After watching a couple of videos by real fluff-heads, who learned a bit of superficial history from skimming Wiki, it’s such a pleasure to listen to your knowledgeable, intelligent and articulate analysis of historical topics. I look forward to Dr. Kat on Fridays!
Totally agree!!!!!! I watched a video yesterday where the guy said Edmund Tudor died 3 years AFTER Henry VII was born......I was like "uhhhhhhmmmmmm.....NO!!" Dr. Kat is so knowledgeable and I just love the way she talks to the camera like we're all in the room with her, just chatting about our favorite topic: HISTORY!!!!!! 😁😁😁 Such an incredibly intelligent woman!!!
Smallpox. Such a ghastly disease. My dad had it around 1914 in south Texas. Some 60 years later, I attended an infectious disease conference where it was announced that the worldwide vaccination project overseen by the UN(?) or World Health Organization had succeeded. There were no more "wild cases". In the audience, grown men were weeping with joy.
Yeah, back then the ravages of disease were all too apparent to everyone in society. Now especially in developed countries we’ve lost the memory of people paralysed from polio, scarred from smallpox, suffering from congenital rubella, or the many, many other sequelae of the plethora of diseases we now have vaccines for. And those who do get sick are cared for in hospitals, not at home. And sadly the result is we’re having resurgences of things like measles as people decide they don’t need vaccines.
@@--enyo-- That is SO true! I had mumps, and one day, I couldn't hear in my left ear. I was 7 yrs old. The nerve was dead. A lady who taught me sewing down the country road had such pox marks she was disfigured. I knew identical twins, one a tall handsome guy, his shorter brother's legs were crippled from polio. I'm sure there's a few more cases here. It's a miracle its been gone. Last week it was announced that polio had resurfaced for the first time in a decade in 🇺🇸. The torrential influx of people from 3rd world countries don't have immunity and may arrive sick. Its s scandal that it's allowed to go on!
@@--enyo-- That's exactly it. When I hear someone, usually a young mother, going on about how she won't vaccinate her child, I smile and say, "Oh, that brings back memories!" Then, still smiling, I go on to recount hearing the sound of whooping cough coming from a house I passed on the way to school. It was January, everything was all buttoned up for the winter. I was standing on the sidewalk and could hear the coughing clearly. When the little girl came back to school the following September, she was just a pale shadow of her former self. She had to repeat 1st grade, and in succeeding years, she never really regained her strength. OR I launch into telling about the polio epidemic that hit my town about 1953etc) that didn't have a child with some sort of after affect....wry neck, withered arm or leg, a limp. that didn't have a kid with some sort of after OR I go on about how the very, very worst nightmares I have ever had in my entire life were when I had measles. AND did you ever notice how many Hollywood stars of the 20', 30's, 40's, 50's adopted children? Mumps. Every time I've done that, the anti-vax woman has had absolutely no response. Sorry to go on. Such ignorance riles me up. (I don't know why some of the text turned red.)
History shows us how pandemics have changed the course of nations and wars. My grandmother (1895-1984) had smallpox as a child and my Dad (1913-2002) had polio, both dreaded and deadly diseases that traumatized my family . We are fortunate to be living in the age of vaccinations that have eradicated these awful diseases. Thank you so much for a another interesting and informative presentation, Doctor Kat.
I feel very fortunate to live in a time without smallpox and when I can protect my son from the terrors of illnesses like polio. I hope your family members were able to make good recoveries.
@@ReadingthePast Grandma had a few scars while my Dad had permanent nerve damage and walked with a slight limp. Later in life he had double knee replacement surgery which made him pain-free for the first time in 60 years. I was child of the 1950s and suffered through the Polio Epidemic. Although I escape polio, my sister-in-law didn’t and at age 79 still suffers horrible foot pain to this day. I’m a strong supporter of any vaccine program.
Have you heard that there’s a case of polio here in the US, NYC I believe? Scary news. I had an aunt who had polio as a child. I understand how bad it is.
An amazing woman who played the game to perfection. I saw her tomb in Westminster Abbey and it gave me goosebumps. I'm no monarchist, but she was a woman of her times.
My grandfather survived smallpox and his father, ( they were country people with many old cures), sat by his bed constantly oiling the eruptions on his face with a feather dipped in sweet oil of almonds. His face healed without a mark. This story was passed down to me by my Granny.
I agree that Robert Cecil most likely pretended the queen had given him a sign to name James as her successor. Having both learned from his father, and lived through so much of the turbulent history of her reign, he knew how important a smooth transition of power would be to the security of the realm.
I once played Sir Henry Carey, Lord Hunsdon, at Renaissance Faire here in the States. And I had to come to grips with how he would have reacted in 1562, when his cousin (and potential half-sister) came within a cat's whisker of death. He was rumored to be a b@stard son of Henry VIII. It was more or less an open secret. Elizabeth would name him Baron Hunsdon, making Hunsdon House the foundation of his barony. Hunsdon House was the unofficial residence of all of the children of the king. You could almost see Elizabeth winking at him when she named him Baron. Open secret, indeed. However, in 1562, the death of Elizabeth would lead to an uncertain succession, and people have died when that has happened. Hunsdon knew this personally. He'd seen his aunt, Anne Boleyn, beheaded. And Jane Grey. And as he saw the unconscious form of his cousin lying there, he could see the dotted line appearing on his own neck, getting clearer and clearer as anyone ever mentioned the possibility that he was a natural male, protestant "heir" of the king. I chose to play the character as fiercely defending the notion that he was the son of Sir William Carey and none other. Not only out of a sense of keeping people from dishonoring his dead father, but also out of a sense of self-preservation. Of all those who were relieved when Elizabeth regained her health, probably none were more relieved than Henry Carey.
@@tessat338 I've been to Maryland faire. Very enjoyable. I started on cast at Fishers Ren in Indiana. Also made guest appearances as Hunsdon up at Bristol.
@@johnhammonds5143 I worked in a friend's family booth for about 20 years. We did one of the PA shows for a while, then GA and NC. Her parents retired and eventually sold the business. My now college-aged son basically grew up at MD. Lovely place!
I found the reference to treating small pox with red cloth very interesting. My mother insisted that the best cure for an upper respiratory infection was Vick’s VapoRub covered by a red flannel scarf!
In lack of a list of Elizabeth’s I would have followed Henry’s succession list. Since Jane Grey was already executed, her sister would have been my choice. I can picture members of Elizabeth’s privy council ghoulishly standing around her bed when she was unconscious, just waiting. Queens and Kings had a right to be always on their guard. I love pondering these things and I love your channel. You always come up with an intriguing new twist on history.
The scourge of smallpox vis a vis the treachery at court, of not being able to fully trust anyone, could have broken anyone - but Elizabeth. My wish for her as she began to recover would be to tell all the fiends and ghouls standing around her bed, “I’m not dead YET!”
I remember in my last year at school (way back in the last century) having to have a smallpox inoculation ,💉prior to visiting the Middle East on a school trip. Mine didn't take properly and I ended up with a bit of a messy sore on my arm, which irritated me somewhat for years. I can't imagine how painful it must be to be covered in smallpox, and back in Tudor times the fatalities must have been horrendous.
San Antonio, Texas was a polio hotspot. My sister and I received the first Salk vaccine from our dr who had I think 4 or 5 shots. Salk was in such hurry to win the Nobel race, the first batch was contaminated with live virus. We were both very suck and very lucky. We lived, were not left paralyzed or with permanent health issues. People ended in iron lungs from that vaccine. As soon as it came out we had the Sabine vaccine…the one used today. I still have my smallpox vaccine scar, btw. I’m 71.
A month or so ago there was a report of the polio virus being found in London’s sewerage. It was later said that this was from someone who was vaccinated with the live virus. I’m not sure how concerning this should be…
@@ReadingthePast Live virus is in some vaccines…I doubt there’s much to be concerned about, but just the words ‘Live polio virus” are scary. I’m not sure from where the live vaccine would originate. Guess I need to do some research.
@@ReadingthePast the oral vaccine contains a much weakened live virus which represents no danger. It’s still used in countries where polio is an issue and for people traveling to those countries. I wish the news media was less sensational, although I’m making the assumption they simply announced the finding without context.
Always so much research and the time you take to make these videos is much appreciated. Small, independent creators on TH-cam have a hard time indeed, either their subscribers disappear or de-monitised, whatever, whilst the "Big Guns" can publish whatever they want.
