How Is Queen Elizabeth A Tyrant

Daughter to a tyrant and sister to a Protestant persecutor, Queen Elizabeth I strayed from her predecessors’ oppressive authorities, commanding her people rather with the weight of her words than the force of her fists. Yearning for a male heir to succeed him on the throne, her father King Henry VIII was crestfallen with Elizabeth’s birth, so when Elizabeth was only three years old, Henry sentenced Elizabeth’s mother Anne Boleyn to death on false accusations of treason, witchcraft, incest, and adultery. As a consequence, Henry’s marriage to Anne was annulled, and Elizabeth was deemed an illegitimate successor to the throne. Although her early life was gravely marked with such great obstacles already, Elizabeth was fortunately born in the heart

of the humanistic movement, a time when women were receiving more opportunities for education and schooling; therefore, she received an arduous training in classical and modern studies of language, history, and philosophy, which significantly influenced her political, theological, and rhetorical actions and conventions. Prior to his death in 1547, Henry instituted the Third Succession Act, which reinstated Elizabeth, along with her sister Mary, as an heir to the throne. As a result of to the Third Succession Act, Elizabeth was now named the third in line to inherit the throne, following her brother Edward and her sister Mary in succession. Crowned at the age of nine, Edward had only ruled for a brief period, before his older sister Mary was christened the next ruler of England. As a Catholic in a primarily Protestant England, Mary was dubbed a particularly unpopular and despotic ruler, persecuting Protestants and attaining the label “Bloody Mary.” Under Queen Mary I’s reign, Elizabeth was charged with treason and imprisoned in the Tower of London (Greenblatt 392). However, upon Mary’s death, Elizabeth transitioned from incarceration to incarnation and finally rose to power in 1558. Learning from her sister’s mistakes, Elizabeth recognized the importance and influence of a positive public image and swiftly discovered that her authority was most successfully implemented in public (Heisch 32). Gifted with bravery, brilliance, and boldness, Elizabeth exercised her dexterity to produce a popular public persona, eventually transforming herself from Lady Elizabeth, the illegitimate daughter to King “Coppernose,” into the mythical Queen Elizabeth I of England, the woman who proved that she was equally as capable to rule as any man could ever be (O’Hair 98).
Examining her precursors’ administrative approaches, Elizabeth identified her relatives’ downfalls and strived to serve as a more valuable and admired ruler, attempting to improve her popularity as queen. Despite her father’s extensive reign and notorious name, Henry scarcely delivered speeches to Parliament, the legislative body who oversees the English government. On rare occasions, Elizabeth’s brother Edward presented very few public addresses and never personally regarded Parliament. Finally, her half-sister Mary never delivered any speeches in public or to Parliament. As medieval historian Teddy Booth observes “the use of rhetoric for projecting power was not unusual for humanists or politicians of the day, [but] it was unusual for English monarchs” (Booth 67). Likewise, Elizabeth had also identified these uncommon addresses and considered the occasional orations to be a common cause to her predecessors’ downfalls. Educated and rooted in humanism, Elizabeth contrasted her kin’s limited discourse and frequently maintained a dialogue with both the public and Parliament, which established her as one of the most favored monarchs of England.
Inspired by the renowned Roman politician and orator Cicero, humanism immensely emphasizes the importance of rhetoric. As a humanistic scholar, Elizabeth applied her knowledge of the Roman speaker to her benefit. Shaping and crafting her public image through her words and political acumen, she proved to be a beloved ruler. However, paralleling her difficult youth, Elizabeth was forced to employ her rhetorical talents to conquer many, seemingly insuperable, obstacles as she rose to the throne. Her challenging childhood demanded a keen queen and an effective speaker. Elizabeth understood these requirements and continuously worked to create and preserve her public image.
Due to her parents’ annulled marriage, Elizabeth was still viewed as an illegitimate heir to the throne, even preceding the Third Succession Act.

Accepting this first challenge, Elizabeth articulated and confirmed her claim to the throne. Upon her ascension, she remarked that she is “God’s creature, ordained to obey His appointment” (“Elizabeth’s First Speech”). At the time, kings exercised the use of the divine-right theory of kingship. Referring to this divine right, she applied the same accepted belief to her own authority, establishing her reign as God’s desire. Elizabeth effectively shifted her role as an illegitimate successor to the throne to the divinely chosen queen of England. Fortuitously, England was returning to a primarily Protestant country, and the citizens soon accepted her as

queen.
After establishing her right to the throne through divine-right theory, Elizabeth was pressed to confront the lasting “flaw” that had continued to haunt her since birth – her gender.

