In what ways can “The Queen’s Majesty’s Passage through the City of London to Westminster the Day before Her Coronation” be seen to seek control over the identity of Elizabeth I? To what extent is it successful in this aim? Illustrate your essay with specific examples.

Richard Mulcaster portrays the display of power and authority demonstrated during the occasion of the passage of Princess Elizabeth, soon to be Queen Elizabeth I, on January 14, 1559, the day before her coronation. This pamphlet portrays people full of hope and anticipation, loyal and obedient courtiers, and a powerful yet pious soon-to-be monarch. As a piece of propaganda, this work seeks to control the identity of Elizabeth; the people’s opinion of their new queen, how the courtiers accept her, and how Elizabeth herself conforms to this identity. However, while the pamphlet seeks to support and venerate Elizabeth as the divinely appointed queen, and portray her idealistically to her subjects, the reader detects the anxiety behind this event and the expectations that surround the appointment of the new monarch.
History informs us of the general insecurity of the time period. Elizabeth’s predecessor, her older sister Mary, had not managed to bring England the affluence and strength that her father, Henry VIII had. Mary’s reign was characterised by her staunch Catholicism and intolerance of any practicing Protestant, and her marriage to Philip of Spain was defined by the humiliating loss of the French port of Calais. After Mary’s death, the people of England were waiting expectantly for a monarch who could bring England the military strength it needed. Many had been disappointed with Mary as a female monarch, and the influence her Spanish husband seem to have had, consequently, many doubts were raised as to whether a woman was fit to rule the country. As Elizabeth I approached her coronation, she had already established a new government and appointed her advisors. The public therefore would have been aware of changes in the political system and governing of the country, and may have experienced anxiety over what was to become of them under this new regime . The procession the day before her coronation was, ‘and was designed to be – a test of the sovereign’s popularity’ .
Mulcaster’s pamphlet, seen by many as a carefully planned piece of propaganda designed to portray the future queen in a positive way, was published only nine days after the events it records, which seems to suggest it was given priority at the printers in order that it may be distributed as quickly as possible. Mulcaster, as a Member of Parliament, shows that he understood clearly the power this pamphlet could have in shaping Elizabeth’s identity from the public’s point of view. He appeals to both their awe and ‘dread’ of the sovereign appointed ‘by the grace of God’, and their feelings of warmth towards the ‘loving answers and gestures of their princess’. He fails to mention any reservations, as he says that Elizabeth’s ‘loving behaviour preconceived in the people’s heads’ is ‘thoroughly confirmed’, and that they experience ‘exceeding comfort in beholding so worthy a sovereign’. However, these affirmations are repeated continuously throughout the pamphlet in such density that, rather than being comforting, they reflect the author’s concerns that Elizabeth was not being accepted as unequivocally as the pamphlet claimed. It seems as though, if the approval of the new queen were as widespread as Mulcaster, who obviously supported Elizabeth personally, would have liked, there would not be such a need to insist upon these exaggerated and lengthy descriptions.
The idealistic portrayal of Elizabeth and the symbolic references made during the descriptions of the pageants of the expected move towards Protestantism depict Elizabeth as the antitype of her Catholic sister Mary. This pageant series proved to be a ‘deliberate dancing on the grave’ of Mary. The third pageant portrays the eight beatitudes from the gospel of Matthew, and how these trample down the eight sins, seen by some as the ‘opposition, now clearly linked to Mary Tudor… and the characteristics of her rule’. The final pageant provides the ‘worthy Deborah’, an Israelite judge who ‘through God’s aid, did always maintain right’ as the ‘precedent’ for the queen to follow. This excludes Mary by omission, using an Old Testament biblical character as a model, rather than Mary Tudor and the Catholic icon of her namesake, the Virgin Mary. Mary is also excluded as Mulcaster describes Elizabeth as doing the work of God, ‘the everlasting spectacle of mercy unto the poor members of Almighty God’, a work which had been ‘furthered’ by Henry VIII and ‘advanced’ by King Edward VI. By the representation of Elizabeth as Truth, the daughter of Time (Henry VIII), receiving the Book of Truth, the Protestant Bible, in another of the pageants, ‘Mary’s truth is implied to have been deceit’.