Great video! I think this is one of those cases where our knowledge of how things turned out warps our perspective on how it would have felt at the time. We *know* Elizabeth never married, so it seems odd that who was going to succeed her stayed uncertain for so long. But it would have seemed completely absurd early on that she wouldn't marry and at least *try* to produce an heir, that was her job, right? So it would likely have seemed like, well, they had a young, presumably fertile, healthy queen, of course they would have an heir soon. I do find myself wondering how things developed as she grew older. As it became obvious, but unsayable, that the queen was getting up to and past the point where she would be able to have children. But by that point, everyone was used to the situation, it would be normal. She really just out-waited them. But then, maybe I'm just projecting a different kind of modern thought onto the past. After all, they'd just come off the reigns of two monarchs who had failed to produce children, and the last one who had managed that had struggled so mightily to produce a legitimate male heir that he had caused a massive crisis. Maybe in late 16th century England, the idea of a monarch straightforwardly getting married the once, and then producing an "heir and a spare", would have seemed a bit alien and implausible?
That’s interesting I never actually considered that Cecil could have lied about Elizabeth naming James her heir . I just thought other people in the room heard her say it . In any case I guess I couldn’t fault him for it if he did lie ( assuming she was still refusing to in her very last moments to name an heir )
So happy that you are getting sponsorship from HistoryHits. Good for you; good for us; good for HH. Love when your vids come out. They are always interesting.
Red flannel cloth was a not too bad way of treating the lesion stage,if you have your body bound and hands restricted,you can't scratch and make the lesions worse. Love your videos,Kat. You have an excellent narrating voice. I have turned off many a clip because I can't stand the voice over. Keep up your excellent work,take care xx
I am with you on that. If I tune in and get an American android I am Gone , even if they are about to tell me they have found the Holy Grail It is all about presentation especially for a vlogger. Kat gets her facts right, is non judgemental ( I hate the' I think ,so therefore it is True' brigade) and stays on track. I am building up a bunch of Vloggers that do the same, on various subjects For the rest it is a Dislike and Gone. Harsh, but it needs to be done .Call it Quality Control! Lol
Thank you shining a light into this period of the life of Elizabeth. Everything was so complicated and potentially dangerous to anyone at any given time! Another great one, Dr. kat!
Yet another wonderful video. I really believe that Elizabeth never named an heir. Why should she? She had remained tight lipped about the succession her whole reign and by the time she was on her death bed, she may have not had the capacity to communicate. Cecil the younger had been working on the Stuart succession for years. James Stuart had the right blood line and even at that point had an heir and a spare not to mention a royal nursery full of princesses. Thank you so much for all of your videos. You are a delight. Cheers!
Thank you, as always, for the great information. I have have been binge watching your videos since you started the channel and my brain is overflowing with history info that is just fascinating. I think Elizabeth is a fascinating figure and wonder if the reason she decided to not marry was because she was standing her ground about being treated as an equal and not being pushed around by the men who controlled the time. There is so much we do not know! After seeing this video, I wonder if this was where she really decided to dig in her heels. She definitely seems like a consummate politican.
I know that the painting of The Execution of Lady Jane Grey, is from entirely the wrong time period, and has numerous other problems. But there is something about the huge scale of it, most of it being incredibly dark with a tiny (let's be real) child on their way to their execution that has always struck me.
"Flat-type-or malignant-smallpox is very rare, and is characterized by intense toxemia. It occurs more frequently in children. In contrast to ordinary smallpox, the skin lesions in this type develop slowly, merge together, and remain flat and soft (often described as “velvety” to the touch). They never progress to the pustular stage." US CDC "flat and hemorrhagic smallpox, which are uncommon types of smallpox, are usually fatal." -US food and drug administration Typically.the rashes do not emerge until after the fever has subsided
That must have been a ROCKY first council meeting after the smallpox... I'd like to imagine Elizabeth letting a dead silence roll through the room before starting the first item of business.
How indomitable was ERI?! How she survived disease, invasions, plots and the overweening patriarchy is nothing short of miraculous. Apart from anything else, I view this as her greatest strength. She did or caused major things of course. How exhausting it must have been to be pressed constantly on the succession. Of course her “answer answerless” is a classic! Had I been a councilor I would have hidden any thoughts I had on the succession, but I’d have been most in favor of MQOS, against H8’s rather presumptuous will. As always, I enjoyed this video immensely. Happy Friday.
MQOS would have been a disaster-- just look at her time in Scotland. What a train wreck. However, I don't see any of the possible successors as great picks. Maybe I would have gone for the Earl of Huntingdon?
@@amandagrayson389 ah yes, I so agree with you; but you’re looking in hindsight. In 1562 she hadn’t yet manifested her unfortunate litany of disastrous decisions! By pure “right” she had the strongest claim in my opinion.
I think a MQoS reign in England could go either way - we’d could have been a republic in a decade; alternatively, Mary might have had greater success with the option of creating distance from John Knox and the Presbyterians. The Church of England might have been less complicated 👀
@@ReadingthePast But then, there were the Puritans and this hope by the government that Catholics in England would just ‘die out.’ And of course, don’t forget about Darnley. I still see a train wreck. 😖
@@amandagrayson389 @Reading the Past I love a good game of “what if” don’t you? One thing may be true: though the circumstances would have changed (who says Darnley would have been on the scene at all without Elizabeth, for example?) MQOS’ appalling lack of judgment probably wouldn’t have served her much better in England than (as we know but they did not in 1562) in Scotland. Might she have been The Last Queen?!
Dr. Kat Great job on all of your videos and thank you. I have one request, I would love for you to do a video on the Showtime series "The Tudors" and tell us some of the things they got wrong.
I love your presentation style and the quality/academic rigour of the research behind your presentations, Thankyou! As a 'nutter' on the Shakespeare authorship issue, I notice you have a copy of Mark (now Margot) Anderson's 'Shakespeare by another name' book as well as several other more conventional looking ones, including Bill Bryson's in which he concludes that what we know of Shakespeare can be written comfortably on a postage stamp. Would love to hear your take on Shakespeare, unless of course it ends up being about that man from Stratford upon Avon. Seroiusly, though, would like to hear your take on that issue even if it is towing the line of conventional thought, as long as it is well argued/evidenced.
Thank you for bringing History to life. I so enjoy your channel a great deal. I think I would have gone with Mary Queen of Scotts as an heir. However knowing Elizabeth was jealous of Mary that would be out.So I would go with Katherine Gray as Heir to the throne following Henry the VIII's orders in his will.
Whether Elizabeth was jealous of Mary would not have had much to do with choosing her as a successor…. Mary was CATHOLIC and raised in France as well as having been a French queen. Elizabeth was far too politically savvy to let any of her personal feelings get in the way of such an important question.
@@annwilliams6438 Amen. Naming Mary of Scots as her successor would have immediately started a civil war ... And Elizabeth was acutely aware of this. I don't believe Elizabeth was actually "jealous" of a women who made such disastrous marriages/relationships and spent 20 yrs imprisoned. 😂 But I do think she was well aware of the threat that Mary posed to England. I mean, she literally went through the same battle with her sister.
She was Henry VIII's daughter. Of course she was smart enough and politically astute enough to deceive all those men who thought they were smarter than she was.
I have always read from Elizabeth’s biographies that she was not left badly scarred. It is only since the advent of the internet that I have stories of her being scarred. From what primary source is there mention of her being scarred? The other interesting thing is I have also read that Mary Queen of Scot had smallpox as a child, but no one mentions her being scarred. So I have very interested to know where the story of Elizabeth being scarred and Mary not came from.
A fantastic video as always. I remember reading that Elizabeth began using the lead-based white makeup after her recovery from smallpox, but were they really that bad, or was she just that vain?
Writers who were connected to the Elizabethan regime made a lot of Elizabeth’s miraculous (God given) preservation - both in life and looks she was said to be untouched. Foreign ambassadors provided a different account when writing to their masters (a number of whom would enjoy reading about Elizabeth’s misfortune) … make of that what you will 🤷🏻♀️
I read one version of Elizabeth's recovery from smallpox as a relief since she had suffered little scaring, but she felt guilty that she passed on the disease to Mary Dudley who was horribly disfigured as a result. Elizabeth supposedly commented that Mary had suffered doubly for the consequences of smallpox, once for herself and again for Elizabeth. I have no idea if Elizabeth actually thought or said that.
This might seem a bit random, but I just watched a TH-cam video where several of Elizabeth the 1st portraits were brought to life using artificial intelligence. Although all the faces were of different ages and in sometimes heavy makeup, one thing was the same in all of the recreations. Her eyes! A very distinctive shape and dark drown colour. I was immediately reminded of you and your eyes. You have spookily similar, in fact almost identical eyes to Elizabeth the 1st Dr Kat… in the AI recreations that is. You should take a look if you get the chance. I don’t have the link for the video but I searched for Elizabeth the first AI and it was near the top of the results.
I think the Council chose one, or at least had a leading candidate. Given the need for one, at the time, the Council would have stayed and debated until they had settled on one, or at least only had a few members against.
