William Cecil's politics were driven by an apocalyptic conviction that England's struggle was a cosmic clash between heaven and hell.

9:26Deborah, a judge sent to to rule God's chosen people and um to help kind of bring them out of the bondage of popery and superstition. But also what steals him in his sense of mission I think is the sense that within England Protestants are surrounded by enemies and that within Europe England is surrounded by enemies and that these enemies are working to destroy England's path to godliness and that therefore

9:55although it may not be an open war it is a cold war in which falsehood is attempting to overthrow truth and hell is raging. against the forces of heaven and Satan against Christ. And I think that unless you accept that this is fundamental to Ceil's vision and purpose, you don't really understand what is at stake in Elizabeth and England in this period. It is fundamental to the way that Ceil sees

10:27the world. So he's simultaneously a man of subtlety and nuance but also a man who at his heart believes this is ultimately a straightforward clash between right and wrong truth and lies you know the the way of heaven and the way of hell I guess so we started and we were 10 years on effectively more than a decade on from Elizabeth's coronation and when Cesil wrote that briefing paper

10:52I mean he doesn't say well 10 years on and everything is is great he he actually there is a sense of sort of existential urgency um to his to his briefing because he thinks that Elizabeth is more embattled than ever before and this comes back to the issue of her great rival doesn't it Mary Queen of Scots. I mean if you read that briefing paper which is is very detailed