Preview: Was Elizabeth I one of history’s greatest leaders?

Summary

Preview: Was Elizabeth I One of History’s Greatest Leaders?
HistoryExtra Podcast Preview – July 24, 2026
Host: Mike Sutter, Guest: Tracey Borman

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Episode Overview

This preview episode of the new HistoryExtra series “History’s Greatest Leaders” features entrepreneur and author Mike Sutter in conversation with Tracey Borman, chief historian at Historic Royal Palaces and acclaimed author. Their discussion explores Elizabeth I’s unique leadership style, her rise from outsider to queen, and the complexities that made her one of history’s most iconic rulers. Borman and Sutter examine how Elizabeth’s strategic use of both decisiveness and apparent indecision, along with her sharp intellect and self-mastery, contributed to her enduring legacy as a leader.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

Elizabeth I as the Ultimate Underdog

[04:45] Tracey Borman:

• Elizabeth began life as the “forgotten younger daughter of Henry VIII.”
• She shouldn’t have been queen and faced “so much prejudice,” particularly as a female ruler.
• Overcame an age where “women were not supposed to be in charge”—and did so “brilliantly.”

Leadership Style: Decisive and Indecisive by Design

[05:59] Tracey Borman:

• The contradiction in Elizabeth’s legacy: celebrated as a strong, dynamic leader, yet often remembered as indecisive, especially regarding marriage, succession, and religious policy.
• Borman argues both interpretations are true:

  “Sometimes in not making a decision, that was a decision in itself for Elizabeth.”

  • Elizabeth used the stereotype that women were indecisive strategically, buying herself time by feigning indecisiveness.
  • Quoting Borman:

    “She really brilliantly played on the prejudice against her as a woman.”

• When necessary, Elizabeth could be “every bit as mercurial as her father, Henry VIII, and absolutely tell people how it was going to be.” [06:55]

The Harshness and Influence of Elizabeth’s Upbringing

[07:38] Tracey Borman:

• Elizabeth’s childhood was “very, very turbulent”—marked by her mother Anne Boleyn’s execution and periods where she was outcast or imprisoned.
• “Nobody can surely have had a worse childhood in the Tudor age.”
• This adversity “chiseled” her into a “fearsome leader”; her experiences “made or broke you.”

Personal Trauma and Its Legacy

[08:48] Mike Sutter and Tracey Borman:

• The psychological scars from her father ordering her mother’s execution profoundly shaped Elizabeth.
• Borman highlights Elizabeth’s aversion to marriage, relating it directly to her traumatic past:

  “‘I will have but one mistress here and no master.’ She’s fought for that throne, she doesn’t want to share her power.” [09:27]

• Elizabeth’s visible distress when pressed to marry (almost “hysterical”) stems partly from this trauma.

Extraordinary Intelligence and Education

[09:47] Tracey Borman:

• Elizabeth was “very, very precocious”—a child prodigy.
• Noted for her intellect from a young age: by eight she spoke several languages; at age two she was aware of the change in her status following her mother’s execution.
• Education was rare for women of the era, but Elizabeth was even exceptional among aristocrats.
• For leisure, she didn’t “soak in the bath”—instead, “she went to translate Greek texts.”
  • Continually learning was a form of comfort and retreat for her. [10:27]

Unexpected Path to Queenship

[10:57] Tracey Borman:

• Elizabeth was a “rank outsider” after being declared a bastard and removed from the succession; her brother and sister stood before her.
• Mike Sutter notes that outsiders often make the best monarchs:

  “To come to that sort of power, when you don’t take it for granted will often mean that you ultimately end up doing a better job.” [11:41]

• Borman draws comparison with Elizabeth II as another underdog monarch who reigned effectively.

Learning From Her Predecessors

[12:00] Tracey Borman:

• Elizabeth observed her sister Mary’s mistakes as England’s first queen regnant in 300 years and was determined to forge a different, more successful path.
• She was marked by a consciousness to avoid the pitfalls of those before her.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Tracey Borman on Elizabeth’s strategic indecision:
  “Sometimes in not making a decision, that was a decision in itself for Elizabeth.” [05:59]
• Tracey Borman, on scarred leadership:
  “Of course it [her mother’s execution] left deep scars and I think was the number one reason why Elizabeth chose not to marry.” [08:52]
• Elizabeth I, via Borman:
  “I will have but one mistress here and no master.” [09:27]
• Borman on Elizabeth’s childhood precocity:
  “Why is everyone calling me Lady Elizabeth when I was Princess Elizabeth yesterday?” [09:52]
• Sutter on outsiders as effective leaders:
  “To come to that sort of power, when you don’t take it for granted will often mean that you ultimately end up doing a better job.” [11:41]
• Borman, on the value of “underdog” status:
  “I think it goes in your favour if you are an underdog, and it certainly did with Elizabeth.” [12:00]

