elizabeth's historians

8/13/2019 ELIZABETH's Historians

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ELIZABETHThe Virgin Queen and the men who wrote her story


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The many faces of Elizabeth

Calculating

And

Shrewd

negotiator

Gloriana

Naive

But

lucky

Seductress

In court

Indecisive

On marriage

Queen

Pressured

By

puritans

WOMAN

LED BY HER

COUNCIL

ELIZABETH


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What are the Debates

Constructions of Elizabeths identities and

gender;

Neale, Elton, Haigh, Bassnett

Pol it ical and Adm inist rat ive Leadersh ip;Camden, Neale, Elton, Bassnett

Rel igious bel iefs and po l ic ies;

Camden, Lingard, Neale, Haigh Carole Levin


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CONTEMPORARY SOURCES

Elizabeth herself, letters,diaries and speeches

Spencers Fairie Queen

Court Gossip

Parliamentary papers

John Foxe Book of Martyrs


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Proto WhigWilliam Camden- a golden queen

tending her people in a golden age.Her second care was to hold an evencourse in her whole life and all heractions; whereupon she took for her

motto SEMPER AEDUM that isalways the same Oxford Scholar, who in 1575 appointedMaster of Westminster school.He entered the influential sphere ofWilliam Cecil, Lord Burghley. Used hisvacations to travel the English countiesdoing Antiquarian research


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In 1586 published his first book, Britannia.Camdens aim in writing the ritannia was toillustrate this Ie of BRITAINEthat I wouldrestore antiquity to Britaine, and Britain to hisantiquity

In writing the biography of Elizabeth, LordBurghley made all state papers ( surviving?)available to CamdenHe wrote in the style of the Tacitean Annals and itremained the definitive template for over 100 years


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Camden obvious praise of Elizabeths reign mustbe seen in the light of its position, lying betweenthe chaos of Mary 1 and the disappointment ofJames 1. Haigh describes the Annales as commentary on the rule of James 1 in the guise of ahistory of the rule of Elizabeth.

Camdens history was a civil history and hedeliberately distances himself from Ecclesiasticalhistory, such as the writings of John Foxe ( Bookof Martyrs)


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Revisionist/Catholic

Father John Lingard 1830

My object is truth and in the pursuit oftruth I have made it a religious duty toconsult the original historians.Lingards aim was to produce a historythat protestants would read. Once youremoved a readers prejudice and presented

them with the truth, the groundwork ofconversion was laid.Papal Cardinal ordered that he have

access to the Vatican manuscripts


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Whig Historians/Nationalistic

Sir John Neale

J E Neale honest and considered judgments based uponcareful study of the original authorities. This biography has been written for a particular occasion

and a particular public. 4thcentenary of QueenElizabeths birth) 1933 ProtestantWriting his book The Reign of Elizabeth 1 during the

1930s when world threats from a militant Germanyrequired a nationalistic response.Parallels can be drawnWITH England under threat from Spain in Elizabethstime


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Neales Thesis The Puritan Choir.

The book was later republished in 1952 for thecoronation of Elizabeth 11. So far as the mainnarrative is concerned, continuous study of books anddocuments, since it was written has not suggested theneed for change.the accession of a second QueenElizabeth will surely stimulate interest.


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Objectivist/Revisionist view

Geoffrey Elton- What really matters,of course, is Elizabeths ability in politics,her standing as a queen rather than her

pretty obvious failings as a woman.

Patriarchal viewpoint that women wereinferiorEltons parents escaped Poland and Jewishpersecution in World War 11Admired English democratic institutionsand sought to retrace the birth of this

democracy


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Author of the TudorConstitution and EnglandUnder the Tudors

Eltons grand thesis sawElizabeths reign as acontinuation of theCromwell revolution whichsaw the establishment of abureaucratic Parliamentable to function efficientlyirrespective of the rulerscapabilities


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Haigh context

Christopher Haigh in the post war, secular society,was also writing during Margaret Thatchers iron

fist in a velvet glove rule. It was first writtenunder the shadow of Margaret Thatcher whengovernment by tantrum was the order of the day; ithas been revised in the time of Tony Blair whengovernment by bluff is the style, Elizabeth wasthere first; she also ranted and she also could spin.Haigh


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There are countless stories of Elizabeths abruptchanges of heart, which have sometimes beenperceived as an example of femininecapriciousness..It would be patronizing andunjust to continue to dismiss such behaviorsimply as evidence of a womens instability

Historians writing about her have been malewhile most novelists have been female and thishas also contributed to the process ofconstructing a written portrait of Elizabeth,just as the political position of the writer and hisor her religious standpoint have also beensignificant.


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Post Modernist-Representations of

Elizabeth in Portraiture

Roy Strong Gloriana The Ditchley Portrait 1592

IMAGE

AND

REPRESENTATION

R l ti i t Di i Eli b th N ti


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Relativist- Dissing Elizabeth; Negative

Representations of GlorianaJulia Walker 1998

American

What we seek to illuminate, however, is another, darkerdiscourse, the less famous discourse of disrespect and dissentwhich also existed from Elizabeth s troubled days as a princessand into the decades after her death. Elizabeth s perennial popularity--due in part to her undoubtedaccomplishments and virtues and also growing from her statusas a cultural anomaly--has always cast her in an unrealisticallygolden lightWhile few writers have gone so far as to present a perfectqueen, there has always been the assumption that criticism ofher was somehow particularly mean-spirited -- too simply the

product of medieval misogyny or blind religious prejudice.


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What we are doing, however, is to challengethe perception of these moments of oppositionas isolated among Protestants or limited toCatholics, and to present them in the dark sideof the Cult of Elizabeth, a minority discoursewhich, al- though its sources shift continually,was a constant element of the life, reign, andmemory of this powerful, successful, andgenerally popular monarch. The essays in thiscollection open discussion on neglected texts,lost cultural artifacts, overlooked patterns ofdiscourse, and buried facts


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Post Modernist

All that separates this volume from otherhistoricist studies of the age of Elizabeth is thatwe have focused on the body of material criticalof the queen before, during, and after her reign.

Ranging over foreign and domestic politicalissues, religious factionalism, the conflict betweenfree speech and treason, gossip, sermons, arthistory, architecture, and the literary modes ofepic, drama, and lyric, the topics of these essaysoffer a rich variety of scholarly discussion


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Populism-History for the Massesa racy read and a first rate history

David Starkey poor Quaker family (extreme Protestant) but claims to be aradical atheist Poor background with distant, emotionless

father and dominating mother Gained a scholarship and became a pupil ofGeoffrey Elton with whom he clashed often Elizabeth is extraordinary. She looksextraordinary. She behaves in anextraordinary way. And as a womanmoving so effortlessly in a mans world, she

is doubly extraordinary.


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I try as far as possible to suspend hindsight,and to tell things as they happened withcliffhangers and narrow escapes. If theresults read like a historical thriller, I shall bewell pleased.

Elizabeth is extraordinary. She looksextraordinary. She behaves in anextraordinary way. And as a woman movingso effortlessly in a mans world, she is doublyextraordinary. I try as far as possible to suspend hindsight,and to tell things as they happened withcliffhangers and narrow escapes. If theresults read like a historical thriller, I shall be

well pleased.


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Shekhar Kapur Elizabeth and The Golden AgeFilm is a meetingplace between

The world that it

depicts , and the worlds

Of both composer and

responder

Films often tell

Us more about thePeriod in which

They were made

Than the period

They depict


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Film Tags ? What do they suggest about

the directors purpose and our world?

Absolute power demands absolute loyalty

Woman Warrior Queen

elizabeth's historians

Documents