Following the authoritarian rule of Mary I, Elizabeth received harsh criticism from some political and religious reformers. Although it was expected that Elizabeth receive an obvious opposition from Catholics over her reign, a historian of the sixteenth-century Amanda Shephard refutes that Elizabeth actually received some of the severest disapproval from Protestant polemicists and reformers (Shephard). Whereas John Calvin and Heinrich Bullinger were able to accept female rulers on occasion, drawing parallels between Elizabeth and the Biblical judge Deborah to permit her rule, other Protestants entirely contested the idea. In particular, John Knox, a Scottish theologian and writer, composed the infamous piece The First Blast of the Trumpet against the Monstrous Regiment of Women in a response to female rulers such as Mary I of England. During the Medieval Period, man recognized the hierarchy of life, beginning with God and descending all the way down to minerals. Within the pyramid, various social distinctions emerged, including the conviction that men surpassed and held governance over women. Knox called upon this principle, when he declared “it is a thing most repugnant to nature that women rule and govern over men.” In this assertion, Knox implied that it was unnatural and conflicting with

the laws and decrees of God for women to have sovereignty over man (Knox 12).
With such harsh critiques comparable to those of Knox, Elizabeth engaged her superior speaking skills to combat these oppositions. To counter the dispositions of divine displacement and the great chain of being, Elizabeth associated her regime to the medieval conviction that kings possess two separate bodies – the body politic and the body natural – that operate simultaneously (Kantorowicz). Likewise, Elizabeth portrayed herself as possessing two distinct bodies, one a physical body of a woman and the other a political body of a king. Thus as University of Washington professor Carol Levin points out, Elizabeth blurs “the definitions of gender and role expectation in her particular position as ruler of Renaissance England” (Levin 148).
Illustrating herself as commanding two separate bodies, Elizabeth enables herself to be seen as the rightful ruler of England. In her first speech at Hatfield, she exclaims “as I am but one body naturally considered, though by His permission a body political to govern, so I shall desire you all, my lords, to be assistant to me” (Elizabeth 52). With these words, Elizabeth demonstrates her two bodies and concurrently enlists the aid of her subjects, connecting herself to her people. According to Levin, Elizabeth proclaims she is both king and queen of England, assuring her citizens that she has the same capability to rule as any other king would. Additionally, Elizabeth once again stresses her political, ruling body in her speech at Tilbury, admitting that she has “the body but of a weak and feeble woman” and combatting this perception by professing she has “the heart and stomach of a king, and of a king of England too” (Elizabeth 325). Elizabeth convinced her people to view her as both a female caregiver in her natural form and a masculine monarch in her political position. Demonstrating Elizabeth’s successful efforts, Nicholas Health, the Archbishop of York, defines Elizabeth as “our sovaraigne lord and ladie, our kinge and queen, our emperor and empresse” (Levain 121).
Throughout each speech she composes, Elizabeth never fails to acknowledge her perceived weaknesses as a woman and further dispute these disadvantages, guaranteeing listeners of her strengths and capabilities as both a ruler and a writer. She was a queen, fully aware of the political situation and status in which she found herself. As University of Illinois professor and English Renaissance gender studies specialist Mary Beth Rose points out that many “scholars have argued that in the contested capacity of female ruler, the queen functions politically by disarmingly acknowledging her femininity and then erasing it through appropriating the prestige of male kingship” (Rose 1079). Rose, along with other researchers, have noted the common trend Elizabeth utilizes in her speeches. By confessing her femininity and spinning her gender in her favor, Elizabeth’s use of rhetoric displays her command for the art form.
Lastly, after effectively establishing herself as the true ruling body of England, Elizabeth’s devoted followers feared for the future, yearning for a Protestant heir to succeed Elizabeth on the throne and maintain her royal line. To build an alliance with a foreign nation and continue the Tudor succession, Elizabeth was pressured by the English to wed; however, Elizabeth, demonstrating her political acumen, exclaimed “I am already bound unto an husband, which is the kingdom of England” (Elizabeth 59). Furthermore, Elizabeth responded to Parliaments demands of marriage by removing authority from man’s hands and placing the ultimate decision of marriage in the hands of God (Elizabeth 58).
Elizabeth had not only proposed to England, but, as the “Virgin Queen,” she had also enlisted herself as the mother of her people, representing the Virgin Mary to her Protestant subjects. By wedding herself to England and tending to her children, Elizabeth began to construct a mythical persona for herself, crafting a cult-like following behind her. Through her language, Elizabeth was enabled to shape this status for herself, gathering immense support as a ruler.
Bequeathing her name to an entire literary period, Queen Elizabeth is often revered as the inspiration to a number of notable works of literature from Hippolyta in William Shakespeare’s tribute to her in his masterpiece A Midsummer Night’s Dream to Edmund Spenser’s epic poem The Faerie Queene, dedicated to Elizabeth; yet, she is continuously overlooked as an author herself. Educated in classical and modern language and a master of rhetoric, Elizabeth took great pleasure in her education. Her writings illustrate her knowledge and impeccable understanding of language and expression. Experiencing such great obstacles in her life, Elizabeth was forced to employ her writing skills to conquer these impediments. In understanding the power of public opinion and learning from her predecessors’ monarchial methods, Elizabeth accomplished an extraordinary task, transforming herself from the weak and rejected ruler to the great Virgin Mother to her people. Without her influential composition qualities, Elizabeth may not have succeeded in gaining the devotion of England, proving that the power of the pen is mightier than the muscles of man.