Episode 1

In the first episode, Elizabeth II is born a minor princess in the second rank of the royal family and grows up away from the limelight. Elizabeth I is the only child of Henry VIII and his second wife Anne Boleyn but, as a girl, she is an immediate disappointment. After Henry executes her mother, the young Elizabeth is cast into the wilderness. However, for both Elizabeths an extraordinary sequence of events will catapult them both onto the throne and their journey through trauma and disruption will make them strong.