I’m inclined to agree… I mean who would dream of suggesting they even take a break from discussions when they had no idea how long the Queen would live?!?
John Harington's letters are a treasure. And, a forgotten fact is that Elizabeth was nursed during her smallpox bout by, I believe, Lady Mary Sidney (nee Dudley), who came down with the disease and was so disfigured by it that she rarely, if ever, came to court again. Another interesting topic is that the makeup Elizabeth used to hide her scars contained lead, a poison. I wonder if the irritability and short-temperedness she displayed late in life were due to the long term poisoning her makeup caused.
I'm deeply DEEPLY confused, and always have been, by what Elizabeth I meant by proposing Dudley and lord protector? She couldn't have been saying he should be successor coz she'd have said that any know it was absurd. So did she mean he rule until parliament or the privy council designated a successor??
Great video!! I'm very curious, Dr. Kat, of the three potential heirs, who would you have chosen? I would have picked Katherine Gray just to vindicate her poor sister who, I feel, was a puppet of the men around her and a tragic figure.
Hello Dr kat had a good time looking at van Gough paintings on the floor and walls it was a fun and madness at the same time we kept getting directed in circles trying to find the museum it was all Van Gough paintings and facts it was for a sister and grandfather's birthdays 🎂🥳🎉 ps I may have sent money not meaning to my phone is very touchy please send back money i really did need this need this for my history fix crazy how history has a calming affect on me because it's a very bad day not feeling like my self just grieving lost love ones today I am fine Dr kat don't worry can't wait to see what video comes next week I have a funny feeling I know it has something to deal with news see u next week
You have really won over a new fan with this and your Kemp & Burbage videos. I was so interested in the succession discussions at this time. Much as I would like to back one of the female claimants, I would have to support Hastings (speaking purely on the facts presented and not knowing what kind of ruler any of them would have been... well... we have a good idea with Mary Stuart, but not the other two). I would support Hastings because if we're going by bloodline, his claim is superior to any of the Tudors, by a long shot. The elimination of so many of the Yorkists during the Tudor era shows me they were well aware that if any of the living Yorkist heirs decided to make trouble, the Tudors would be quite vulnerable. I would have voted for Hastings, but been very ready to destroy the evidence if Elizabeth recovered. Question: why do you think Robert Cecil favored James Stuart? Were the heirs of Hastings and Catherine alive at Elizabeth's death? How did the Council decide whom to support? Thank you again. Wonderful videos. So enjoying discovering your work.
I still find it interesting that Elizabeth I did allow her rival Mary Queen of Scots to be executed, yet Mary's son was the one succeed her on the throne. Somehow that kind of feels like that Mary did have the upper hand over her rival in the end.
I've always believed Mary of Scots was innocent, and there was a lot of forging letters, etc, going on to have her executed because if Elizabeth had died, Mary would have been next in line to the throne, and the Protestants couldn't allow that. Mary had a lot of support in England, and England would have been made Catholic once again.....she simply couldn't be allowed to live, and because Walsingham had many people at his disposal, it stands to reason, he had people who could make the forgeries happen. Walsingham wasn't even a Protestant, he was actually a Puritan, and had even more to lose than anyone else. Mary swore even at her death that she was innocent, and for a devout Catholic to lie knowing she was about to meet God, makes no sense. I believe because she was innocent, that's why her son James was able to succeed the throne after Elizabeth died.
Not really. If Mary really was involved with the plot to overthrow Elizabeth, it shows she died for being impatient, since as the younger cousin, Mary would’ve inherited the throne herself if she didn’t die from some illness, because at the time of her execution, Elizabeth was in or past menopause, so Mary and her son were already next in line. Mary lost her own throne for remaining Catholic, which was also why Catholic countries and the Pope wanted her to replace Elizabeth. But after losing control of her own country, her son was raised Protestant and harshly persecuted Catholics, so she died for something she and her son would’ve gotten anyway, and instead of restoring England to Catholicism (or at least establishing more tolerance), it led to worse persecution under her own son and cemented England as Protestant because she was skipped over. If she had worked out a deal like Empress Matilda did with King Stephen and publicly renounced all claim to the English throne in return for official recognition of her son as Elizabeth’s heir, Mary might have lived long enough to be a respected and influential mother of King James and could’ve protected Catholics. Instead, she just made everything worse for herself and the cause she died over.
@@akaLaBrujaRoja I’m not sure that would have saved Mary. People were plotting in Mary’s name, with or without her help. It’s just never a good idea to leave a rival claimant alive, hence why Mary I had to eventually do away with Jane Grey despite not wanting to. And the whole video was about Elizabeth NOT wanting to name ANY successor, so I doubt she would have allowed Mary, Queen of Scots to force her into naming James to succeed her.
@livesouthernable well sure, but my point was that Mary didn’t have any “upper hand,” her son would’ve inherited either way. She could’ve just fled to France and lived in peace as Dowager Queen or found refuge in Spain to wait out the end of Elizabeth’s reign, and Mary might’ve even reconciled with James. At least she wouldn’t have gotten her head chopped off. Of all 3 scenarios, James would still become King of England, so choosing the path that was most likely to get her killed when the outcome for her son wouldn’t change is a loss for her, not a win.
@@akaLaBrujaRoja I appreciate your argument, but Mary couldn’t really have fled anywhere. She fled from Scotland to England originally in the dead of night to avoid her own nobles, who were trying to hunt her down. She picked England, because she would never have made it to France. Once she reached England, she was a threat to Elizabeth. So, she was imprisoned immediately and never freed again. So no, she never had the upper hand, and that’s my point. She had nothing to bargain with for her son’s inheritance. He did inherit in the end, but I don’t believe it was Elizabeth’s doing at all. I think she probably knew it was inevitable, but I don’t believe she agreed to it.
Well, I do better than share this with my friends, I have linked you via the sidebar of my blog. I'd like to know more about James VI's efforts to become James I. I think he would have had to be diplomatic and write a few letters to endear himself to Elizabeth I and her privy council -- it would be fascinating to know more about his diplomacy to win them both over.
I’ve always wondered how the Privy Council reacted to Elizabeth naming Robert Dudley as her de facto successor. Their relationship has always fascinated me, as either romantic or platonic, they were a unit. She trusted him like she trusted nobody else, and while Dudley was ambitious, it was intertwined with a loyalty to Elizabeth. So yeah, there’s a big part of me that thinks “how did everyone else react to the realization that the jumped up pretty boy with a family history of treason was and would always be Elizabeth’s number one dude?”
If Elizabeth had actually died… how long do you reckon Dudley would have lived? I’d bet he’d have an unfortunate accident before the week (maybe even the day) was out!
@@ReadingthePast I’d wager on 3-4 hours, max. I like to imagine the queens death would be followed by the announcement that Lord Dudley fell on some swords. He fell some swords ten times.
I've had the impression that Dudley was only going to be a caretaker of England while her ministers figured out who would be designated as the new monarch. If Elizabeth did die and Dudley would suddenly "pass away," then what?
Thank you Dr Kat. I may be slow but where has the Dinosaur 🦖 gone? I may have been told I’d never make a good witness but - they were there, weren’t they? Or is dementia creeping up. 👵👵👵👵🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🙏🙏
As much as I have resented the male inheritance traditions of rulership throughout much of history, I can kind of see where it made sense too (within the time it existed) A male ruler needed heirs, his consort who would be female, could die in childbirth. It was once very common.(All those evil stepmothers in fairytales have snippets of cultural reality in their stories) If a king's wife died from complications of pregnancy/childbirth, he could remarry & the power structure remained stable. But, if your head of state & sovereign is a Queen...well, the whole royal marriage & pumping out heirs & spares system becomes more tenuous & anxiety provoking for those in her orbit. Elizabeth I was a fascinating person & must have been a woman of incredible strength & fortitude. I always enjoy learning more about her & the people/politics that were influential in her time. Edit: I know the video was about small pox & not childbirth ;)
Absolutely! ^^ I do not think the majority of today's population understand that "childbed" was probably more dangerous than an assassin. How many attempts were made on Elizabeth's life? Yet childbirth had a 50% mortality rate. For women like Jacquetta Rivers (& her 14 children) and even her daughter, Elizabeth Woodville (who I think had 8 children) I just wonder what the mental preparation was like each time they found out that they were pregnant. Again. Lol. Like "Well, here we go again. 50/50 shot that I will survive." And these *men* thought that women didn't have the fortitude to lead an army into a war? WTH? I'd dare say that women see a lot more blood in their lifetimes than most of the men did.
Did anyone suggest ,as an heir, Margaret Tudors daughter from her marriage to Archibald Douglas after James IV died ie Margaret Douglas, the mother of Lord Darnley? She died in 1578.
