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This discusses the political history of the religious settlements between 1558 and the end of the century. It contrasts England and Scotland, roughly characterized by having reformation from above and from below, but also emphasizes shared concerns and attitudes. The problems of reform in Ireland are treated separately: here the danger of assuming inevitable failure for Protestantism is stressed.

This lecture presents the text of the speech about Elizabeth I Queen of England delivered by the author at the 2008 Raleigh Lecture on History held at the British Academy. It explores the religious movement called the Family of Love and discusses Sir Walter Raleigh's knowledge about the discourse on Dover Harbour, which was later spuriously attributed to him. The lecture provides an excerpt and interpretation of Queen Elizabeth's poem titled On Monsieur's Departure.

This chapter focuses on English pride in learned women by 1550: learned women at the early Tudor court. It discusses Erasmus and the household of Sir Thomas More; the development of companionate marriage in both Catholic and Protestant families; and the Seymour sisters and the political implications of humanist education for girls. It also considers the learning and culture of Elizabeth I, and of women associated with her court, in particularly the four Cooke sisters, who included Mildred Cecil, Lady Burghley. Elizabeth's desire to impress foreign humanists is examined. Sixteenth-century Protestant women humanists outside the court, notably Anne Lok, women recusants, women and Latin culture in Ireland and Scotland are presented.

This chapter explores the developing notion that England was the special object of God's favor. Enabling the Reformation separation from Rome, the Hebrew Bible was used to legitimize England's institutions, giving the nation an Israelite identity. The Hebrew Bible played a crucial role in the formation of English nationalism, which adapted Luther's (and Paul's) idea that Christians were the ‘true Israel.’ Identification with biblical Jews was at odds with the Protestant belief that ‘Jewishness’ had no place in reformed Christianity, and emergent nationalism complicated Protestant internationalism. This chapter discusses ways in which, by the early seventeenth century, England was made biblical Israel's successor. Elizabeth I was a Davidic monarch. James, the ‘British Solomon,’ was imagined to have united the kingdoms of Israel and initiated the messianic time (described in Isaiah) characterized by peace, wealth and empire, and the rebuilding of God's Temple.

This chapter explores the history of Britannia. It looks at her many representations on coins, prints, medallions, and argues that she became an important means of uniting the country under William and May following the Glorious Revolution, and then again under Anne after the Act of Union in 1707. It contends that Britannia became entwined with Elizabeth I and British queens, and also with depictions of the Church of England as female. Britannia was popularised through theatres, masques, pleasure-gardens, and exhibitions, and her evolving depictions are explored from Roman times to 1800. The chapter concludes with a discussion of John Flaxman’s plans to erect a truly colossal Britannia at Greenwich in celebration of naval successes, and explores reasons why Britannia might be a less powerful figure in 1799.

This chapter looks at some women who were claimed by their contemporaries as examples to the nation or as women who benefited the public. It begins with Elizabeth Burnet, who was involved in the religious revival following the Glorious Revolution. It then discusses the critic, patron, and hostess Elizabeth Montagu, arguing that she saw herself as part of a patriotic pantheon of women and enjoyed describing herself in relation to Elizabeth I, Amazons, businesswomen, farmers, coalminers, witches, Lady Bountiful, and other types of woman. Catherine Talbot was a patriotic and religious exemplar in a very different way: part of the household of a clergyman who became archbishop, she was closely involved in Church matters and wrote fascinating journals. The chapter concludes by discussing Talbot’s journals and her criticism of Samuel Richardson’s novel Sir Charles Grandison.

The second chapter analyzes four manuscript verse miscellanies whose compilers each constructed a striking relationship between John Donne and Sir Walter Ralegh. Yet, as the chapter ultimately demonstrates, no two collectors constructed this relationship in quite the same way. The compilers of certain miscellanies presented Donne's Ovidian love elegy, “To his Mistress going to bed,” as something of an answer-poem to Ralegh. In the manuscript environments that they produced, Donne seems to mock Ralegh's poetry and politics. A collector responsible for other manuscripts, however, found Ralegh and Donne to be perfectly compatible, presenting them as exemplary authors of complementary love poems.