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Important Timestamps

• 02:45 – Episode introduction and series overview
• 04:45 – Elizabeth as an underdog and unique leader
• 05:59 – Contradictions in her leadership style: decisiveness vs. indecision
• 06:55 – Deliberate use of indecisiveness as strategy
• 07:38 – Turbulent upbringing and psychological effects
• 09:27 – Elizabeth’s aversion to marriage and assertion of power
• 09:47 – Elizabeth’s intellect, childhood, and education
• 10:57 – Her unlikely path to the throne and overcoming the odds
• 12:00 – Learning from predecessors and underdog success

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Summary Flow and Tone

The conversation unfolds dynamically, blending insightful historical analysis with a conversational, sometimes light tone (e.g., “the original Brexit” [07:38]). Both Sutter and Borman keep the discussion engaging, accessible, and linked to larger questions about leadership, ambition, and the influence of personal experience on public legacies.

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For further exploration, listen to the full episode via the HistoryExtra feed or app.

Transcript

[Mike Sutter]

What can we learn from history's most powerful people? Join me Mike Suiter, author of NextGen CEO, in History Extra's new podcast series, History's Greatest Leaders. To find out, listen wherever you get your podcasts.

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[History Extra Podcast Narrator]

Welcome to the History Extra Podcast. Today we're giving you a sneak peek of our brand new series, History's Greatest Leaders. In this series, entrepreneur and author of NextGen CEO Mike Sutter talks to leading historians about remarkable figures who have changed history. In this installment, Mike is joined by Tracey Borman, author and chief historian at Historic Royal Palaces, to discuss how Elizabeth I used decision and indecision as a deliberate strategy and why her control over her image as a leader was so powerful it remains iconic today, almost 500 years later.

[Mike Sutter]

What leadership lessons can we learn from history's most powerful people? I'm entrepreneur Mike Sutter, author of Next Gen CEO. You may also know me as a ruthless interviewer for Lord Sugar on BBC One's the Apprentice. In History Extra's new series, History's Greatest Leaders, I'm joined by experts to unpick the lives and decisions of the past's most formidable figures. What can they still teach us today? If you are as fascinated as I am by leadership, ambition and the people who changed history, you're in the right place. Today I'm joined by Tracy Borman, chief historian at Historic Royal palaces and the best selling author of numerous books, including the Brilliant Anne Boleyn and Elizabeth I, the Revelatory True Story of the Mother and Daughter who Changed History. Tracey, thank you so much for being with us today.

[Tracey Borman]

It's such a pleasure, Mike, and I'm excited to get into this.

[Mike Sutter]

Well, listen, we are going to be talking about the Tudor Queen Elizabeth I, a monarch who so iconic that she still features in our popular imagination today, almost 500 years after her birth. In your view, what made her so unique?

[Tracey Borman]

I think for Elizabeth, she was the ultimate underdog because she was the forgotten younger daughter of Henry viii. Yet she went on to become by far the longest reigning, most successful of all his heirs and she shouldn't have been queen at all. And I think she fought against so much prejudice. This wasn't an age where women were supposed to be in charge and she did it all brilliantly.

[Mike Sutter]

She was an extraordinary leader and that's really what we want to focus on today. Her leadership skills, her approaches, her techniques and so on. But I want to get to an apparent contradiction about her in the way that her leadership style is now viewed. On one hand, a massively strong and dynamic leader. The Virgin Queen married to her people, who leads her country to military victory over the all powerful superpower that is Spain. But on the other hand, she's perceived as being indecisive. She delays controversial decisions. She vacillates over key issues such as religion, marriage and the succession. Tracey, why do these opposing views exist?

[Tracey Borman]

They're both true and I know that's A slightly annoying sitting on the fence historian answer, but they absolutely are. I think what it comes down to is the. That when you hear the word leader, you think decisive, lead from the front, make quick decisions, tell people this is how it's going to be. But as you will know, Mike, that's not necessarily every definition of a leader. And sometimes in not making a decision, that was a decision in itself for Elizabeth. And she really brilliantly played on the prejudice against her as a woman. So she knew that her male counsellors all thought, well, this woman, she's now going to be able to run a country. Women can't make decisions. So when she was under pressure to, for example, settle the succession or to marry, she would say, well, what do you expect? I just can't decide. I need more time, guys.

[Mike Sutter]

So she actually used that as a strategy.

[Tracey Borman]

Yeah, that was a deliberate strategy to buy more time. And often what happened and this was deliberate, is things settled in a certain way. It was too soon to make a decision on a policy issue or, you know, an overseas alliance, whatever it might be. She needed more time to see how things were going to play out. So it wasn't just indecision and sort of being paralyzed by that, it was a deliberate ploy. But when she needed to, she could be every bit as mercurial as her father, Henry viii, and absolutely tell people how it was going to be.

