Representing Elizabeth in Stuart England Literature, History, Sovereignty

This is the first book to examine Elizabeth I's lasting impact on the Anglo-American historical imagination. John Watkins attributes her abiding popularity to her iconic role in seventeenth-century debates over the nature of sovereignty. Watkins focuses on England's most turbulent century because it witnessed the consolidation of enduring attitudes toward both the Tudor past and the English monarchy. He explains that seventeenth-century representations of Elizabeth intersected with the period's wider debate over the sovereign's relationship to the people. He goes on to trace the development of Elizabeth's iconic significance as the century moves on; the stories of Princess Elizabeth's sufferings under Mary Tudor, or of her secret longings for Essex eventually figured more prominently in the popular imagination than records of her relationships with Parliament. By the early eighteenth century Elizabeth had acquired a new value as a model of the tragic individual pitted against a hostile social order.

List of illustrations; Acknowledgments; Introduction; 1. James I and the fictions of Elizabeth's motherhood; 2. The Queen of royal citizens: Elizabeth in Thomas Heywood's historical imagination; 3. Arcana Reginae: Tacitean Narrations of the Elizabethan past; 4. Recollections of Elizabeth during the civil wars and interregnum; 5. Restoration Elizabeth; 6. 'Under the name of a Vergin or Maiden Queen'; 7. Gloriana's Secrets: the restoration invention of Elizabeth's private life; 8. After the revolution: Gloriana in late Stuart England; Conclusion.

Watkins traces the development of Elizabeth I's iconic significance in the political and popular imagination of the seventeenth century. From monarch to the perfect model of the tragic individual pitted against a hostile social order, Elizabeth's story informed contemporary debates. This study will appeal to literary and cultural historians alike.