Hello, and welcome to today's history lesson.

My name is Mr. Merritt and I'll be guiding you through today's lesson on Popular Depictions of Elizabeth I.

This is our final lesson in our wider unit on why has Elizabeth been represented so differently, let's get started.

By the end of this lesson, we're gonna be able to explain how popular depictions of Elizabeth I have changed over time.

But in order to do that, we need to go through some key terms. So let's look at those now.

Our first key term is depiction and a depiction is a representation of someone or something in words or pictures.

Representation is just a way in which somebody has been described or somebody has been shown to be.

Our next key turn is symbolism and symbolism is the use of objects or pictures to represent ideas or qualities.

And our final key term for today is interpretation and an interpretation is an historian's opinion about past events.

Let's get going with the lesson then.

Our lesson today is gonna be split into three key learning points and our first one is how did Elizabeth present herself? So let's go through that now.

In today's world, it's very easy to find out what somebody famous looks like and sounds like.

So for instance, the image of the person on your screen right now is the late Queen Elizabeth ii and I suspect that most people in England and probably around the world know exactly what she looked like and what she sounded like, and the reason being that she was all over the radio, newspapers, books, magazines, and of course, the internet as well.

I suppose the real question though is that how could a public figure like the queen present herself to the public without all these forms of technology? And specifically, how did Queen Elizabeth I present herself to the public without access to these forms of technology? So that's what we're gonna be looking at today.

So Elizabeth I had a very clear understanding of the importance of image and throughout her reign, she kept a very tight control over how she was depicted.

This is mainly through the means of portraits, progresses, and transcripts of her speeches.

Transcripts are the written parts of the speech that she made.

Portraits are the primary source that most people today have of the image of Elizabeth and the same was true in her own lifetime.

Elizabeth portraits often contain symbols to represent a particular message that she wanted to convey to her public.

So for instance, Elizabeth was often depicted wearing pearls and on the image on the screen in front of you, you can just about see she's got some pearl necklaces on there and she's got a pearl tiara as well.

And those pearls were representations, they were symbols of her virginity and she did that in order to remind people that she was the virgin queen.

That's how she wanted to be depicted.

The vast majority of the English people would never set eyes upon Elizabeth, so these portraits were the only way for them to know what their queen actually looked like.

I say actually, but in reality, these portraits didn't truly resemble Elizabeth.

Instead they showed people what Elizabeth wanted them to see and wanted them to think.

In this period, many people believed that your outer appearance reflected your inner personality.

So a queen who was beautiful was a queen who was a good person.

Therefore in her later years, Elizabeth didn't want to be thought of as old and ugly so she had herself painted as young and beautiful.

Elizabeth was also very well educated and extremely intelligent, and that's evident in the records of the speeches that she made.

And I've got an extract from one of those speeches on the screen in front of you now.

Elizabeth also used speeches to present herself in a particular way.

She was very clever at manipulating the situation to her benefit through the power of her words and a good example of this is the "Golden Speech' in 1601.

And this is the extract, it's a part of the "Golden Speech" that is on the screen in front of you right now.

So to give a little bit of context to this particular speech, members of Parliament had gathered together and the reason being is that they were furious about Elizabeth's use of monopolies, these trade agreements that allowed one person in particular to make a huge sum of money by being the only person who can buy and sell a particular products.

It made that one person extremely rich because they could charge whatever they wanted for that product.

But of course, it made everybody else poorer because they're almost certain they're gonna be paying more than what that product was worth.

Parliament was sick and tired of it and their plan was that they were gonna give Elizabeth a real good telling off and try and make her stop giving up monopolies.

That was their plan.

Instead Elizabeth delivered a rousing speech which completely won the members of Parliament over and basically just made them forget all about their concerns.

Many of them actually reportedly in complete floods of tears after hearing what they believe would be Elizabeth's final speech to them.

So just one really good example of how Elizabeth's speeches enabled her to gather people around her who would support her.

Elizabeth's final main method of presenting herself was through royal progresses.