Ohhh, I had no idea Cecil had been secretly writing James for months before Elizabeth's death. I always think of Cecil as the "Queen's Creature", lol. But, as Dr Kat pointed out ... It would be completely understandable in the face of rebellions and civil war. I just never considered that ... Maybe Cecil lied. 🤷♀️
I think the appropriate line of succession, and probably the one covertly agreed upon by the Council, was that of Frances Grey and her daughters. This had the authority of having been Henry’s choice, and guaranteed a Protestant ruler. Jane’s rule failed in part because her rival Mary Tudor, although Catholic, was demonstrably an English princess, which Mary of Scots (then in France) was not. Also, at the time Mary Tudor took the throne, there was a much wider lingering sympathy for the Catholic faith (which had after all been England’s faith since the year dot) than by 1562, since Mary did so much to squander that credit (all those burnings). By 1562, the Council was unlikely to face the opposition to a Grey family queen that undid Jane.
Dude-- Elizabeth was on the brink of death and all the Council were shaking in their boots, trying to figure out what to do. If they did manage to vote for a successor, maybe they wrote the 'winner' on a piece of paper, folded it, sealed it and stuck it in the back of a drawer somewhere, just in case. And then, once it was obvious that Elizabeth wasn't going to pop her clogs just yet, Cecil could squirrel that paper out of the drawer and burn it. Don't know what they would have done if she HAD croaked. Would they have really allowed Robert Dudley to become Lord Protector of England? Whatever would have happened, it would have been a mess.-- Brandon
I got smallpox from being vaccinated against it. This was in about 1976. I have some scars in unseen places from scratching it I believe. I was only about 1-2 yrs old!!!!
Elizabeth was carrying a lot of baggage. Her father 'murdered' her mother, worked his way through 4 replacements, declared her a bastard, beheaded another one and 2 of her beloved stepmothers died as a direct result of childbirth. I think I would be a little wary too Also she was drunk on Power. If she married, she would have had to relinquish some of it. As her sister had done. Plus she liked the politicking and intrigues. If you align yourself with Spain, as Mary did, you rule out future better deals with France, or whoever. And lose the opportunity to flip allegiances as needed. England was punching way above its weight and she knew that. They way to carry that through was leave All options open. She could be the spider in the middle of the web, not the fly caught in it. A husband would have broken that web. Similarly she was waiting to see which way the wind blew before announcing an heir. Things change Very quickly in politics, and Liz was savvy enough to know that
She was still pretty young. Even if she had decided to marry and attempt to have children, there may not have been time. And who knows? Elizabeth may have died in childbirth or may not have become pregnant at all.
They had some front runners but also quite liked their heads attached their shoulders so weren't dumb enough to actually put anything in writing. The collective self preservation drive also meant no one was gonna run their mouth and say who they'd decided on. I'm going with the Grey sister as my bet.
I'm still a bit intrigued by the notion that the later Earl of Essex, Robert Devereux, was in fact Queen Elizabeth's SON by Robert Dudley, which is why she so indulged him and why he felt the Crown could be his. Although he was said to have been born in '65, birth dates could have been changed by chicanery and a birth easily concealed within an extended illness. The Queens notional award to Dudley would also tend to support the notion, I feel. 🤔
The one with the most legitimate claim, and thus most unlikely, was Henry Hastings. He had a lot of royal blood and was involved in alot of political decisions the problem with him would be that that royal blood had no Tudor blood flowing through it.
I think Elizabeth I would have been quite angry to be constantly reminded that although she was a Tudor, she was still a mere woman. I am allergic to smallpox vaccine. Damned if I do, dampened if I don't.
Smallpox according to "Pox Americana" often killed American Indians before the pocks were formed. "early symptoms would have resembled a very nasty case of the flu. Headache, backache, fever, vomiting, and general malaise all are among the initial signs of infection. The headache can be splitting; the backache, excruciating. Lakota (Sioux) Indian representations of smallpox often use a spiral symbol to illustrate intense pain in the midsection. Anxiety is another symptom. Fretful, overwrought patients often die within days, never even developing the distinctive rash identified with the disease. Twentieth-century studies indicate that such hard-to-diagnose cases are rare. But eyewitness accounts suggest that in historical epidemics, this deadly form of smallpox may have been more common among Native Americans, who frequently died before the telltale skin eruptions appeared." Apparently some patients died before the spots appeared, so the appearance of spots might be considered a sign that the patient had a less deadly form.
@@ReadingthePast Careful! That comment in Tudor England might earn you a trip to the block! Fabulous content as always. I so love Dr. Kat Fridays. My choice would have been Mary Queen of Scots. I sometimes wonder if Elizabeth chose James to succeed her out of guilt for having had her cousin put to death. Hmmmmm.....
How are you enjoying Becoming Elizabeth? I’m finding the bad language hard to take especially from the boy king. Would they have sworn so much in the Royal house at that time? Would a boy king have been subjected to such foul language? I know it’s fashionable to swear now but back then? I don’t recall Shakespeare using those words do you? Just curious.
They did swear then, but their swearing was religious based - eg God's Wounds shorted to Zounds or Gods Blood, shortened to S'Blood. Trouble is characters saying 'Zounds' would just sound quiant to a modern ear and not carry the shock value felt at the time. I guess that's why the programme makers have chosen to use modern swearing instead.
By the way, I recall Dr Kat saying that she won't watch Becming Elizabeth until all episodes have been aired. I am sure we can look forward to her comments then
There's a story that the governess of Henry VIII's daughter Mary boasted that (the at least pubescent) Mary was so well-brought up that she didn't even know any curse words. Thinking the governess was lying, Henry ordered the men during the next court function to use the filthiest language possible in normal conversational tones whenever Mary was near--and she was (supposedly) oblivious. So cursing definitely was around at the time (though another story purports that Mary still didn't know the word "whore" when she was Queen).
After watching a couple of videos by real fluff-heads, who learned a bit of superficial history from skimming Wiki, it’s such a pleasure to listen to your knowledgeable, intelligent and articulate analysis of historical topics. I look forward to Dr. Kat on Fridays!
I’m really pleased you are enjoying my content, thank you 😊
I agree. I like to get in-depth information about history and I never know if I can trust what I read on the internet.
Totally agree!!!!!! I watched a video yesterday where the guy said Edmund Tudor died 3 years AFTER Henry VII was born......I was like "uhhhhhhmmmmmm.....NO!!"
Dr. Kat is so knowledgeable and I just love the way she talks to the camera like we're all in the room with her, just chatting about our favorite topic: HISTORY!!!!!! 😁😁😁 Such an incredibly intelligent woman!!!
i think I know which fluffhead you are talking about. She was trying to talk about Lord Darnley's murder. im so glad we have Dr Kat..
Smallpox. Such a ghastly disease. My dad had it around 1914 in south Texas. Some 60 years later, I attended an infectious disease conference where it was announced that the worldwide vaccination project overseen by the UN(?) or World Health Organization had succeeded. There were no more "wild cases". In the audience, grown men were weeping with joy.
Wow! That must have been an amazing experience, to be there when that was announced!
Yeah, back then the ravages of disease were all too apparent to everyone in society. Now especially in developed countries we’ve lost the memory of people paralysed from polio, scarred from smallpox, suffering from congenital rubella, or the many, many other sequelae of the plethora of diseases we now have vaccines for. And those who do get sick are cared for in hospitals, not at home.
And sadly the result is we’re having resurgences of things like measles as people decide they don’t need vaccines.
@@--enyo--
That is SO true!
I had mumps, and one day, I couldn't hear in my left ear. I was 7 yrs old. The nerve was dead.
A lady who taught me sewing down the country road had such pox marks she was disfigured. I knew identical twins, one a tall handsome guy, his shorter brother's legs were crippled from polio.
I'm sure there's a few more cases here. It's a miracle its been gone.
Last week it was announced that polio had resurfaced for the first time in a decade in 🇺🇸. The torrential influx of people from 3rd world countries don't have immunity and may arrive sick. Its s scandal that it's allowed to go on!
Sadly, there is a confirmed case of smallpox in New York: an unvaccinated person traveled out of the US.
@@--enyo-- That's exactly it. When I hear someone, usually a young mother, going on about how she won't vaccinate her child, I smile and say, "Oh, that brings back memories!" Then, still smiling, I go on to recount hearing the sound of whooping cough coming from a house I passed on the way to school. It was January, everything was all buttoned up for the winter. I was standing on the sidewalk and could hear the coughing clearly. When the little girl came back to school the following September, she was just a pale shadow of her former self. She had to repeat 1st grade, and in succeeding years, she never really regained her strength.
OR I launch into telling about the polio epidemic that hit my town about 1953etc) that didn't have a child with some sort of after affect....wry neck, withered arm or leg, a limp. that didn't have a kid with some sort of after OR I go on about how the very, very worst nightmares I have ever had in my entire life were when I had measles.
