On this day in Tudor history, 30th October 1600, Queen Elizabeth I punished her former favourite, Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, by refusing to renew his monopoly on sweet wines. Elizabeth said that “an unruly horse must be abated of his provender, that he may be the easier and better managed.”

Unfortunately, it drove the Earl of Essex to desperation and, ultimately, to a brutal end on the scaffold.

Why? What was going on? How could the queen’s refusal to renew this monopoly lead to Essex’s undoing?

Find out what was happened in 1600 and what happened next…