Progress was the term given to the journeys that Elizabeth and her court made from one stately home to another.

So these were a way of rewarding the rich and powerful.

The queen coming to stay at your house would be something to brag about for years to come, but they were also a way for Elizabeth to be seen by the public.

For most people, this would've been their only opportunity to see Elizabeth with their own eyes and for those that managed to do so, the effect quite simply was extraordinary.

Elizabeth travelled slowly, deliberately slowly, and wore her finest outfits, presenting an almost god-like appearance to people who have never seen anything so magnificent before and almost certainly never would do so again.

Just to put that into a little bit of context there, there's an image of a progress on the screen in front of you.

It doesn't quite do it justice though.

Elizabeth's courts consist of about 400 of her nobles and leading gentry, and they would also all be wearing their finest.

Elizabeth was carried like that above them all so she could be seen by all and it would've just been a truly spectacular site to see something like this just winding its way slowly through the English countryside.

Let's move on now then to a check for understanding.

So true or false, Elizabeth went on progresses so she could see all the different parts of her kingdom? So decide whether you think that's true or false now.

Okay, if you chose false, then congratulation, that is correct.

But let's try and justify this answer now.

Why is this particular point false? Is it because progresses were a way to honour important and wealthy people and be seen by the public or were progress is a way for Elizabeth to avoid having to talk to Parliament by removing herself from London? So choose A or B now.

All right, if you chose A, then congratulations, that is indeed correct.

Okay, let's get started then on our first task for today.

So on the screen in front of you is the Armada portrait, a really famous portrait that Elizabeth had painted in 1588, and this image is absolutely filled with symbolism and that's what I wanna focus on today.

So you'll notice that I've drawn five boxes on the image and I want you to match those boxes to the message that Elizabeth is trying to get across.

So those messages are on the table next to that image there.

Just to make it a little bit clearer on one of those, down in box B, I've circled what's known as a ship's figurehead.

A figurehead was put on the front of a ship, designed as just an ornament really.

Predominantly at this point in time, it was just for ornamentation.

So I'd like you to match each letter of each box to the message that Elizabeth is trying to get across.

So pause the video now and restart it again when you're finished.

I'll see you soon.

Okay, welcome back, hopefully you got on fine with that.

Let's go through some of these answers now then to make sure we fully understand the symbolism that Elizabeth is trying to get to get across.

So box A represents the defeat of the Armada and now that's symbolised by the fact that there is a bunch of ships that appear to be sinking under the waves and you notice that the sky is very dark as well.

That represents the storms that sunk the Armada.

Her wealth is depicted in box C and you'll notice there that Elizabeth is wearing some incredibly elaborate dress, filled with bows, filled with pearls, filled with other jewels as well and again, the whole point of this is just to show just how wealthy she is.

Her virginity is exemplified in box D.

So you'll notice there that she has got a bow as if she's kind of tying off that area and also a pearl dangling there as well.

Again, that represents virginity there.

Naval strength is represented by Box B and that was the ship's figurehead that I was talking about earlier and her desire to expand England's borders represented in box E.

And quite simply there, she's got her hand on the globe as if she is master of that globe.

At this point in time, Elizabethans, predominantly a man called Sir Walter Riley, were interested in expanding England's borders into the new world of America and Riley had actually tried to set up a couple of colonies.

They hadn't succeeded, but that's not the point.

England, at this point in time, is now looking beyond her borders and that's exemplified in this particular portrait as well.

Right, another task for us now.

I've got a speech here for you.

It's an extract from the "Golden Speech," what we saw earlier, and I want you to think what can you infer from this source? So what do you think Elizabeth is saying in this speech to Parliament? So try and think about the message that Elizabeth is trying to convey with this speech.

So read the extract, have a little think about what her main point is, pause the video, and I'll see you once you're finished.

Okay, welcome back, let's go through this speech then.

So Elizabeth said in the "Golden Speech" in November 1601, "Though you have had and may have many mightier and wiser princes sitting in their seats, yet you never had, nor shall have any that will love you better." So let's explain what it is that Elizabeth is actually saying here.