[Mike Sutter]

Well, talking about her father, then, give us a sense of the Tudor world. Tudor England, the world that Elizabeth I

[Tracey Borman]

is born into, a very, very turbulent world. Nobody can surely have had a worse childhood in the Tudor age than Elizabeth herself. You just have to look at her mother's history. She's the daughter of Anne Boleyn, the scandal of Christendom, Henry VIII's second wife, who he overturned everything in order to marry, breaking England from Rome, the original Brexit, if you like. And this marriage was forged, but it soon dissolved when Anne didn't give him a son, only a daughter, Elizabeth. Then Elizabeth finds herself out in the cold after her father orders her mother's execution. And she ends up in the Tower during her sister Mary's reign on suspicion of plotting against her. It's an incredibly turbulent and dangerous time for Elizabeth, but what it does is to kind of chisel her into this fearsome leader. And really, it's the making of her. I think a childhood like that, it would make or break you.

[Mike Sutter]

I mean, it is an unconventional upbringing, shall we say? I mean, your father orders the beheading of your mother. I mean, that's got to leave some sort of psychological marks on you, right?

[Tracey Borman]

Absolutely.

[Mike Sutter]

Do those things show in her as a character?

[Tracey Borman]

They really do. And of course, you always have to be careful not to layer on too much of a 21st century perspective. This was a bloodthirsty age even so, you know, can you imagine a modern day psychoanalyst? So tell me about when your father ordered your mother's execution. Of course it left deep scars and I think was the number one reason why Elizabeth chose not to marry. Certainly that was to do with politics as well. My favourite quote of hers was, I will have but one mistress here and no master. She's fought for that throne, she doesn't want to share her power. But at the same time, there are examples of how she becomes almost hysterical when pressured to marry. She's deeply, deeply terrified at the idea of marriage and childbirth. It had been the death of her

[Mike Sutter]

mother that's so interesting and I think we can get into some of that soon. If we look at her as a child, she was by all accounts extraordinarily bright and accomplished.

[Tracey Borman]

Very, very precocious. Here's a young woman, she was only. Well, she was less than three when her mother was executed. But she immediately realized that people were addressing her in a different way. And so she famously said to her, one of her household, why is everyone calling me Lady Elizabeth when I was Princess Elizabeth yesterday, you know, two years, eight months old, she could speak several languages by, by the age of eight, she was just this, this brilliant, intellectual young woman and, and loved to learn.

[Mike Sutter]

Which is, which is rare, right, for a woman in of 500 years ago to have enjoyed such an incredible education. I mean, that must have been so rare.

[Tracey Borman]

It was rare. It was becoming less rare in aristocratic circles. But even so, Elizabeth was a child prodigy, just like her mother, Anne Boleyn had been. And it's interesting, as queen, when things were getting too much and she needed time out, did she go and soak in the bath? She did not. She went to translate Greek texts. That's what she did for fun. So she kind of carried on learning throughout her life.

[Mike Sutter]

As a child, she was not regarded as particularly likely ever to become the monarch. Is that right?

[Tracey Borman]

Rank outsider. So when her mother was executed, Elizabeth was declared a bastard. She was removed from the line of succession. Henry VIII wanted to forget all about her. She had an elder sister and then she had a brother, so of course the brother would be first in line. But he died young. And then her sister only reigned for five years. And then Elizabeth, against all the odds comes to the throne. I do think there's something interesting in this because having studied the monarchy, I've seen that often the best monarchs are those who are not expected to come to the throne. And I don't know what that says if they don't come with that same sense of entitlement, if they work harder for it. But it was definitely the case with Elizabeth.

[Mike Sutter]

Oh, that's really interesting, isn't it? So to come to that sort of power, when you don't take it for granted will often mean that you ultimately end up doing a better job. I mean, I think, I suppose Elizabeth II was a great example of that. Right. Somebody who was never likely to be queen. That's a really interesting theory.

[Tracey Borman]

Yeah. I think it goes in your favour if you are an underdog, and it certainly did with Elizabeth. And what she'd done very cleverly was to learn from her predecessors, and she'd learned what worked and what didn't in terms of leadership. And the best example for her was her sister Mary, because she was the first queen regnant in over 300 years. And Elizabeth saw the mistakes that her sister made and she was determined to go along a very different path herself.

[History Extra Podcast Narrator]

If you enjoyed that and want to hear more, search for history's greatest leaders. Wherever you get your podcasts, click the link in the description to find the full episodes and follow the feed. You can also delve further into the stories by heading to the History Extra app.