AND did you ever notice how many Hollywood stars of the 20', 30's, 40's, 50's adopted children? Mumps.
Every time I've done that, the anti-vax woman has had absolutely no response.
Sorry to go on. Such ignorance riles me up.
(I don't know why some of the text turned red.)
The eradication of smallpox truly is one of humanity’s greatest achievements in the medical field
History shows us how pandemics have changed the course of nations and wars. My grandmother (1895-1984) had smallpox as a child and my Dad (1913-2002) had polio, both dreaded and deadly diseases that traumatized my family . We are fortunate to be living in the age of vaccinations that have eradicated these awful diseases. Thank you so much for a another interesting and informative presentation, Doctor Kat.
I feel very fortunate to live in a time without smallpox and when I can protect my son from the terrors of illnesses like polio. I hope your family members were able to make good recoveries.
@@ReadingthePast Grandma had a few scars while my Dad had permanent nerve damage and walked with a slight limp. Later in life he had double knee replacement surgery which made him pain-free for the first time in 60 years. I was child of the 1950s and suffered through the Polio Epidemic. Although I escape polio, my sister-in-law didn’t and at age 79 still suffers horrible foot pain to this day. I’m a strong supporter of any vaccine program.
Have you heard that there’s a case of polio here in the US, NYC I believe? Scary news. I had an aunt who had polio as a child. I understand how bad it is.
@@dale3404 No, I haven’t heard that news. I hope it’s a mistake.
@@kathrynmast916 According to several news outlets, it was an unvaccinated person who had travelled outside the US.
An amazing woman who played the game to perfection. I saw her tomb in Westminster Abbey and it gave me goosebumps. I'm no monarchist, but she was a woman of her times.
My grandfather survived smallpox and his father, ( they were country people with many old cures), sat by his bed constantly oiling the eruptions on his face with a feather dipped in sweet oil of almonds. His face healed without a mark. This story was passed down to me by my Granny.
I agree that Robert Cecil most likely pretended the queen had given him a sign to name James as her successor. Having both learned from his father, and lived through so much of the turbulent history of her reign, he knew how important a smooth transition of power would be to the security of the realm.
I once played Sir Henry Carey, Lord Hunsdon, at Renaissance Faire here in the States. And I had to come to grips with how he would have reacted in 1562, when his cousin (and potential half-sister) came within a cat's whisker of death. He was rumored to be a b@stard son of Henry VIII. It was more or less an open secret. Elizabeth would name him Baron Hunsdon, making Hunsdon House the foundation of his barony. Hunsdon House was the unofficial residence of all of the children of the king. You could almost see Elizabeth winking at him when she named him Baron. Open secret, indeed. However, in 1562, the death of Elizabeth would lead to an uncertain succession, and people have died when that has happened. Hunsdon knew this personally. He'd seen his aunt, Anne Boleyn, beheaded. And Jane Grey. And as he saw the unconscious form of his cousin lying there, he could see the dotted line appearing on his own neck, getting clearer and clearer as anyone ever mentioned the possibility that he was a natural male, protestant "heir" of the king. I chose to play the character as fiercely defending the notion that he was the son of Sir William Carey and none other. Not only out of a sense of keeping people from dishonoring his dead father, but also out of a sense of self-preservation. Of all those who were relieved when Elizabeth regained her health, probably none were more relieved than Henry Carey.
This is really interesting and I agree, there is scarcely a more dangerous thing to be than a potential claimant to a throne!
Oooh! Which show? I'm a Maryland Rennie!
@@ReadingthePast Especially a weak claimant to the throne when stronger claimants were looking over their shoulders.
@@tessat338 I've been to Maryland faire. Very enjoyable. I started on cast at Fishers Ren in Indiana. Also made guest appearances as Hunsdon up at Bristol.
@@johnhammonds5143 I worked in a friend's family booth for about 20 years. We did one of the PA shows for a while, then GA and NC. Her parents retired and eventually sold the business. My now college-aged son basically grew up at MD. Lovely place!
Could be have a video of Jacquetta rivers please? I find her story fascinating, especially the witchcraft charge . Love your channel
Love mags ❤️
She is on my list, I’m hoping to find the necessary time to do a deep dive on her very soon 🤞
@@ReadingthePast Oh, that would be amazing x
Cool! I'd love to see that!
Oh this is fantastic news! Jacquetta's story is often (inexplicably) overlooked and I really look forward to Dr. Kat's video 💖
I found the reference to treating small pox with red cloth very interesting. My mother insisted that the best cure for an upper respiratory infection was Vick’s VapoRub covered by a red flannel scarf!
In lack of a list of Elizabeth’s I would have followed Henry’s succession list. Since Jane Grey was already executed, her sister would have been my choice. I can picture members of Elizabeth’s privy council ghoulishly standing around her bed when she was unconscious, just waiting. Queens and Kings had a right to be always on their guard. I love pondering these things and I love your channel. You always come up with an intriguing new twist on history.
That's scary. Katherine Grey was v v dtitzy. She'd have been an avatar controlled by the privy council.
The scourge of smallpox vis a vis the treachery at court, of not being able to fully trust anyone, could have broken anyone - but Elizabeth. My wish for her as she began to recover would be to tell all the fiends and ghouls standing around her bed, “I’m not dead YET!”
I find it so interesting how the families relate to each other.
I remember in my last year at school (way back in the last century) having to have a smallpox inoculation ,💉prior to visiting the Middle East on a school trip. Mine didn't take properly and I ended up with a bit of a messy sore on my arm, which irritated me somewhat for years. I can't imagine how painful it must be to be covered in smallpox, and back in Tudor times the fatalities must have been horrendous.
I never knew about Elizabeth's dash with death in 1562. Fascinating video as usual and your raconteur abilities are astounding. Bravo! 👏👏👏
Thank you 😊
San Antonio, Texas was a polio hotspot. My sister and I received the first Salk vaccine from our dr who had I think 4 or 5 shots. Salk was in such hurry to win the Nobel race, the first batch was contaminated with live virus. We were both very suck and very lucky. We lived, were not left paralyzed or with permanent health issues. People ended in iron lungs from that vaccine. As soon as it came out we had the Sabine vaccine…the one used today. I still have my smallpox vaccine scar, btw. I’m 71.
A month or so ago there was a report of the polio virus being found in London’s sewerage. It was later said that this was from someone who was vaccinated with the live virus. I’m not sure how concerning this should be…
Me too. I’m 59. I think they stopped it not long after I had mine.
@@ReadingthePast Live virus is in some vaccines…I doubt there’s much to be concerned about, but just the words
‘Live polio virus” are scary. I’m not sure from where the live vaccine would originate. Guess I need to do some research.
@@ReadingthePast the oral vaccine contains a much weakened live virus which represents no danger. It’s still used in countries where polio is an issue and for people traveling to those countries. I wish the news media was less sensational, although I’m making the assumption they simply announced the finding without context.
Learned something new! Yay!
Thanks! I do so enjoy your videos!!! Keep up the excellent work!!!
Always so much research and the time you take to make these videos is much appreciated.
Small, independent creators on TH-cam have a hard time indeed, either their subscribers disappear or de-monitised, whatever, whilst the "Big Guns" can publish whatever they want.
Great video! I think this is one of those cases where our knowledge of how things turned out warps our perspective on how it would have felt at the time. We *know* Elizabeth never married, so it seems odd that who was going to succeed her stayed uncertain for so long. But it would have seemed completely absurd early on that she wouldn't marry and at least *try* to produce an heir, that was her job, right? So it would likely have seemed like, well, they had a young, presumably fertile, healthy queen, of course they would have an heir soon.
I do find myself wondering how things developed as she grew older. As it became obvious, but unsayable, that the queen was getting up to and past the point where she would be able to have children. But by that point, everyone was used to the situation, it would be normal. She really just out-waited them.
But then, maybe I'm just projecting a different kind of modern thought onto the past. After all, they'd just come off the reigns of two monarchs who had failed to produce children, and the last one who had managed that had struggled so mightily to produce a legitimate male heir that he had caused a massive crisis. Maybe in late 16th century England, the idea of a monarch straightforwardly getting married the once, and then producing an "heir and a spare", would have seemed a bit alien and implausible?
That’s interesting I never actually considered that Cecil could have lied about Elizabeth naming James her heir . I just thought other people in the room heard her say it . In any case I guess I couldn’t fault him for it if he did lie ( assuming she was still refusing to in her very last moments to name an heir )
So happy that you are getting sponsorship from HistoryHits. Good for you; good for us; good for HH. Love when your vids come out. They are always interesting.
