Elizabeth: The Golden Age(2007)

Oscar winner: Best Costume Design
Oscar nominee: Best Actress, Cate Blanchett.

Short pooper:
The Spanish Armada is shamefully defeated in the battle against the English fleet. Elizabeth (Cate Blanchett) relishes over this triumph as a Queen, but is forced to hide her personal despondency over Raleigh (Clive Owen) and Bess (Abbie Cornish) marrying and starting a family.

Longer version:
The aftermath of the Babington Plot that culminated with the execution of Mary Queen of Scots (Samantha Morton) is revealed to be a major conspiracy that would ultimately have Spanish King Philip (Jordi Mollà) having the necessary leeway to place his daughter, Princess Isabella (Aimee King), as the Queen of England, after eliminating the obstacles, first of Mary as a Catholic martyr of Elizabeth and, finally, of Elizabeth herself as an enemy of the Catholic Church. Despite his diligence, Walsingham realizes all this too late, yet he does not fall off Elizabeth’s grace. Moved by this intrigue, Philip orders the building of the ships of the ARMADA INVENCIBLE, one of Europe’s most powerful Armies of all time, to charge against England with everything and ultimately subdue it to his will, for which hundreds of trees are cut down.

At the same time that Elizabeth names Raleigh (Clive Owen) as her Royal Guard Chief and begs him not to ship off to America, Bess discovers she is pregnant with his child and they end up secretly marrying to avoid spurning Elizabeth; nonetheless, she finds out and, angrily confronting them for not obtaining Royal Consent first, has Bess from the Court and Raleigh arrested for seducing a Queen’s ward. Not too long after, though, coming to terms with the fact that she only did it out of both the jealousy of seeing Bess being able to have what she once could have -and gave up in exchange for power- with Lord Dudley, and the love she herself felt for Raleigh, Elizabeth recants and reconciles with the couple.

The Armada Invencible eventually approaches the coast of England through the English Channel. Raleigh joins Sir Francis Drake (Malcolm Storry) and they both lead the English troops to stand against the Spaniards in battle. Despite the Armada vastly surpassing the English in number, which makes the endeavor look like an easy defeat for Phillip, a sudden storm throws the Spaniard ships out of whack, sinking many ships and throwing the rest towards the beaches, where England gets the upper hand and uses all their cannon firepower and incendiary ships against the Armada, defeating it. Elizabeth proudly contemplates this achievement of her reign standing on the coastal cliffs, while Philip is seen almost going mad over the humiliation.

In the end, Elizabeth pays a visit to Raleigh and Bess to bless their union and their firstborn child. As she holds the baby, she gives a tenuous smile, seeing how she has consolidated herself as a strong ruler of England, “mother of her people”, but otherwise condemned to unhappy loneliness.