420 pages
29 illustrations, index
Queen Elizabeth I was an iconic figure in England during her reign, with many contemporary English portraits and literary works extolling her virtue and political acumen. In Spain, however, her image was markedly different. While few Spanish fictional or historical writings focus primarily on Elizabeth, numerous works either allude to her or incorporate her as a character.
The Image of Elizabeth I in Early Modern Spain explores the fictionalized, historical, and visual representations of Elizabeth I and their impact on the Spanish collective imagination. Drawing on works by Miguel de Cervantes, Lope de Vega, Pedro de Ribadeneira, Luis de Góngora, Cristóbal de Virués, Antonio Coello, and Calderón de la Barca, among others, the contributors to this volume limn contradictory assessments of Elizabeth’s physical appearance, private life, personality, and reign. In doing so they articulate the various and sometimes conflicting ways in which the Tudor monarch became both the primary figure in English propaganda efforts against Spain and a central part of the Spanish political agenda.
This edited volume revives and questions the image of Elizabeth I in early modern Spain as a means of exploring how the queen’s persona, as mediated by its Spanish reception, has shaped the ways in which we understand Anglo-Spanish relations during a critical era for both kingdoms.
List of Illustrations
Foreword by Susan Doran
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Semper Eadem, Semper Mutatio
Eduardo Olid Guerrero
Part 1. Anglo-Spanish Relations and the Politics of Elizabethan Queendom
1. From Friendship to Confrontation: Philip II, Elizabeth I, and Spanish-English Relations in the Sixteenth Century
Magdalena de Pazzis Pi Corrales
2. The Political Discourse on Elizabeth I in Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century Spain
Jesús M. Usunáriz
3. Antichrists, Pope Lovers, and Atheists: The Politics of Elizabeth I’s Christian Prayers and Meditations
Valerie Billing
4. Elizabeth I and the Politics of Representation: The Triumph over Spain
Mercedes Alcalá-Galán
Part 2. Visual and Literary Images of the Jezabel del Norte
5. In Search of Elizabeth I: Visual Representations of the Virgin Queen in Early Modern Spanish Sources
Claudia Mesa Higuera
6. Political Rhetoric in Lope de Vega’s Representation of Elizabeth I
Alejandro García-Reidy
7. Elizabeth I and Spanish Poetic Satyr: Political Context, Propaganda, and the Social Dimension of the Armada
Jesús-David Jerez-Gómez
Part 3. The Queen Is Dead! Isabel Tudor in the Spanish Ethos and for a Spanish Audience
8. Cervantes Upending Ribadeneira: Elizabeth I and the Reformation in Early Modern Spain 000
Alexander Samson
9. Elizabeth Tudor, the Elephant, and the Mirroring Cases of the Earl of Essex and the Duke of Biron
Adrián Izquierdo
10. Unmasking the Queen: Elizabeth I on the Early Modern Spanish Stage
Esther Fernández
Contributors
Index