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CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS Representing Elizabeth In Stuart England : Literature History Sovereignty by John Watkins
This is the first book to examine Elizabeth Is lasting impact on the Anglo-American historical imagination. John Watkins attributes her abiding popularity to her iconic role in seventeenth-century debates over the nature of sovereignty. Watkins focuses on Englands most turbulent century because it witnessed the consolidation of enduring attitudes toward both the Tudor past and the English monarchy. He explains that seventeenth-century representations of Elizabeth intersected with the periods wider debate over the sovereigns relationship to the people. He goes on to trace the development of Elizabeths iconic significance as the century moves on; the stories of Princess Elizabeths sufferings under Mary Tudor, or of her secret longings for Essex eventually figured more prominently in the popular imagination than records of her relationships with Parliament. By the early eighteenth century Elizabeth had acquired a new value as a model of the tragic individual pitted against a hostile social order.show more