Red flannel cloth was a not too bad way of treating the lesion stage,if you have your body bound and hands restricted,you can't scratch and make the lesions worse. Love your videos,Kat. You have an excellent narrating voice. I have turned off many a clip because I can't stand the voice over. Keep up your excellent work,take care xx
I am with you on that. If I tune in and get an American android I am Gone , even if they are about to tell me they have found the Holy Grail It is all about presentation especially for a vlogger. Kat gets her facts right, is non judgemental ( I hate the' I think ,so therefore it is True' brigade) and stays on track. I am building up a bunch of Vloggers that do the same, on various subjects For the rest it is a Dislike and Gone. Harsh, but it needs to be done .Call it Quality Control! Lol
@@hogwashmcturnip8930 😂👍
I would love to learn about the economic policies, commodities, conditions and other factors that made English trade flourish in this period, thanks!
Thank you shining a light into this period of the life of Elizabeth. Everything was so complicated and potentially dangerous to anyone at any given time! Another great one, Dr. kat!
Thank you so much Dr Kat , xxx
Yet another wonderful video. I really believe that Elizabeth never named an heir. Why should she? She had remained tight lipped about the succession her whole reign and by the time she was on her death bed, she may have not had the capacity to communicate. Cecil the younger had been working on the Stuart succession for years. James Stuart had the right blood line and even at that point had an heir and a spare not to mention a royal nursery full of princesses. Thank you so much for all of your videos.
You are a delight. Cheers!
I'm considering History Hit, because of you, its an amazing platform.
I really enjoy watching their programs ☺️
So happy for your success!! Thank you for showing people how important history is❤️
I would love some content about Becoming Elizabeth😊 great video as always❤
Another fantastic video from the brilliant Dr. Kat 👏 👏 👏
Mary had the clearest senior claim to the throne, which is why James ended up King.
Thank you, as always, for the great information. I have have been binge watching your videos since you started the channel and my brain is overflowing with history info that is just fascinating. I think Elizabeth is a fascinating figure and wonder if the reason she decided to not marry was because she was standing her ground about being treated as an equal and not being pushed around by the men who controlled the time. There is so much we do not know! After seeing this video, I wonder if this was where she really decided to dig in her heels. She definitely seems like a consummate politican.
I know that the painting of The Execution of Lady Jane Grey, is from entirely the wrong time period, and has numerous other problems. But there is something about the huge scale of it, most of it being incredibly dark with a tiny (let's be real) child on their way to their execution that has always struck me.
"Flat-type-or malignant-smallpox is very rare, and is characterized by intense toxemia. It occurs more frequently in children. In contrast to ordinary smallpox, the skin lesions in this type develop slowly, merge together, and remain flat and soft (often described as “velvety” to the touch). They never progress to the pustular stage." US CDC "flat and hemorrhagic smallpox, which are uncommon types of smallpox, are usually fatal." -US food and drug administration Typically.the rashes do not emerge until after the fever has subsided
That must have been a ROCKY first council meeting after the smallpox... I'd like to imagine Elizabeth letting a dead silence roll through the room before starting the first item of business.
Great comment; I've played the tense scene in my mind.
I have subscribed to History Hit for the last year and love it. Also love your channel (and your shirt today)
I have been following you for a year now and I do enjoy your in-depth analysis.
thanks Kat your video was brilliant as per usual. all your tudor videos and all things related are really an absolute pleasure to watch
Thank you, another interesting one! I could listen to you all day ☺
Well done and well presented, thank you.
I always look forward to listening to your channel thanks for bringing excitement to my dull life
How indomitable was ERI?! How she survived disease, invasions, plots and the overweening patriarchy is nothing short of miraculous. Apart from anything else, I view this as her greatest strength. She did or caused major things of course. How exhausting it must have been to be pressed constantly on the succession. Of course her “answer answerless” is a classic! Had I been a councilor I would have hidden any thoughts I had on the succession, but I’d have been most in favor of MQOS, against H8’s rather presumptuous will. As always, I enjoyed this video immensely. Happy Friday.
MQOS would have been a disaster-- just look at her time in Scotland. What a train wreck. However, I don't see any of the possible successors as great picks. Maybe I would have gone for the Earl of Huntingdon?
@@amandagrayson389 ah yes, I so agree with you; but you’re looking in hindsight. In 1562 she hadn’t yet manifested her unfortunate litany of disastrous decisions! By pure “right” she had the strongest claim in my opinion.
I think a MQoS reign in England could go either way - we’d could have been a republic in a decade; alternatively, Mary might have had greater success with the option of creating distance from John Knox and the Presbyterians. The Church of England might have been less complicated 👀
@@ReadingthePast But then, there were the Puritans and this hope by the government that Catholics in England would just ‘die out.’ And of course, don’t forget about Darnley. I still see a train wreck. 😖
@@amandagrayson389 @Reading the Past I love a good game of “what if” don’t you? One thing may be true: though the circumstances would have changed (who says Darnley would have been on the scene at all without Elizabeth, for example?) MQOS’ appalling lack of judgment probably wouldn’t have served her much better in England than (as we know but they did not in 1562) in Scotland. Might she have been The Last Queen?!
Get well soon ❤️ loved the video
That was very informative!! Thank you.
Dr. Kat Great job on all of your videos and thank you. I have one request, I would love for you to do a video on the Showtime series "The Tudors" and tell us some of the things they got wrong.
She has done a few of these^^.
The one on Margaret/Mary Tudor Brandon is both hilarious and jarring.
Insightful, articulate and interesting, as usual. Thank you, Dr. Kat!
I loved this one …. I played this as I was making my breakfast here in California
Wonderful as ever kat thank you
I love your presentation style and the quality/academic rigour of the research behind your presentations, Thankyou!
As a 'nutter' on the Shakespeare authorship issue, I notice you have a copy of Mark (now Margot) Anderson's 'Shakespeare by another name' book as well as several other more conventional looking ones, including Bill Bryson's in which he concludes that what we know of Shakespeare can be written comfortably on a postage stamp. Would love to hear your take on Shakespeare, unless of course it ends up being about that man from Stratford upon Avon. Seroiusly, though, would like to hear your take on that issue even if it is towing the line of conventional thought, as long as it is well argued/evidenced.
Thank you for bringing History to life. I so enjoy your channel a great deal. I think I would have gone with Mary Queen of Scotts as an heir. However knowing Elizabeth was jealous of Mary that would be out.So I would go with Katherine Gray as Heir to the throne following Henry the VIII's orders in his will.
Whether Elizabeth was jealous of Mary would not have had much to do with choosing her as a successor…. Mary was CATHOLIC and raised in France as well as having been a French queen. Elizabeth was far too politically savvy to let any of her personal feelings get in the way of such an important question.
@@annwilliams6438 Amen. Naming Mary of Scots as her successor would have immediately started a civil war ... And Elizabeth was acutely aware of this. I don't believe Elizabeth was actually "jealous" of a women who made such disastrous marriages/relationships and spent 20 yrs imprisoned. 😂
But I do think she was well aware of the threat that Mary posed to England. I mean, she literally went through the same battle with her sister.
Always interesting. Take care and have fun!!! 😷😎😷
In the UK, the last person who died of Smallpox did so in 1978. It was a leak from a lab.
Dr Kat! Is your doctorate in history? I absolutely love you!!!! Thank you for getting me through a hard day x
She was Henry VIII's daughter. Of course she was smart enough and politically astute enough to deceive all those men who thought they were smarter than she was.
I have always read from Elizabeth’s biographies that she was not left badly scarred. It is only since the advent of the internet that I have stories of her being scarred.
From what primary source is there mention of her being scarred?
The other interesting thing is I have also read that Mary Queen of Scot had smallpox as a child, but no one mentions her being scarred. So I have very interested to know where the story of Elizabeth being scarred and Mary not came from.
Loved it. 🌺🌸
I’m in the last generation that has a small pox vaccination scar on my upper arm.
It's strange to think that all our generation has that same shared experience and the same scar. ☺
A fantastic video as always. I remember reading that Elizabeth began using the lead-based white makeup after her recovery from smallpox, but were they really that bad, or was she just that vain?
I have read contemporary accounts that said she came through pretty unscathed, facially, but of course, they would, ,wouldn't they? Lol
Writers who were connected to the Elizabethan regime made a lot of Elizabeth’s miraculous (God given) preservation - both in life and looks she was said to be untouched.
Foreign ambassadors provided a different account when writing to their masters (a number of whom would enjoy reading about Elizabeth’s misfortune) … make of that what you will 🤷🏻♀️
I thought that was when she lost a lot of her hair.
