A Spectacle of Sovereignty: The Coronation Celebrations of Queen Elizabeth I
Emilia Olechnowicz
Institute of Art of the Polish Academy of Sciences (Poland)
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4874-3471
Abstract
The coronation ceremonies of Queen Elizabeth I in 1559, as all ceremonies regarding transfer of royal power, are an interesting example of what Victor Turner called “social drama.” Elizabeth was highly aware of the inextricable bond between statecraft and stagecraft. The entry progress through the city of London and the coronation were the first public occasions for the queen to present her public persona with theatrical means, through the use of decorations, attributes, gestures, and costumes. The intention behind the ceremonial entry was both to laud the ascending queen and to indicate her government’s policies in the wake of a political crisis following the death of Queen Mary. Allegorical spectacles accompanying the entry comprised a unified programme presenting Elizabeth as the opposite of her predecessor. The purpose of the coronation ceremonies, on the other hand, was quite the opposite: each of its features and rituals was meant to convey and emphasise the continuity and enduring nature of monarchy. The ruler ascending the throne took on a new identity and a new body. In line with the Tudor doctrine of “the king’s two bodies,” described by Ernst Kantorowicz, at coronation the monarch relinquished their individual identity to become a super-individual King who was immortal. Thus, the festivities and ceremonies inaugurating Elizabeth’s rule had a twofold nature, and the two main elements were complementary to each other: they presented the queen as a “new hope” of the Protestant England and as a rightful heir to the throne not just worthy of her predecessors but rather identical with them.
Keywords:
Queen Elizabeth I, coronation, royal iconography, Elizabethan courtly entertainment, King's Two Bodies, Queenship, Elizabethan ageReferences
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Authors
Emilia OlechnowiczInstitute of Art of the Polish Academy of Sciences Poland
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4874-3471
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