Gloriana: Elizabeth I and the Art of Queenship

In a kingdom ill-used to queens, Elizabeth I needed a very particular image to hold her divided country together.

The ‘Cult of Gloriana’ was a movement in which authors, musicians, and artists – among them Spenser, Shakespeare, Tallis and Byrd – elevated the queen to the status of a virgin goddess. Her image was widely owned and distributed, thanks to the expansion of printing, and the English came to surpass their European counterparts in miniature painting, allowing courtiers to carry a l...