As the saying goes, the winners write the history books.
Unfortunately for us, history from many years ago is written by the winners,
the monarchs, basically the people in charge. They, obviously, do not want to
appear as anything other than perfect. This is the reason why I think Elizabeth,
the virgin queen, is remembered so much more fondly than her half-sister, Mary,
who only reigned for 5 years, and did not have time to secure a legacy for herself,
as Elizabeth, who reigned for 45 years, did (despite the executions of
Catholics that occurred during her reign). Elizabeth’s speech, “Response to aParliamentary Delegation on Her Marriage” (1559) and her portrait painted byWilliam Scrots circa 1546 both give the allusion that Elizabeth wishes to
appear both pure and competent.
Although Parliament has encouraged Elizabeth to marry soon, she
explains in her speech that she does not intend to, saying “since I first had
consideration of myself to be born a servitor of almighty God, I happily chose
this kind of life in which I yet live, which I assure you for my own part hath
hitherto best contented myself and I trust hath been most acceptable to God.”
This forces on her subjects an image of purity, which she solidifies at the end
of her speech, saying: “and in the end this shall be for me sufficient, that a
marble stone shall declare that a Queen, having reigned such a time, lived and
died a virgin.” It is quite clear that she intends to be remembered as pure.
Not only that but she seems to be daring Parliament to argue with God’s
decision. In her portrait, I also got the impression that she had intended to
be remembered as pure. And as this was a gift to her half-brother Edward VI, she is in control of the context of the portrait. Not only is she depicted as holding a bible and wearing
a cross, as she is in the majority of the portraits found on the website, but
this was, in my opinion, the most flattering portrait of her. She is young,
only 13 years old, in the picture, though she looks much older in my opinion; this is why I believe she chose it. She appears young, though not too young, and very beautiful. She wants to be remembered as a pure, sweet, beautiful woman. She even says in her letter to him that she wishes that her “body
itself were oftener in [his] presence,” which has a very sweet tone about it,
one that seems to echo the pure symbolism that is clear in the portrait.
In her speech to Parliament, it seems that Elizabeth wants
to make it clear that she does not need to marry; in fact, she intends to rule
perfectly fine on her own. This idea of competence is made clear as she assures
her subjects that she will never “conclude anything that shall be prejudicial
to the realm, for the weal,” and then tacks on that if it really is simply an
heir that Parliament is worried about, then she assures them that “he shall be
such as shall be as careful for the preservation of the realm and you as [herself].”
She is basically telling Parliament that she has chosen a path in God’s eyes
and it is in his hands. If he wants her to marry someone, then it will happen,
but at the current moment she will remain true to herself and she will take
care of the kingdom. In her portrait, she echoes her connection to religion
with her bible, but also, in her letter to Edward, she says that she is often
embarrassed of how she looks, but “the mind [she] shall never be ashamed to
present.” Elizabeth is quite confident in herself, and given that she is
remembered so well to this day shows that she not only wanted to appear a
competent leader, but that she was a competent leader.
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