the Undergallery and that he be contacted in the event of an emergency. (TV: The Day of the Doctor)

Elizabeth I's court astrologer John Dee was apparently another identity of Jared Khan, who was still fruitlessly hunting the Doctor at the time. At this point, the Queen appeared to be on friendly terms with the Doctor, then in his seventh incarnation. (PROSE: Birthright)

Her Majesty imprisoned Sir Walter Raleigh in the Tower of London in the summer of 1592 in anger over his secret marriage. Either the First or Second Doctor was his cell-mate whom he bored with incessant discussion of discovering the potato in the New World. The reason for the Doctor's imprisonment was unknown. (TV: The Mind of Evil)

The First Doctor was first shown encountering Elizabeth I as an image on the Time-Space Visualiser. He, Barbara Wright, Vicki Pallister and Ian witnessed her, circa 1596, attempting to influence William Shakespeare to write another play featuring the character of Falstaff — this one featuring Falstaff "in love". (TV: The Chase)

The Sixth Doctor and Evelyn eventually visited the court of Elizabeth I at some point, which was their intended destination at the time of Evelyn's first trip in the the TARDIS. (AUDIO: Thicker than Water) The Eighth Doctor would later return to Elizabeth's court in the company of Samson and Gemma Griffin. (AUDIO: Terror Firma)

In 1599, following a performance of Love's Labour's Won at the Globe Theatre, Elizabeth immediately recognised the Tenth Doctor and ordered her guards to kill him. (TV: The Shakespeare Code)

Legacy
Elizabeth X later made a passing remark regarding a relationship between the Doctor and the "Virgin Queen", also implying that the Doctor and Elizabeth I in some measure consummated their marriage. (TV: The Beast Below) The Dream Lord later noted his relationship with Liz the First... "Well, she thought she was the first". (TV: Amy's Choice) After he accidentally agreed to marry Elizabeth, the Tenth Doctor said to himself, "The Virgin Queen? So much for history." (TV: The Day of the Doctor)

When discussing things he still had time for with Dorium Maldovar, the Eleventh Doctor mentioned that "Liz the First" was still waiting to elope with him in a glade. (TV: The Wedding of River Song)

Ian Chesterton had seen films depicting the Spanish Armada in which Elizabeth I was played by Bette Davis and Flora Robson. (AUDIO: The Flames of Cadiz)

While waiting for River Song to use her vortex manipulator to get back to him in Victorian London, the Eleventh Doctor saw a statue of himself in his eleventh incarnation wearing one of Elizabeth I's iconic collars. He stated, "Bess, you silly old goat, let it go!" When River appeared she asked if it was him and he replied, "She made me wear that! I thought it was just a private portrait for her handbag." (GAME: The Eternity Clock)

Behind the scenes

 * The implication is that Elizabeth was commissioning The Merry Wives of Windsor in The Chase alluded to a historical legend in which Elizabeth actually did suggest Shakespeare write the play. However, The Chase does not explicitly name the work, nor give a definite date for this encounter.''
 * Following the broadcast of The Shakespeare Code, it was often rumoured that an adventure featuring Queen Elizabeth I and the Tenth Doctor would be forthcoming. However, one never came in Series 4, and pre-broadcast information about the 2009 specials did not seem to favour the return of Elizabeth, either. The fact that Elizabeth was mentioned in The End of Time therefore came as a surprise to many fans who had long since resolved that this would remain a mystery with the departure of the Tenth Doctor. The adventure was finally televised three years after David Tennant's departure, and comprises the plot of The Day of the Doctor.
 * Elizabeth I was the first individual with whom the Doctor has had an out-of-sync relationship, a plot device which subsequently became commonplace in the BBC Wales era. His first incarnation appeared to be unfamiliar with her when viewing her in The Chase circa 1596. Later, in his first or second incarnation, however, he was imprisoned in the Tower of London with Sir Walter Raleigh four years earlier from the perspective of Her Majesty and the Earth, as his third incarnation related to Jo Grant in The Mind of Evil. Queen Elizabeth and the Tenth Doctor were again out of synchronisation with each other. The Tenth Doctor first met her in The Shakespeare Code, set in 1599, and again in The Day of the Doctor, set in 1562, where the Tenth Doctor, along with the War Doctor and his eleventh incarnation, were again imprisoned in the Tower before the Tenth Doctor married her, seemingly without coming back.
 * According to The Brilliant Book 2012, a book that contains non-narrative based information; in an alternate universe where all of history happened at once, Elizabeth I was often voted the most popular Queen of England and was rumoured to be engaged to the Earl of Essex.