The reign of Elizabeth I, the last of the Tudor monarchs, is traditionally viewed as a golden age in English History. The defiant and plucky English inflicted a dramatic defeat on the Spanish Armada. William Shakespeare’s Loves Labour’s Lost was performed at the royal court over Christmas 1597. Sir Walter Raleigh returned from the New World, having named the colony of Virginia in his queen’s honour. We are led to believe that the end of the Tudor century was undoubtedly its highlight. A Protestant England had emerged victorious from years of struggle to bask in a moment of cultural and political Renaissance. This is made all the more extraordinary for happening under the leadership of a woman. Yet are we being hoodwinked by the propaganda of the past? Was the age of Gloriana all it appeared to be? The Elizabethan regime was adept at using the printing press to circulate its own version of events and to promote an image that often differed drastically from reality. Looking beneath the surface, it is possible to glimpse a different perspective. Elizabethan society was fractured, tense and paranoid. Many of the queen’s subjects clung to the Catholic faith. They were nervous of foreign invasion and deeply suspicious about the prospect of female rule. This course will explore and examine this central paradox to the reign of Elizabeth I.
We will use a range of primary evidence, both written and visual, to reconsider the realities of the Gloriana myth. An examination of Elizabeth’s childhood and her turbulent upbringing will underline the insecurity of the Tudor century and the myriad of problems the queen would come to face. Bastardised at the age of three, Anne Boleyn’s daughter would face serious and life-threatening challenges before ever ascending to the throne of England. To many who repudiated the religious changes her father had forced on the country, Henry VIII’s marriage to her mother was never legitimate. The young princess was excluded from the line of succession by her own brother on these very grounds. Elizabeth only just survived the reign of her Catholic half-sister, Mary I, and learnt dramatic lessons about the realities of female rule along the way. On being told that she had become queen on 17 November 1558, tradition tells us that Elizabeth fell to her knees exclaiming “this is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes.”
This course will consider how the new young queen coped with the many challenges that faced her. Her country had been in religious turmoil for nearly twenty-five years and there was no obvious solution to the problem. Elizabeth faced serious threats at home and abroad from those who doubted her claim to the throne. She was also a woman in a man’s world, ruling a polity created by men to support and counsel a king. And, of course, she was under intense pressure to marry. How did the queen steer a course through these problems? How serious were the plots she faced? With what success did she govern her country and secure its future? Did the myth ever really match the reality?