@@ReadingthePast Somewhere in the middle? 🤷♂️
I read one version of Elizabeth's recovery from smallpox as a relief since she had suffered little scaring, but she felt guilty that she passed on the disease to Mary Dudley who was horribly disfigured as a result. Elizabeth supposedly commented that Mary had suffered doubly for the consequences of smallpox, once for herself and again for Elizabeth. I have no idea if Elizabeth actually thought or said that.
This might seem a bit random, but I just watched a TH-cam video where several of Elizabeth the 1st portraits were brought to life using artificial intelligence. Although all the faces were of different ages and in sometimes heavy makeup, one thing was the same in all of the recreations. Her eyes! A very distinctive shape and dark drown colour. I was immediately reminded of you and your eyes. You have spookily similar, in fact almost identical eyes to Elizabeth the 1st Dr Kat… in the AI recreations that is. You should take a look if you get the chance. I don’t have the link for the video but I searched for Elizabeth the first AI and it was near the top of the results.
th-cam.com/video/Sm93sixiOA4/w-d-xo.html specifically 2:40 to 2:60. Some of the others were a bit dodgy haha. Please don’t be offended.
Not offended, at all. I must confess that I find all the reanimated paintings/photos a tad uncanny and unsettling though 😬
Did not know she had it.How are you dealing with this intense heat? England is not used to such temperatures?
I think the Council chose one, or at least had a leading candidate. Given the need for one, at the time, the Council would have stayed and debated until they had settled on one, or at least only had a few members against.
I’m inclined to agree… I mean who would dream of suggesting they even take a break from discussions when they had no idea how long the Queen would live?!?
I remember a phrase from The Crown, "Never trust a Cecil." Is this where it came from?
John Harington's letters are a treasure. And, a forgotten fact is that Elizabeth was nursed during her smallpox bout by, I believe, Lady Mary Sidney (nee Dudley), who came down with the disease and was so disfigured by it that she rarely, if ever, came to court again. Another interesting topic is that the makeup Elizabeth used to hide her scars contained lead, a poison.
I wonder if the irritability and short-temperedness she displayed late in life were due to the long term poisoning her makeup caused.
Thank you Dr Kat! Another really interesting and fascinating video on my favourite Elizabethan period. 👍💜🇬🇧
I'm deeply DEEPLY confused, and always have been, by what Elizabeth I meant by proposing Dudley and lord protector?
She couldn't have been saying he should be successor coz she'd have said that any know it was absurd.
So did she mean he rule until parliament or the privy council designated a successor??
Great video!! I'm very curious, Dr. Kat, of the three potential heirs, who would you have chosen? I would have picked Katherine Gray just to vindicate her poor sister who, I feel, was a puppet of the men around her and a tragic figure.
Would you concider doing a video on Arbella Stuart? I'm interesting to see what you think of the claim she was a possible candidate for succession.
She has a video on Arbella
@@elsiecorey3165 Thank you :)
Hello Dr kat had a good time looking at van Gough paintings on the floor and walls it was a fun and madness at the same time we kept getting directed in circles trying to find the museum it was all Van Gough paintings and facts it was for a sister and grandfather's birthdays 🎂🥳🎉 ps I may have sent money not meaning to my phone is very touchy please send back money i really did need this need this for my history fix crazy how history has a calming affect on me because it's a very bad day not feeling like my self just grieving lost love ones today I am fine Dr kat don't worry can't wait to see what video comes next week I have a funny feeling I know it has something to deal with news see u next week
You have really won over a new fan with this and your Kemp & Burbage videos. I was so interested in the succession discussions at this time. Much as I would like to back one of the female claimants, I would have to support Hastings (speaking purely on the facts presented and not knowing what kind of ruler any of them would have been... well... we have a good idea with Mary Stuart, but not the other two). I would support Hastings because if we're going by bloodline, his claim is superior to any of the Tudors, by a long shot. The elimination of so many of the Yorkists during the Tudor era shows me they were well aware that if any of the living Yorkist heirs decided to make trouble, the Tudors would be quite vulnerable. I would have voted for Hastings, but been very ready to destroy the evidence if Elizabeth recovered. Question: why do you think Robert Cecil favored James Stuart? Were the heirs of Hastings and Catherine alive at Elizabeth's death? How did the Council decide whom to support? Thank you again. Wonderful videos. So enjoying discovering your work.
I still find it interesting that Elizabeth I did allow her rival Mary Queen of Scots to be executed, yet Mary's son was the one succeed her on the throne. Somehow that kind of feels like that Mary did have the upper hand over her rival in the end.
I've always believed Mary of Scots was innocent, and there was a lot of forging letters, etc, going on to have her executed because if Elizabeth had died, Mary would have been next in line to the throne, and the Protestants couldn't allow that.
Mary had a lot of support in England, and England would have been made Catholic once again.....she simply couldn't be allowed to live, and because Walsingham had many people at his disposal, it stands to reason, he had people who could make the forgeries happen.
Walsingham wasn't even a Protestant, he was actually a Puritan, and had even more to lose than anyone else.
Mary swore even at her death that she was innocent, and for a devout Catholic to lie knowing she was about to meet God, makes no sense.
I believe because she was innocent, that's why her son James was able to succeed the throne after Elizabeth died.
Not really. If Mary really was involved with the plot to overthrow Elizabeth, it shows she died for being impatient, since as the younger cousin, Mary would’ve inherited the throne herself if she didn’t die from some illness, because at the time of her execution, Elizabeth was in or past menopause, so Mary and her son were already next in line. Mary lost her own throne for remaining Catholic, which was also why Catholic countries and the Pope wanted her to replace Elizabeth. But after losing control of her own country, her son was raised Protestant and harshly persecuted Catholics, so she died for something she and her son would’ve gotten anyway, and instead of restoring England to Catholicism (or at least establishing more tolerance), it led to worse persecution under her own son and cemented England as Protestant because she was skipped over.
If she had worked out a deal like Empress Matilda did with King Stephen and publicly renounced all claim to the English throne in return for official recognition of her son as Elizabeth’s heir, Mary might have lived long enough to be a respected and influential mother of King James and could’ve protected Catholics. Instead, she just made everything worse for herself and the cause she died over.
@@akaLaBrujaRoja I’m not sure that would have saved Mary. People were plotting in Mary’s name, with or without her help. It’s just never a good idea to leave a rival claimant alive, hence why Mary I had to eventually do away with Jane Grey despite not wanting to. And the whole video was about Elizabeth NOT wanting to name ANY successor, so I doubt she would have allowed Mary, Queen of Scots to force her into naming James to succeed her.
@livesouthernable well sure, but my point was that Mary didn’t have any “upper hand,” her son would’ve inherited either way. She could’ve just fled to France and lived in peace as Dowager Queen or found refuge in Spain to wait out the end of Elizabeth’s reign, and Mary might’ve even reconciled with James. At least she wouldn’t have gotten her head chopped off. Of all 3 scenarios, James would still become King of England, so choosing the path that was most likely to get her killed when the outcome for her son wouldn’t change is a loss for her, not a win.
@@akaLaBrujaRoja I appreciate your argument, but Mary couldn’t really have fled anywhere. She fled from Scotland to England originally in the dead of night to avoid her own nobles, who were trying to hunt her down. She picked England, because she would never have made it to France. Once she reached England, she was a threat to Elizabeth. So, she was imprisoned immediately and never freed again. So no, she never had the upper hand, and that’s my point. She had nothing to bargain with for her son’s inheritance. He did inherit in the end, but I don’t believe it was Elizabeth’s doing at all. I think she probably knew it was inevitable, but I don’t believe she agreed to it.
was the disease scarlet fever ever an issue in english history?
Well, I do better than share this with my friends, I have linked you via the sidebar of my blog. I'd like to know more about James VI's efforts to become James I. I think he would have had to be diplomatic and write a few letters to endear himself to Elizabeth I and her privy council -- it would be fascinating to know more about his diplomacy to win them both over.
I’ve always wondered how the Privy Council reacted to Elizabeth naming Robert Dudley as her de facto successor. Their relationship has always fascinated me, as either romantic or platonic, they were a unit. She trusted him like she trusted nobody else, and while Dudley was ambitious, it was intertwined with a loyalty to Elizabeth. So yeah, there’s a big part of me that thinks “how did everyone else react to the realization that the jumped up pretty boy with a family history of treason was and would always be Elizabeth’s number one dude?”
If Elizabeth had actually died… how long do you reckon Dudley would have lived? I’d bet he’d have an unfortunate accident before the week (maybe even the day) was out!
@@ReadingthePast I’d wager on 3-4 hours, max. I like to imagine the queens death would be followed by the announcement that Lord Dudley fell on some swords. He fell some swords ten times.
The force of irony would push him down STAIRS!
@@ReadingthePast a stairway accident I guess
I've had the impression that Dudley was only going to be a caretaker of England while her ministers figured out who would be designated as the new monarch. If Elizabeth did die and Dudley would suddenly "pass away," then what?
