Longleat to mark 450 years since visit of Queen Elizabeth I
The Queen's trip to the Estate was hailed a 'success' despite being met with initial resistance from the then-owner, Sir John Thynne
It's been 450 years since the historic visit of Queen Elizabeth 1 to Longleat - and they're marking it with a new exhibition.
It features original documents, and even the sumptuous gown worn by Dame Helen Mirren in an Emmy award-winning mini-series, called Elizabeth I.
The Queen's trip to the Estate was hailed a 'success' - that's despite being met with initial resistance from the then-owner, Sir John Thynne.
Longleat House was still being built when the Queen made Longleat a stop on one of her famous ‘progresses’ around her kingdom in September 1574.
The costume display also includes the dress and coronation robes worn by Cate Blanchett in the 1998 film Elizabeth, and a gown worn by Anita Dobson in the 2015 TV docudrama series Armada: 12 days to save England.
It also features original documents connected to the historic visit – which was hailed a success despite initial resistance from then owner Sir John Thynne, whose descendant, the 8th Marquess of Bath, calls Longleat home today.
James Ford, Longleat’s Curator, said: “To mark 450 years since Elizabeth I visited Longleat, we thought it would be fun to display costumes worn to bring the Queen to life on the big and small screen.
“Not only does this provide an opportunity to see these prestigious pieces of film and TV history, but by displaying them in the Great Hall, Longleat’s only surviving Elizabethan interior, it gives a sense of how lavish the Queen’s visit on 2 September 1574 might have been."
The exhibition runs to 3 November.