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Lady of the Lake or Queen of the Ocean? The Representation of Female Power in Prince Henry’s Barriers and Tethys’ Festival

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Representations of Elizabeth I in Early Modern Culture

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Abstract

Anne of Denmark, as a foreign, married mother, could hardly have made a starker contrast to her Virgin predecessor. The new Queen was not an absolute, unmarried female monarch ‘normalized’ by numerous layers of symbolism (Hackett, 1995, p. 239); instead, she represented the ‘normality’ of a royal family with male heirs. The Court’s attention inevitably switched from the Queen seen as sole monarch to a queen whose identity revolved around her being married to the King of England, of whose children she was the mother. This came to influence contemporary court entertainments: the symbolism of Elizabeth as the virginal yet devoted spouse of the kingdom was no longer relevant (Nichols, 1964, I, p. 132); the royal family in its entirety, especially the children, was made to provide a ‘magnificent spectacle’, as well as the comforting idea of an ‘orderly succession’ (Bergeron, 1991, pp. 68, 91).

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Authors
  1. Sara Trevisan
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Università degli Studi di Padova, Italy

    Alessandra Petrina (Associate Professor of English Literature) (Associate Professor of English Literature)

  2. Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia, Italy

    Laura Tosi (Associate Professor of English Literature) (Associate Professor of English Literature)

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© 2011 Sara Trevisan

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Trevisan, S. (2011). Lady of the Lake or Queen of the Ocean? The Representation of Female Power in Prince Henry’s Barriers and Tethys’ Festival. In: Petrina, A., Tosi, L. (eds) Representations of Elizabeth I in Early Modern Culture. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230307261_9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230307261_9

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-349-32605-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-0-230-30726-1

  • eBook Packages: Palgrave History CollectionHistory (R0)

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