Chapter Five turns from questions of making and dissemination to the practice of reading, marking a move away from recent studies of marginalia and interpretation to the question of how and where early modern women actually read, and how their books were understood to work upon their bodies and minds. The chapter draws on a wide range of didactic and exemplary sources, alongside evidence of particular reading practices, to chart the hierarchies of women's literacy in this period, and the separate skills of reading, meditation, and interpretation. It explores the physiologies used to describe and understand women's reading, and argues that figures of imprinting, heart-reading, hunger, and digestion possessed a more than metaphorical force. The chapter turns finally to some of the spaces of women's reading to argue that the apparently passive process of textual engagement can be, in the words of Michel de Certeau, ‘another production’.

The Queen is associated with the unsullied springs of pure Scripture and doctrine and as she is refreshed at faith's fountain, so she in turn conveys that same spiritual refreshment to her people. However the medal, its emblem, and motto also draw upon and affirm the broader political symbolism of the fountain figure. The fountain is an ancient and complex political symbol which, as will be seen here, was specifically associated with Elizabeth I in subtle, yet increasingly complicated and ambivalent ways. This chapter first establishes a nexus of classical and humanist texts concerned with princely power and authority, and then examines some of the ways in which the Queen's image was reflected and refracted in terms of the fountain in art and literature, thus establishing a literary and cultural frame both for Elizabethan gardens and for a play by Ben Jonson.

Elizabeth I's reign experienced the establishment of an Anglican via media or middle way between Rome and Geneva. This middle way perspective asserts that the excesses of the Edwardian rule were lessened and a moderate style of prayer book protestantism based on parliamentary statute and royal supremacy was constructed. Despite Elizabeth's efforts to create a new view instead of just restoring the Edwardian legacy, iconoclasm occurred once again. Also, as Elizabeth's reign went on, modifications that Elizabeth attempted to introduce in 1559 we gradually ignored. In line with these happenings, other issues that were ignored included the case of the location of communion tables and receiving of legal confirmation in the Jacobean canons.

Despite the order that Elizabeth enforced in 1559, the altarwise positions of the communion tables and the use of wafer bread in communion did not become widespread practices. Religious images, even the crucifix on the communion table, were still being somewhat violently discouraged. Evidently, the argument arises that the action that Queen Elizabeth took contributed to the emergence of a group of avant-garde clergy that was dedicated not only to greater ceremonialism in worship but that also intricately investigated and questioned doctrinal orthodoxy. Laudianism grew, especially in the first two decades of the century. In 1617, however, it was proposed that communion tables be turned into altars. This movement was succeeded by the notion of restoring St Paul's Cathedral in 1620, which was then followed by the re-edification and beautification of churches and the reintroduction of religious images and organ music.

This chapter discusses the drama and tension of the accession, and the history of the Union of the Crowns in the lifetime of James. James VI was proclaimed King of England when Elizabeth died. It was ruthlessly silent about James' Anglo-Scottish ancestry. But what James VI had inherited from his Stuart ancestors, most notably James IV and the even more effective James V, was a lofty vision of the diplomatic importance of the King of Scots and his ability to have an impact on other European countries. In 1603, the brutal fact was that the Scots and the English disliked one another intensely. The theme of Anglo-Scottish hostility is briefly outlined. The Union of 1603 did have a profound impact on his style of kingship. It was also noted that the dearth of Tudor heirs contributed to the absolute problem of finding different kings for England and Scotland. When celebrating the fourth centenary of that momentous event, the toast was certainly to King James.

This chapter analyses and reconstructs the dramatic response to the return of Protestantism to the heart of English government with the accession of Elizabeth I after five years of Mary I's counter-Reformation court. The first court masque of the reign is reconstructed from documentary evidence, and the diplomatic repercussions of its caricature of the Catholic clergy are analysed. Attempts by common players to stage similarly anti-Catholic and political plays, however, led to embarrassment and the imposition of censorship. The queen's attitude to the expression of political opinions in drama rapidly became more circumspect.