Earl of Essex (followed by NBC News)

Stroke of fate, the fate of individuals of nations of the world, was often hung upon accident or upon decision that made the other way would have substantially altered the course of human events. Paul's fate had decreed that Leonardo da Vinci, who tried to invent a flying machine in the 15th century, had actually succeeded.

Would we now be flying to the moon? Suppose by a stroke of fate Napoleon had won at Waterloo. Would we now have a United States of Europe? Yes, much depends upon a stroke of fate.

And tonight we rewrite history as we present a dramatic conception of what might have happened. If by a stroke of fate the plot of the Earl of Essex to depulse Queen Elizabeth the First had succeeded.

Our story is historically true up to a certain point. The rest is imagination. The Earl of Essex, Queen Elizabeth I's favourite, plotted a number of times against his sovereign and her chief advisors. On February 25, 1601, Essex was executed for high treason. If, however, one of his plots had succeeded, he very probably would have sent his bitter enemy Sir Walter

to England's grim jail for state prisoners, the Tower of London. Had this happened, it is possible that Walter Olly, a prolific writer, might have written an account of the Essex conspiracy. This is his account, waiting here in the Tower of London in this year 1600-1 for what will no doubt be my doom.

I, Walter Raleigh, have resolved to set down the tragic story of the Earl of Essex and the Her Majesty Elizabeth, whom I will forever look on as my queen. I will remember the first coming to court of Robert Devarov, the Earl of Essex and the Queen's own first cousin twice removed.