"He is the sun in splendor, he is all our pride." Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex ( the stepson of Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester and the son-in-law of Francis Walsingham), is the people's champion, but he openly disputes the Queen's opinions. Elizabeth 'rewards' his daring feats in Spain with a tougher challenge: to quell the Irish uprising led by O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone. But Essex has a rebellion of his own in mind. Can an old and dying Queen face a final