So Elizabeth is saying that there have been stronger and cleverer kings of England than her.

She says the word prince is there, but just for that particular point in time, people understood that that meant kings and queens.

So there were cleverer and stronger kings than Elizabeth and there probably will be again, but no king has ever loved her people as much as she does and no king ever will.

So the point that she is trying to make is that out of all the kings and queens you've ever had, I love you the most and there will never be a king or queen that will love you as much as I do.

And this is a really, really clever way that Elizabeth managed to gather support around herself.

Right, let's move on to our next learning cycle then which is how did others depict Elizabeth during her lifetime? So before we get started, I want to show you this particular image.

I want you to think about this particular image now as well.

This shows Elizabeth in her later years and as you can see, she's not looking her best.

So the question which I want you to consider is that if Elizabeth was so keen to control her image, then why is it that we've got portraits like this one which shows her as being old? I'm gonna give you a few moments just to consider that question and then we'll come together to think about answering it.

Okay, welcome back, hope you've had a little think about why this image has been created and what it represents.

So just to make clear again, people at this time believed that your outer appearance reflected your inner personality.

So by having this image here showing Elizabeth as being old, it would suggest that Elizabeth might well be a bad person.

Of course, it's complete nonsense, but this is the belief that people had at that particular point in time.

It would also dispel the myth that Elizabeth worked so hard to produce that Elizabeth was forever young and beautiful.

So as a result of that, we don't really have too many images like the one you see in front of you, they're fairly rare.

So Elizabeth could carefully control how she presented herself, but controlling how other people depicted her was far more tricky.

There were certainly people who were unhappy with aspects of Elizabeth's reign.

It wasn't all wine and roses.

Not everybody thought she was doing an amazing job.

There were some critics out there.

An example of this would be that in 1579, a Puritan called John Stubbs wrote a pamphlet, a leaflets, criticising Elizabeth where he said that the queen's perspective marriage to the French Catholic Duke of Anjou was not a good match.

So if you remember, Elizabeth never got married, but she had many suitors.

There were many people who she thought about marrying and in 1579, one of those people was the French Catholic, the Duke of Anjou.

He was the king's brother at this point in time.

Now the argument that John Stubbs had was that Elizabeth shouldn't marry a Catholic, so that's argument number one.

She was too old to have children.

That was argument number two, so effectively it's pointless.

So that and in of itself is quite a rude way to address your queen, but John Stubbs actually went further.

He made his argument forcibly and rudely and to give you some examples here, here are some extracts.

"An immoral union," so something that is just wrong.

"Contrary coupling," so the idea that this couple, the Duke of Anjou and Elizabeth, just didn't make any kind of sense.

"A thing forbidden in the law." So he suggested that it would be illegal.

It wouldn't be, but that's what he's suggesting.

"More foul and more gross," and this I suspect, for Elizabeth, was one of the lines that really, really upset her.

Just a horrible thing to say about anybody.

Unsurprisingly Elizabeth was utterly furious with John Stubbs.

She wanted to have me executive for things he was saying and she had done that with previous critics as well who she had felt overstepped the mark.

So Elizabeth was not above executing people who spoke badly of her.

But luckily for Stubbs, she showed mercy and she only chopped off his right hand.

Elizabeth's desire to present herself as the virgin Queen depended on her being seen as forever young and beautiful.

So any images or any verses such as what we have from John Stubbs which suggests that she is old and haggard, they are absolutely unacceptable.

A few of them have survived and generally speaking, the people who wanted these images or the people who wrote these things about Elizabeth did so because they were unhappy with her rule and they wanted a way to humiliate her even if they could only do that in secret.

So a quick check for understanding here then.

So true or false, Elizabeth tightly controlled how she was depicted by other people and didn't handle criticism well? So decide whether you think that's true or false now.

Okay, if you chose true, then you are right, very well done.

But let's justify this answer now then.

Is it true because critics were often imprisoned, tortured, mutilated, and sometimes executed? Or is it true because we have no evidence to suggest that people in England were critical of Elizabeth? Choose A or B now.

