The Earl of Croydon

The Earl of Crawley Croydon, portrayed by Simon Farnaby, is the secondary antagonist of the movie.

Biography
As an overlooked Earl, he is often mistreated, forgotten and ignored by his fellow nobles.

While intoxicated and desperate for attention at the Queen's palace, an outburst has him loudly proclaim that he is the greatest writer in all of England. This is unfortunately overheard by Queen Elizabeth herself, and she then hires him to write a play for the upcoming summit with King Philip II of Spain.

The Earl has little to no writing skills, obvious from having called it 'Writering' just moments before. Once he returns home, he orders his servant, Ian, to buy him some quills and paper. His first attempts include;

"Hello, I am a man in a play." "Hello, I am a woman also in a play."

Due to a plan put forward by Gabriel Montoya, King Philip II of Spain and his crew track down and meet the Earl of Croydon in his home. Unbeknownst to him, they intend on using his play to assassinate Queen Elizabeth I. His attempt is read by King Philip, who immediately disproves of his writing; calling his exposition 'clonky'.

It is from there that they decide to 'find a young writer with a completed play, hoodwink him, steal his work and pass it off as their own.'