This presentation of the Bible in English was an act of great significance. According to Susan Frye, as Elizabeth accepted the purse with 1000 marks, city officials who were intent upon gaining her endorsement of the Protestant faith insisted she also accept the Protestant Bible, which would constitute a contractual arrangement between her and the city to further the Protestant cause. Frye suggests that the monetary gift was the queen’s ‘price of an overt statement of her Protestantism’. However, while the city forced Elizabeth to submit to this Protestant identity, this initial acceptance of municipal authority gave Elizabeth later opportunities to control her own image .
Mulcaster’s attempts to portray Elizabeth as this idealistic princess, strong and devout, create not only an identity for Elizabeth as an individual, but for the kind of rule she represents; a ‘particular political and social perspective’. His pamphlet seeks to promulgate support for this rule from Elizabeth’s subjects, but also summarize to Elizabeth and her courtiers what these subjects expect and desire from her rule. For example, as Elizabeth passes the children at Christ’s Hospital, she is portrayed as showing her recognition of the problems of the poor, saying ‘I here see this merciful work toward the poor whom I must in the midst of my royalty needs remember’. This sentiment is repeated at the conclusion of the pamphlet as Mulcaster proclaims ‘What hope the poor and needy may look for at Her Grace’s hand’ as ‘her hearkening to the poor children of Christ’s Hospital with eyes cast up into heaven did fully declare’. This expectation proves powerful in shaping Elizabeth’s identity to her people, as they see her as someone who will deliver the poor from their poverty. It also sends the message to Elizabeth and her advisors that the people will now expect something to be done about the poor. In fact, it is significant to note that, later in her reign, Elizabeth did indeed enact the nation’s first poor laws.
Elizabeth is portrayed as an ‘image of the ideal female ruler’. However, this ideal was one ‘to which the monarch should aspire, a template of future perfection for her to fulfil’, and while she is being praised, ‘her expressions, gestures and words are all scrutinised and interpreted’. While she is being compared with images of women such as Deborah, an ‘ideal’ female ruler, she is herself being ‘turned into a symbol’. Susan Frye argues that Elizabeth was constantly struggling to control her representation, and hence, too, her own authority and power to govern. As others, including her own ambitious courtiers, sought to represent the queen in a way that would support their own interests, a ‘competition’ of representation arose between them and Elizabeth herself. While it is probable that the queen was a conscious and possibly active participant in the constructing of varying and conflicting representations of herself and her sovereignty, she is lead by the circumstances she finds herself in, and by those who exert influence by supporting her choice of representation. Political instability at the time of her coronation also shapes the queen’s identity, constructed by Elizabeth and those around her, including courtiers, poets and influential citizens.
Mulcaster’s propagandist pamphlet seems to be the start of the creation of this ‘cult’ of Elizabeth, a ‘carefully planned official strategy’. However, while this identity was ‘skilfully created to buttress public order’ by those in power, as the ‘Elizabethan state was neither homogeneous nor monolithic’, works of art and literature, such as Mulcaster’s pamphlet, were often created by ‘individuals who glorified Elizabeth from a wide range of motives’. While Mulcaster’s pamphlet portrayed Elizabeth as the divinely appointed monarch who independently presides over the governing of the country, and even as separate and more complex than any of her subjects, a higher being, with a superior claim to power and ability to use it, the reality was very different. Elizabeth would have, especially at the tender age of twenty-five, been guided by her advisors and courtiers to represent herself in a way in which would engender public support and stabilise the uneasy political situation. While the pamphlet seeks to control Elizabeth by representing her idealistically and suggesting reforms for her to make, it also seeks to control those already in power by dismissing the former political and religious agendas and suggesting that anticipated changes will have public support.
Mulcaster’s pamphlet represents Elizabeth in many different forms, but all create the illusion of her epitomising the ideal female ruler. However, this support was conditional; it created an identity and standards for Elizabeth to meet. While Elizabeth had some degree of control over how she wished to be identified, and what causes she wished to be identified with, she was subject to the support of the general public and in particular, those with influence, such as her courtiers, artisans and merchants. Mulcaster’s pamphlet seeks to control the identity of Elizabeth by portraying her support of certain causes, such as the return to Protestantism and attention being given to those in poverty. As this pamphlet was so widely distributed so quickly at a time of expectation and instability regarding the political agenda and the support of the new monarch, Mulcaster’s aim to control Elizabeth by creating this identity was particularly successful.