“I know I have the body but of a weak and feeble woman; but I have the heart and stomach of a king, and of a king of England too, and think foul scorn that Parma or Spain, or any prince of Europe should date to invade the borders of my realm; to which rather than any dishonor should grow by me, I myself will take up arms, I myself will be your general, judge, and rewarder of every one of your virtues in the field.”
Queen Elizabeth I (1588)
Elizabeth I came to power in 1558 during a volatile time in history calling for a reformation to establish Protestant Churches and put an end to the abuses of the Roman Catholic Church that took place under Mary 1 of England (also known as Mary Tudor and “Bloody Mary”).
In early modern society women were mostly absent from political life and very few monarchies had female monarchs. It is ironic that Elizabeth 1 would become one of the most venerated monarchs given that she was the daughter of Henry VIII, resulted in cataclysmic changes in England.
Queen Elizabeth I challenged the notion that women were either “married or to be married” and debates about whether or not “a woman being born into a royal family and educated to rule” could allow her to “overcome the limitations of her sex?” (Weisner, 2019, 113, 308) because women were perceived to be the weaker sex who was incapable of fulfilling the duties of such an important public role. Levin says that in order for Elizabeth I to be successful she had to “move away from the expectations of her gender and “act like a man”. But to do so makes her unwomanly, possibly even monstrous” (Levin, 2013, 1). This tells us that there was a genuine fear around a woman being in power because it could lead to society expanding the expectations of a woman’s role which would allow women to impinge upon male roles; however, Elizabeth I was very skillful and managed to overcome this resistance to her ruling as “King” of England.
Another concern was the question of the legitimacy of female rulership and Elizabeth responded by declaring that she was married to England and she “embraced the idea of chastity and presented herself as a Virgin Queen who was also the mother of her people” (Levin, 2013, 3). This was a smart move on her part since men had this innate habit of trying to control women and she could have very easily could have become a puppet monarch. When she received a proposal from a foreign king she reminded her advisors again that “I would rather be a beggar and single than a queen and married” demonstrating that she would not let a man control her or her throne (Monter, 2012, 139).
Elizabeth I is remembered as a beloved monarch who refused to conform to the societal expectations of a woman. She wielded power as an unmarried, virgin woman, who would not name an heir. She wouldn’t let her male advisors sway or control her, and she invoked deep feelings of fear in her enemies. Elizabeth I challenged the perceptions of gender and power and proved that a woman could successfully reign without a man by her side.
References
- Levin, Carole. The Heart and Stomach of a King: Elizabeth I and the Politics of Sex and Power. 2nd ed. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2013.
- Monter, William. “Husbands Finessed: The Era of Elizabeth I, 1550–1700.” In The Rise of Female Kings in Europe, 1300-1800, 123–54. Yale University Press, 2012. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1npn9m.9.
- Wiesner, Merry E. Women and Gender in Early Modern Europe. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press, 2019.
