Masterpiece Theatre Elizabeth R covers Elizabeth Regina's 40-plus-year reign, a time that transformed England from a tiny impoverished island into the world's most powerful nation. The boy king Edward VI dies, and in accordance with the will of his... (more) father, Henry VIII, the throne of England passes to Edward's young cousin Lady Jane Grey, who has just married Lord Guildford Dudley. But Henry's daughter Princess Mary (whom Henry deemed to be illegitimate) wants the throne, and support rallies around her. Queen Jane is deposed, and then beheaded. The reign of 'Bloody Mary' has begun.