Lily Cole doesn’t "agree" with the monarchy.
The 29-year-old model and actress, who portrays the lead role in ‘Elizabeth I: Battle for the Throne’, has admitted she dislikes how the institution continues to connect the public with "a feudal age of hierarchy and power", although she has acknowledged the royal family have no control over the superior status they are born into.
The flame-haired beauty said: "It’s not their fault they were born into these positions.
"And I’m sure it brings them complications and difficulties as well as a lot of benefits. But the institution connects us to a feudal age of hierarchy and power through birthright.
"Fundamentally, I don’t agree with it."
And the catwalk icon has revealed she knew little about the character she was cast as in the Channel 5 programme, and the "only real knowledge" she gained about the late Tudor monarch – who was also known as The Virgin Queen – was from art works.
Lily said: "The only real knowledge I had of Elizabeth prior to doing this was through the contemporary portraits.
"So in many ways the attraction was through her image, not just the paintings themselves but the image in our imagination of Elizabeth as an almost mythological part of English history."
Meanwhile, the fashion muse – who has graced the runway for prestigious fashion brands including John Galliano, Alexander McQueen and Versace – she feels "guilty" about her achievements, although she has tried to teach herself not to be.
She explained to Radio Times magazine: "Nobody knows how much money I have. It’s not something that we generally know about each other, so there’s always an assumption there.
"I think it’s inevitable; it’s a kind of unfortunate symptom.
"I’ve being trying to teach myself to not feel guilty all the time, because I think it’s a pretty useless emotion."
Lily Cole doesn’t ‘agree’ with the monarchy
