Elizabeth : The Forgotten Years Essay

The women during Elizabethan era were dependant on their males relatives to support them. They were used to forge alliances with other powerful families through arranged marriages. Women were generally tutored at home as there was no schools for girls. They can not heir to their father's title. They were not allowed to have vote and were not allowed to enter politics. Moreover, they were not allowed to act in theatres.

Elizabeth’s character was a mystery to most people at the time she inherited the throne. She had learned to keep her own council, control her emotions, and always behaved cautiously, thus being able to disprove all rumors about her. Always dignified and stately, she could be vain, willful, dictatorial, temperamental, and imperious. She had courage, both in her decisions, and in the face of danger. Possessing an innate of humanity, she was not normally cruel, unlike most rulers of her day. Most regarded her to be unusually tolerant in that age of religious conflict. She saw herself as one who was always honest and honorable, who

Elizabeth I is considered a Machiavellian queen; she placed the political unity of England above any other aspect of her kingdom, including religion. Elizabeth I’s reign was influenced politically and religiously, in respect to ideas about gender. Elizabeth, daughter of Henry VIII, responded authoritatively to any opposition she faced.

In the sixteenth century the role of women in society was very limited. Women were generally stereotyped as housewives and mothers. They were to be married, living their life providing for her husband and children. The patriarchal values of the Elizabethan times regarded women as the weaker sex.’ Men were considered the dominant gender and were treated with the utmost respect by females. Women were mainly restricted within the confines of their homes and were not allowed to go school or to university, but they could be educated at home by private tutors. Men were said to be the ones to provide for their families financially. Women were often seen as not intelligent. Property could not be titled in the name of a female within the family. Legally everything the female had belonged to her husband. Poor and middle class wives were kept very busy but rich women were not idle either. In a big house they had to organize and supervise the servants.

In the Elizabethan period, women were subordinate to men. They were considered to be ‘inferior' beings who were controlled by their husbands, fathers or any other men in the family. Women were not allowed to hold their own opinions, views or lifestyles. Men had control of everything, some of these included money, politics, work, children, women and home.

Elizabeth’s strength, independence, and her intense willpower to assure that her marriage is coordinated only by love demonstrate the feminist portrayal of Elizabeth. Elizabeth’s desire for

Elizabeth must have taken account of the prevailing custom by asserting her strength and authority as inherent in her position as monarch, rather than in her person as a woman. Her refusal to marry was a politic way to avoid questions of women’s subservience to man as well as to avoid the force of marital conventions herself. As the Virgin Queen, Elizabeth exemplified the importance attached to chastity, even if it was often more observed in the breach than in the practice (“Society and Culture in Shakespeare's Day”).

Just like the economic insecurity of the era, many people were insecure about the fact that there was a woman seated on the throne and actually ruling the country. In such a patriarchal age, many said that a woman was not fit to run a country. “...while men were naturally endowed with authority, women were temperamentally, intellectually, and morally unfit to govern,” (The woman ruler in a patriarchal world), and thus was the ideal of the time. Women were meant to be quiet and subservient and never to govern, rule, or voice an opinion. If a woman did so begin to wish to dominate, “it was viewed as dangerous or grotesque,” (The woman ruler in a patriarchal world). Yet Elizabeth still thrived and refused to play into the chauvinist views of the

Having a female monarch was a sign of a country’s vulnerability; Queen Elizabeth exhibited strength and brought forth England’s golden age, this clearly shows that the cultural perception of the time were extremely unfair and inaccurate when it comes to women. In several speeches, Queen Elizabeth addresses her responsibilities as a female, she disregards the mandatory social and biological roles that are placed upon her. Queen Elizabeth firmly believes that her sex does not impede her from ruling with full dedication and with the most loving and most positive intentions, as indicated throughout her Parliamentary speeches. Queen Elizabeth was advised by her council to marry and produce an heir to the throne, but Elizabeth refused. Her refusal to produce an heir, and her self assurance disproved long standing cultural notions that women were inferior.

Power and ascension to a throne always comes with a price as many have opposing views due to tradition, religion, and values. After Henry VIII’s rule of England came to an end with his death, a struggle of power was imposed, as his three children would later succeed him as rulers to impact England. Primogeniture allowed Edward VI to rule, but after his death, older sister Mary I claimed the throne. Lastly Elizabeth I claimed the throne as the last Tudor monarch and in the long run, bringing success and a golden age of England with her. With Elizabeth’s rise to the throne, ruling from 1558-1603, came strong influences of gender on her reign and affected her responses to them.

Elizabeth Tudor, perhaps England’s most famous monarch, grew up in complex situations, since she lost both her parents at a young age and was imprisoned and treated as a traitor while a princess. Queen Elizabeth I’s reign, otherwise known as the Golden Ages to some, was a time of stability and peace for England, as she solved religious and political complications and ended a war. During the Elizabethan era, there was a growth in art, plays, fashion, and music due to Queen Elizabeth’s support. Without Queen Elizabeth’s reign, the Elizabethan era would not have existed, causing art to not have had a chance to grow, women of the English Renaissance to be less respected, and England to have faced political and religious challenges. Due to Elizabeth’s difficult early life, Queen Elizabeth I grew up to be a clever and independent queen who caused stability and peace in England, caused English Renaissance art to advance, and showed women could be respected for great accomplishments

Life during the Elizabeth Era men were more respected in society than women. Women during the Elizabeth Era were raised to believe that they were inferior to men. Depending on your social class, determined your role in society. Women weren’t allowed to vote along with the men from lower social classes. Women who were born into the upper class were afforded the right to an education, compared to women of the lower class who were not.

Elizabeth had to embrace female sex roles in order to keep both her advisors and subjects at ease. In handling marriage negotiations, she would play the role of a worthy maiden in order to preserve her freedom: “Elizabeth enjoyed toying with the idea of marriage; but courtship was one thing, while actually to marry and have someone else in control would have been quite another (Levin 132). She summoned masculine strength in her voice when she needed to conquer her womanliness. Through her reign, she did present herself as a double image—metaphorically and literally— such as in her speech ‘To the English Troops at Tilbury, Facing the Spanish Armada’ where Elizabeth stated about having “the body of a weak and feeble woman, but…the heart and stomach of a king” (1083), showing that while “weak and feeble” in body, the person who would take arms and lead her people into battle was herself, not as a queen, but with the spirit of a king; the tone of her speech too is spoken in a powerful, masculine voice, which further complicates the subject of gender and power during the

Elizabeth recognised that husbands in the 16th century were deemed to hold dominion over their wives, and that any marriage would inevitably lead to her loss of her authority. Elizabeth also regularly encountered debates over female leadership and whether or not her status as a woman would compromise her position as a monarch. ‘Young, female and powerful: Was Elizabeth I a feminist?’ is a blog post by Kate Wilkinson, a somewhat unreliable journalist and writer at the Royal Museums Greenwich, discussing the effect of gender on Elizabeth’s leadership and representation, the inequalities of male and female rulers, and Elizabeth’s reaction to critics insisting her gender should excuse her from ruling, and her brand and label of ‘The Virgin Queen’. This label became a political function for Elizabeth as it suggested morality and purity, with these traits, as well as her appearance and feminine presentation, Elizabeth garnered support for her reign, “She had to present herself without the traditional

The subject of gender appears as one of the main topics these three samples of Elizabeth I’s speeches. While she commonly mentions gender to sound humble and motherly, she also combines her gender with her knowledge to drive her points when explaining or avoiding topics, influencing the people’s opinion, and rallying the people. Some of these ideas have been captured in her portraits.