All right, if you chose A, then congratulations.

That is absolutely correct, very well done.

So it is worth pointing out that not all critics were punished.

There were some critics of Elizabeth who were not punished and the reason being is that some people were very clever with their criticism.

John Fox was a man who wrote a book which is commonly known today as the "Book of Martyrs" and he wrote this book before Elizabeth became queen, and the whole point of this book was to criticise Mary I.

Specifically it looked to all the people that Mary had burnt to death and it made them out to be martyrs which is somebody who should be applauded because they died for a worthy cause.

And in John Fox's opinion, they died for the worthy cause that Protestantism is the correct religion.

Now when Elizabeth became queen, John Fox rewrote his book and the reason being is he was quite upset with Elizabeth because he felt that she hadn't done enough to remove Catholicism from England.

So Fox was quite upset with Elizabeth because of that.

So he rewrote his book and he did say in order to gently remind Elizabeth that she was queen, "Only because God willed it," and therefore she should be doing more to please God to thank him for his gifts.

Fairly gentle criticism, but criticism nonetheless.

Likewise a man called Edward Spencer wrote an epic poem and an epic poem is just a really, really long poem.

Hundreds of pages long in some cases.

He called that "The Faerie Queene" and I've got the front page on the screen there in front of you.

And on the surface, "The Faerie Queene" can be viewed as just absolutely full of praise for Elizabeth.

Elizabeth was "The Faerie Queene" and it would appear that Edmund Spencer is just heaping praise upon Elizabeth.

In reality though, it was actually gentle criticism for Elizabeth's unwillingness to execute her cousin, Mary, Queen of Scots.

and the reason being is that Spencer thought that Mary, Queen of Scots was the source of all the problems that England was facing at his point in time.

So execute Mary, problems are gone.

Keep Mary alive and these problems keep occurring.

So Spencer was trying to gently criticise Elizabeth for not getting rid of the source of all of England's problems. Now Elizabeth almost certainly understood that these men were criticising her, but she chose to reward them instead of punishment and the reason being is that the criticism was heavily wrapped in praise.

It was difficult for the average person to understand that Elizabeth was being criticised, but the praise which is obvious made Elizabeth look good.

So that's what she chose to focus on.

Right, a quick check for understanding now.

Why did Elizabeth punish some critics but not others? Is it because A, Elizabeth punished obvious criticism but ignored disguised criticism, criticism which is hard to see? Is it 'cause of B, Elizabeth was less bothered by criticism as she got older? Or is it because of C, Elizabeth tried to punish all critics but some managed to escape? So choose A, B, or C now.

Okay, if you chose A, then congratulations, that is indeed correct.

Right, our next big task, I'd like you to fill in the gaps in the paragraph below and the missing words have been included at the bottom of the page.

So pause the video now, have a go at this task, and I'll see you once you're finished.

Okay, welcome back, hopefully you got on fine with that task.

Let's go through these answers now and make sure they are all correct.

So Elizabeth allowed some criticism of her during her reign, as long as it was disguised as praise.

If it was not, then she dealt with critics extremely harshly, in some cases by having them executed.

Elizabeth was very careful to only allow her approved image to be seen by people.

She wanted to be seen as young and beautiful, even when she was old and in poor health.

So hopefully you got all of those correct.

Just correct them if you didn't.

Let's move on now then to our final learning cycle for today which is how has Elizabeth been depicted in later years? So by and large, the image that Elizabeth presented of herself is the one that has stood the test of time.

This positive image of her being young and beautiful is what most people think of Elizabeth as.

Elizabeth is generally viewed by the general public as one of England's greatest rulers and in 1778, the philosopher and historian, David Hume, wrote a fairly balanced interpretation of Elizabeth, considering both her successes and her failures, but came to the conclusion that she was almost certainly be viewed as England's best loved ruler.

We would appear that we have the evidence to back up Hume's assessment.

