
The mother died under the executioner's axe; the daughter rose to become England's greatest monarch -- the brilliant and cunning Queen Elizabeth I. Jean Simmons portrays young Bess in this rich tapestry of a film that traces the tumultuous, danger-fraught years from Elizabeth's birth to her unexpected ascension to the throne at a mere 25. Charles Laughton reprises his Academy Award®-winning* role as her formidable father Henry VIII. Deborah Kerr plays her last stepmother (and Henry's last of six wives), gentle Catherine Parr. And Simmons' then real-life husband, Stewart Granger, adds heroics as Lord Admiral Thomas Seymour. In a resplendent world of adventure, romance and court intrigue, Young Bess reigns.

as Young Bess (Queen Elizabeth I)

as Thomas Seymour

as Catherine Parr

as King Henry VIII

as Mrs. Ashley

as Ned Seymour

as Ann Seymour

as Mr. Parry

as Prince Edward / King Edward VI

as Barnaby

as Mr. Mums

as Lady Tyrwhitt

as Robert Tyrwhitt

as Bess as a child

as Danish Envoy

as Anne Boleyn

as Kate Howard

as Mother Jack

as Archbishop Cranmer

as Sir William Paget

as Officer