Goofs for
Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007) More at IMDbPro »

• Factual errors: As with most historical biopics, some of the events did not occur exactly as they are portrayed in the film, or may have happened at a different time. Some did not take place at all and are included purely for dramatic purposes.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: In a scene in which Elizabeth is speaking with another character with a fireplace in the background, blue gas flames are visible at the bottom of the fire, notably in the bottom right corner of it.
  
  
• Errors in geography: Before each scene in Fotheringay, where Mary Queen of Scots is imprisoned, they show the castle surrounded by the majestic mountains of Scotland, the tops covered in snow. Fotheringay is actually in Northamptonshire, one of the flattest counties in England.
  
  

• Errors in geography: Queen Elizabeth stands watching the Armada burning from a clifftop near her camp, which has been stated to be at Tilbury. But Tilbury is in the Thames Estuary, far from where the action seems to be taking place, and is a long way from anywhere with the kind of dramatic jagged rocks Elizabeth is seen standing on.
  
  
• Anachronisms: In the film, Elizabeth's potential suitors included Tsar Ivan IV the Terrible and Eric XIV of Sweden. Both monarchs were already deceased (Ivan in 1584, Eric in 1577) at the time the film was set (1585). And even if Ivan were still alive, at that period it would have been very unlikely that an Orthodox ruler would marry a Protestant queen. Furthermore, Charles II of Austria would have been 45 at the time the film is set, rather than a mere boy, and was already married with eleven children.
  
  
• Continuity: At Mary's execution, her crucifix is dangling to the screen's left, in the next shot it is dangling in the middle.
  
  
• Factual errors: The execution of Mary Stuart (Mary, Queen of Scots) is shown with a single, swift ax stroke. Historically, it was far worse, actually taking at least two strokes - the first hitting Mary in the back of the head (reportedly prompting her to cry out, "Sweet Jesus") and the second severing all of her neck save some sinew, which the executioner then cut through by using the ax as a saw. Some reports say the execution in fact required a third stroke as well.
  
  
• Continuity: When Elizabeth walks to mass after Walter Raleigh lays his coat down, Bess Throckmorton is right behind the queen. Then next shot, she's at the end of the line. The next, behind the queen again.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When Elizabeth is supposed to be galloping side saddle she is actually astride and it is possible to see a false right leg dangling on the horse's side.
  
  
• Anachronisms: When the priest is replying to a letter from Mary Of Scots he uses a modern quill pen with a ball point tip.
  
  
• Factual errors: In the film, Infanta Isabella Clara Eugenia of Spain is seen as a young child, however, she was 19 (1585) and 21 during the Aramada.
  
  
• Factual errors: Walter Raleigh was not involved in attacks against the Armada. In 1588 he was in Ireland, out of favor with Elizabeth I. It was Francis Drake who organized the fire ship attack that dispersed the Spanish Armada.
  
  
• Incorrectly regarded as goofs: Like so many biopics about Elizabeth, she and Mary Stuart are referred to as cousins when Elizabeth is Mary's father's cousin. In kinship terminology, a "cousin" is simply one whom shares a common ancestor. To be specific, Elizabeth would be Mary's cousin-once-removed but this is not a term that would have been used in the 16th Century and is only rarely used even today. Suffice it to say, referring to Mary as Elizabeth's cousin (and vice versa) is entirely correct and accurate.
  
  
• Anachronisms: Bess' cousin is depicted in the film as being executed by the "long drop" hanging method - whereby the length of rope, type of knot and height of the drop are all calculated according to the victim's weight and height so that their neck is broken instantly. This method was not devised until 1872. Prior to that, people due to be hanged were stood upon a cart, horse, or other vehicle (or sometimes a stool or ladder), which would then be moved out from under them, leaving them to die by strangulation.
  
  
• Factual errors: Bess Throckmorton's pregnancy did not occur until the summer of 1591, three years after the Spanish Armada. Elizabeth was not aware of the pregnancy at the time and did not discover that Raleigh and Bess had secretly married until the following year, several months after their child, Damerei, was born. The infant would die very shortly after, during Raleigh's imprisonment in the Tower of London.
  
  
• Factual errors: In the film Elizabeth discovers that Beth and Raleigh have been intimate prior to the Armada in 1588. In reality, she did not discover that until 1592.
  
  
• Factual errors: William Cecil, dismissed by Elizabeth at the end of "Elizabeth", actually remained a close adviser of the Queen during the events depicted in "Elizabeth, the Golden Age" although he is not depicted.
  
  
• Factual errors: Although not depicted, Robert Dudley (played by Joseph Fiennes in Elizabeth (1998)) was overall commander of the British forces during the Armada invasion.
  
  
• Factual errors: Mary was basically raised in France and spoke with a French, not Scottish, accent.
  
  
• Factual errors: The fire ship battle took place off the coast of France, not England.
  
  
• Factual errors: When Elizabeth gave her speech to the troops, she rode sidesaddle.
  
  
• Factual errors: Raleigh's introduction of the potato to court is fiction. The Conquistadors in Peru "discovered" the potato (which had been cultivated by the natives for thousands of years). Around 1570, while Raleigh was at Oxford, the potato was introduced to Europe. Moreover, Raleigh calls the potato by its Spanish name, "patata".
  
  
• Factual errors: Raleigh announces that he has just returned from the New World, and has named the land he discovered "Virginia" after Elizabeth. Raleigh sent a mission to establish a settlement in 1584; he never set foot in the New World. Secondly, "Virginia" was derived from the name of the Roanoke Colony chief Wingina, which was modified by Elizabeth to "Virginia".
  
  
• Anachronisms: A double-bitted axe is shown being used in the felling of a tree. The double-bitted lumbering axe was invented in the United States in the 1870s. Therefore, such an axe could not have been used to fell trees used in the building of the Spanish Armada as depicted.
  
  
• Anachronisms: Queen Mary's dog is depicted in the film as a West Highland White (Westie). The breed did not originate in Scotland until the 19th century.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When the suitors are showing the portrait of Eric XIV of Sweden they show the wrong painting. The real painting made by Steven van der Meulen 1561 looks very different, showing Eric's full body in a red/gold dress.
  
  

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