In the present day, the historian, John Guy, wrote that Elizabeth was the most talented of all the European rulers alive in her time, and these are interpretations that Elizabeth would've been very happy to hear.

So how did the historians, Hume and Guy, depict Elizabeth, choose two options? So do they think that she was extremely passionate, incredibly popular, a master politician, or overwhelmingly powerful? Choose two of those now.

All right, if you chose B and C, then congratulations, that is correct.

Hume and Guy think that she was incredibly popular and a master politician.

However not every historian has agreed with this view.

In 1856, the historian, James Froude, wrote a damning account of Elizabeth in which he claimed that William Cecil, Lord Burghley, was the real power behind the throne and Elizabeth just messed everything up whenever she didn't do what he told her to.

Criticism of Elizabeth is also still alive today.

The historian, Christopher Haigh's, interpretation of Elizabeth is that she should not be seen as a skilled queen, but merely a lucky queen who hated making decisions and so simply didn't, and sometimes that worked out quite well.

And although Elizabeth would not approve the debate surrounding her image, from Elizabeth's perspective, there should be no debates.

She should just be seen as a great queen, the role of an historian is not to simply agree with the depiction we are presented with, but to look at all of the evidence and reach your own interpretation, even if that means that Elizabeth would've wanted to chop your hands off.

Let's do a quick check for understanding now.

So how do the historians, Froude and Haigh, depict Elizabeth? Choose two of the options below.

So do they think that she A, made bad decisions that damaged the country? B, she was overly aggressive towards Catholics? C, she wasted money on expensive clothes and jewellery? Or D, she ignored problems until they went away.

Choose two of those now.

All right, if you chose A and D, then congratulations, that is correct.

They think she made bad decisions that damaged her image and the country and quite frankly, she would just ignore a problem and sometimes they went away.

Right, our final task for today then.

So historians, Hume and Guy, think that Elizabeth was a good ruler, whereas Froude and Haigh think that she was not.

Who do you agree with? Support your interpretation with at least two pieces of evidence.

Use everything you've learned previously about Elizabeth to support your answer.

So have a go at this task.

Remember it's your opinion, it's your interpretation.

You can't be wrong.

As long as you back it up with evidence and explain why you think whatever it is you think, then you've successfully completed the task.

So write down what it is you think about Elizabeth, but most importantly, back that up with evidence to support your interpretation.

Pause the video now and I'll see you once you've done that.

Okay, welcome back, hopefully you got on fine with that task.

I was gonna go through a couple of model answers for you now.

So I've got one to say she was good and one to say she was bad, and hopefully your answer looks somewhat similar to one of the ones that I've got on the screen now.

So my first answer was I agree with Hume and Guy that Elizabeth was a good ruler because she introduced her Middle Way religious settlement which was a compromise for Protestants and Catholics.

This stopped huge fights from breaking out about which religion was best, something that was happening a lot all across Europe.

She also defeated the Spanish Armada which was the biggest navy in Europe at the time and stopped Spain from taking over England.

So those are two good bits of evidence to suggest that she was a good ruler.

To contrast that, I've also said I agree with Froude and Hague, that Elizabeth was not a good ruler because she never got married, and had children, or named an heir which meant that when she died, no one was sure who the next ruler of England would be which could have caused a war.

She also didn't do enough to help poor people during her reign.

You can't be considered a good ruler if lots of your people are starving and unhoused homeless.

Now you'll notice there that as well as the two bits of evidence that I provided for my answer, I've also explained how each of those bits of evidence supports the point that I'm trying to make.

So I'm not simply listing points.

I'm also explaining those points as well and explaining how they support the point that I'm trying to make.

Right, to summarise the lesson then, Elizabeth used symbolism within paintings to present different ideas about herself.

Elizabeth used speeches to persuade and rally supports.

She tightly controlled how she was depicted during her own lifetime and popular interpretations of Elizabeth have changed over time.

Thank you very much for joining me in this lesson and over the course of this unit.

I hope you've enjoyed yourself and most importantly, I hope you've learned a lot as well.

Hopefully I'll see you for the next unit, bye bye.