Thank you Dr Kat. I may be slow but where has the Dinosaur 🦖 gone? I may have been told I’d never make a good witness but - they were there, weren’t they? Or is dementia creeping up. 👵👵👵👵🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🙏🙏
I’m not sure if you have before, but will you share your favorite books on the Tudors?
As much as I have resented the male inheritance traditions of rulership throughout much of history, I can kind of see where it made sense too (within the time it existed) A male ruler needed heirs, his consort who would be female, could die in childbirth. It was once very common.(All those evil stepmothers in fairytales have snippets of cultural reality in their stories) If a king's wife died from complications of pregnancy/childbirth, he could remarry & the power structure remained stable. But, if your head of state & sovereign is a Queen...well, the whole royal marriage & pumping out heirs & spares system becomes more tenuous & anxiety provoking for those in her orbit. Elizabeth I was a fascinating person & must have been a woman of incredible strength & fortitude. I always enjoy learning more about her & the people/politics that were influential in her time. Edit: I know the video was about small pox & not childbirth ;)
Absolutely! ^^
I do not think the majority of today's population understand that "childbed" was probably more dangerous than an assassin. How many attempts were made on Elizabeth's life? Yet childbirth had a 50% mortality rate. For women like Jacquetta Rivers (& her 14 children) and even her daughter, Elizabeth Woodville (who I think had 8 children) I just wonder what the mental preparation was like each time they found out that they were pregnant. Again. Lol.
Like "Well, here we go again. 50/50 shot that I will survive." And these *men* thought that women didn't have the fortitude to lead an army into a war? WTH? I'd dare say that women see a lot more blood in their lifetimes than most of the men did.
Are you watching "becoming Elizabeth "? I would love to know your view of it. I enjoy it despite the historical inaccuracies.
I’m holding out for all the episodes for this season to be released so I can binge watch 🙌
Did anyone suggest ,as an heir, Margaret Tudors daughter from her marriage to Archibald Douglas after James IV died ie Margaret Douglas, the mother of Lord Darnley? She died in 1578.
Ohhh, I had no idea Cecil had been secretly writing James for months before Elizabeth's death. I always think of Cecil as the "Queen's Creature", lol. But, as Dr Kat pointed out ... It would be completely understandable in the face of rebellions and civil war. I just never considered that ... Maybe Cecil lied. 🤷♀️
I think the appropriate line of succession, and probably the one covertly agreed upon by the Council, was that of Frances Grey and her daughters. This had the authority of having been Henry’s choice, and guaranteed a Protestant ruler. Jane’s rule failed in part because her rival Mary Tudor, although Catholic, was demonstrably an English princess, which Mary of Scots (then in France) was not. Also, at the time Mary Tudor took the throne, there was a much wider lingering sympathy for the Catholic faith (which had after all been England’s faith since the year dot) than by 1562, since Mary did so much to squander that credit (all those burnings). By 1562, the Council was unlikely to face the opposition to a Grey family queen that undid Jane.
Dude-- Elizabeth was on the brink of death and all the Council were shaking in their boots, trying to figure out what to do. If they did manage to vote for a successor, maybe they wrote the 'winner' on a piece of paper, folded it, sealed it and stuck it in the back of a drawer somewhere, just in case. And then, once it was obvious that Elizabeth wasn't going to pop her clogs just yet, Cecil could squirrel that paper out of the drawer and burn it. Don't know what they would have done if she HAD croaked. Would they have really allowed Robert Dudley to become Lord Protector of England? Whatever would have happened, it would have been a mess.-- Brandon
I got smallpox from being vaccinated against it. This was in about 1976. I have some scars in unseen places from scratching it I believe. I was only about 1-2 yrs old!!!!
Great :)
She was a very good Actress.
The whole smallpox episode makes the decision not to marry and attempt to produce a child look pretty bad. She was very lucky.
Elizabeth was carrying a lot of baggage. Her father 'murdered' her mother, worked his way through 4 replacements, declared her a bastard, beheaded another one and 2 of her beloved stepmothers died as a direct result of childbirth.
I think I would be a little wary too
Also she was drunk on Power. If she married, she would have had to relinquish some of it. As her sister had done.
Plus she liked the politicking and intrigues. If you align yourself with Spain, as Mary did, you rule out future better deals with France, or whoever. And lose the opportunity to flip allegiances as needed. England was punching way above its weight and she knew that. They way to carry that through was leave All options open.
She could be the spider in the middle of the web, not the fly caught in it. A husband would have broken that web.
Similarly she was waiting to see which way the wind blew before announcing an heir.
Things change Very quickly in politics, and Liz was savvy enough to know that
She was still pretty young. Even if she had decided to marry and attempt to have children, there may not have been time. And who knows? Elizabeth may have died in childbirth or may not have become pregnant at all.
They had some front runners but also quite liked their heads attached their shoulders so weren't dumb enough to actually put anything in writing. The collective self preservation drive also meant no one was gonna run their mouth and say who they'd decided on. I'm going with the Grey sister as my bet.
I'm still a bit intrigued by the notion that the later Earl of Essex, Robert Devereux, was in fact Queen Elizabeth's SON by Robert Dudley, which is why she so indulged him and why he felt the Crown could be his. Although he was said to have been born in '65, birth dates could have been changed by chicanery and a birth easily concealed within an extended illness. The Queens notional award to Dudley would also tend to support the notion, I feel. 🤔
The line should have gone to MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS
Mary probably. A catholic yes but picking any of the others would mean war. She has the best claim and is already a queen with an army.
The one with the most legitimate claim, and thus most unlikely, was Henry Hastings. He had a lot of royal blood and was involved in alot of political decisions the problem with him would be that that royal blood had no Tudor blood flowing through it.
The Darnleys sorry Stewarts were a disaster
I think Elizabeth I would have been quite angry to be constantly reminded that although she was a Tudor, she was still a mere woman. I am allergic to smallpox vaccine. Damned if I do, dampened if I don't.
Smallpox according to "Pox Americana" often killed American Indians before the pocks were formed.
"early symptoms would have resembled a very nasty case of the flu. Headache, backache, fever, vomiting, and general malaise all are among the initial signs of infection. The headache can be splitting; the backache, excruciating. Lakota (Sioux) Indian representations of smallpox often use a spiral symbol to illustrate intense pain in the midsection. Anxiety is another symptom. Fretful, overwrought patients often die within days, never even developing the distinctive rash identified with the disease. Twentieth-century studies indicate that such hard-to-diagnose cases are rare. But eyewitness accounts suggest that in historical epidemics, this deadly form of smallpox may have been more common among Native Americans, who frequently died before the telltale skin eruptions appeared."
Apparently some patients died before the spots appeared, so the appearance of spots might be considered a sign that the patient had a less deadly form.
Hello Doctor u sound a little stuffy hope you're feeling well 👍😊 happy Friday.
The pollen is trying to destroy me 😭
@@ReadingthePast Nettle tea might help.
Because of the ancient Royal bloodline I would choose Henry Hastings.
by the end of the middle section it began to sound like the "begats" in Genesis...
I thought you were wearing a crown!
Now I want a crown 👑 🤣
@@ReadingthePast Careful! That comment in Tudor England might earn you a trip to the block! Fabulous content as always. I so love Dr. Kat Fridays.
My choice would have been Mary Queen of Scots. I sometimes wonder if Elizabeth chose James to succeed her out of guilt for having had her cousin put to death. Hmmmmm.....
Hate to have to say this, but, I think Mary, queen of scots had the best claim.
How are you enjoying Becoming Elizabeth? I’m finding the bad language hard to take especially from the boy king. Would they have sworn so much in the Royal house at that time? Would a boy king have been subjected to such foul language? I know it’s fashionable to swear now but back then? I don’t recall Shakespeare using those words do you? Just curious.
They did swear then, but their swearing was religious based - eg God's Wounds shorted to Zounds or Gods Blood, shortened to S'Blood. Trouble is characters saying 'Zounds' would just sound quiant to a modern ear and not carry the shock value felt at the time. I guess that's why the programme makers have chosen to use modern swearing instead.
By the way, I recall Dr Kat saying that she won't watch Becming Elizabeth until all episodes have been aired. I am sure we can look forward to her comments then
Thank you for your answers. I’m looking forward to her remarks.
There's a story that the governess of Henry VIII's daughter Mary boasted that (the at least pubescent) Mary was so well-brought up that she didn't even know any curse words. Thinking the governess was lying, Henry ordered the men during the next court function to use the filthiest language possible in normal conversational tones whenever Mary was near--and she was (supposedly) oblivious. So cursing definitely was around at the time (though another story purports that Mary still didn't know the word "whore" when she was Queen).
Kay, you sound sick!