The Queen, As She Was.(Critical Essay)

Successive generations have interpreted the story of England's greatest ruler, Queen Elizabeth I, in their own way. The Victorians were wild about Elizabethan chivalry and imperial ambition. The pre-World War II film "Fire Over England" echoed her determination on the eve of battle against the Spanish Armada. More recently, historians have studied her as a feminist icon, exploring the ramifications of her position as a woman in authority. In the 1998 film "Elizabeth," Cate Blanchett in the title role whips her boardroom of advisers into shape; charms a Parliament full of unruly men; holds court among a glittering array of poets, playwrights, musicians and explorers (and induces them to wear tights!), all while stabilizing the economy and colonizing America. Now, a new exhibit at London's National Maritime Museum aims to pull aside--momentarily--the veil Elizabeth has cast on history. To decode her enduring allure, more than 350 artifacts--including jewels, paintings, maps, clothing and manuscripts, some from the private, never-before-seen collections of her courtiers' descendants--have been brought together to commemorate the 400th anniversary of her death.

As the exhibition shows, there were signs that Elizabeth's reign would be a turning point in English history right from the start. The rule of her father, Henry VIII, had been characterized by violence and brutality. But, in an unprepossessing manuscript, a copy of her first speech as queen, Elizabeth vowed to rule "by good advice and counsel." During her reign, Parliament became more powerful than battlefield politics, and reasoning and rhetoric trumped bloodshed. "The language of Tudor authority had [previously] been that it was the monarch's duty to command and the subject's duty to obey," says the exhibit's curator, professor David Starkey. "[Elizabeth] says this will be a government that recognizes limits and constraints and the need to carry people with it."

Her mythic stature was already being formed in her own day, as Elizabeth's court fostered playwrights Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe, poets like Edmund Spenser and composers including William Byrd and Thomas Tallis. Paintings heavy with symbolism--like ...