Arts patronage and Elizabeth I
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The special character of the arts patronage of Elizabeth I and her Court derived from the many anomalies inherent in the 45-year reign of an unmarried woman to whose questionable legitimacy (of birth as well as right to rule) was added her consistent failure to marry or, in later years, to name her successor. The great number of issues raised by these circumstances were addressed in the painting, literature, music, and pageantry sponsored by Elizabeth and by the members of her Court. Over the course of the Queen's long reign there was considerable variation in the particular issues that needed to be addressed and in the strategies invoked to deal with them. But in all instances the ideas expressed in officially-sponsored art and pageantry were calculated to reinforce the legitimacy and stability of Elizabeth's rule. This was manifestly a joint effort since the Queen could not hope to rule without the support of those around her, while this same group of men feared the lack of a legitimate ruler--other than the Catholic Mary Stuart--and saw Elizabeth as the only viable alternative. Thus the Court and Elizabeth worked to overcome the problems presented by a female ruler. Whether she was depicted--in word or image--as an Old Testament figure such as Deborah, a classical goddess such as Diana, a Protestant alternative to the Virgin Mary, or the embodiment of endangered England itself Elizabeth was invariably depicted as necessary to the nation's survival.
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in the tilts and in the fashion of having their portraits painted in the guise of the Queen's champions. The Earl of Cumberland, for example, posed with his lance and shield wearing the Queen's jeweled glove in his hat (Strong, Cult 157) while Robert, Viscount Fitzwalter, later Earl of Sussex, had himself painted as the White Knight (Strong, Cult plate IV).
The splendor of the spectacles--from jeweled costumes to stirring music--was captured by the poet George Peele who described the 1590 tournament in which Sir Henry Lee relinquished his position as Queen's champion to a younger man. In his "rich embroidery, / And costly caparison charged with crowns" Sir Henry paid tribute at "a fair pavilion hard at hand / Where holy lights burn'd on the hallow'd shrine / To Virtue or Vesta consecrate" (quoted in Strong, Tudor 107). By 1590, then, this was the essence of the celebration--the very pointed emphasis on the virginity of Elizabeth. Unfortunately, because of their ephemeral nature, relatively little is known about the Accession Day Tournaments. It is likely, for example, that the emphasis on the Queen's virginity was approached in an entirely different fashion in the earlier years when there was still some hope that she would
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Approximate Word count = 2118
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page)
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