When Elizabeth arrives at St. Paul's Cathedral, construction is going on. In real life, St. Paul's actually needed repair work. Director Shekhar Kapur decided to improvise and gave the workers costumes and period tools to cut real stone that was being installed in the cathedral. The workers in the scene are real-life stonemasons and construction workers.
To save money, only one ship replica was built. It was Raleigh's English vessel on one side and a Spanish galleon on the other. When filming wide shots of the deck, smoke was used to cover up any separation in design.
With her Oscar nomination for Best Actress, Cate Blanchett became the first female to receive multiple Academy Award nominations for playing the same character.
Mary, Queen of Scots was not originally part of the Babington conspiracy. Sir Francis Walsingham, who wanted an excuse to have her convicted of a capital crime, got one of the conspirators to act as a double agent and entrap her.