00:00:01
foreign
00:00:03
[Music]
00:00:13
we all probably have a certain image of
00:00:16
Elizabeth as this glamorous ageless
00:00:19
Beauty
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and that was no accident
00:00:28
Elizabeth's Reign is absolutely
00:00:30
synonymous with portraits
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there are over a hundred surviving
00:00:37
images of Elizabeth that date from her
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lifetime
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anybody in a position of leadership and
00:00:49
Authority has to display their image
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she knew she needs to be seen to be
00:00:54
believed
00:00:56
portraits in Elizabeth's Reign aren't
00:00:58
simply to be hung on walls and to
00:01:00
accurately represent the queen
00:01:02
Elizabeth was the Mistress of propaganda
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it was the most audacious work of spin
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centuries before the kind of political
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Spin Doctors that we think about today
00:01:14
[Music]
00:01:16
the idea that a woman could rule for so
00:01:21
many decades unmarried without being
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deposed and be regarded now as a monarch
00:01:27
of great success is just incredible
00:01:29
really
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she's gone from being Henry VII's
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daughter a princess with very little
00:01:36
chance of succeeding to the throne to a
00:01:38
queen of England who's trying to
00:01:40
navigate her way in a man's world we see
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her in her portraits go from a girl to
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an icon
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[Music]
00:02:00
at the turn of the 16th century
00:02:02
portraiture in England was still very
00:02:04
much in its infancy in fact in terms of
00:02:08
the European perspective it was way
00:02:10
behind
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in the low countries for example
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portraiture had started to become really
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popular and the same in Italy and we
00:02:19
start to see lots of artists coming from
00:02:21
other European countries to seek
00:02:24
patronage in places like France where we
00:02:27
get Leonardo da Vinci and then we get
00:02:29
the German artist Hans Holbein who
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arrives at the court of Henry VII in the
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1530s and this is really a huge turning
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point for English portraiture because
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holbein's focus is very much on realism
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and attention to detail and suddenly the
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portraits that have once been very flat
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very two-dimensional become very real
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with the individual leaping out from the
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canvas
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we also see at Henry VII's court that
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Miniatures start to become more popular
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as well because they are portable so
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they're more personal
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they can be used and incorporated into
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Jewels for example so we know that Henry
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VII's sixth wife Catherine Parr was very
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fond of miniatures
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Henry VII Edward VI and Mary the first
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all had portraits of themselves painted
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and we see this happening across Europe
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as well monarchs rulers members of the
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royal family all start to have portraits
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of themselves being painted
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increasingly during Henry's Reign and
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obviously with his children growing up
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but then through into Elizabeth's Reign
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portraits and portrait Miniatures in
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particular became really important as
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part of the Diplomatic marriage networks
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as well as being a sign of loyalty that
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courtiers would have hung in their
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houses or even you know really small
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Miniatures around their necks
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Elizabeth was the only child of Henry
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VIII by Anne Berlin
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she was born on the 7th of September
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1533 at Greenwich Palace and to begin
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with at the time of her birth she was
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the king's official Heir but this wasn't
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a state of affairs that Henry was
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prepared to accept and Elizabeth was
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born very much in the anticipation that
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a brother a male Heir would soon follow
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tragically this never transpires and
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before her third birthday Elizabeth's
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mother amberlin was executed on charges
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of adultery and incest charges that were
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almost certainly falsified and from that
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point on Elizabeth is declared
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illegitimate and it's a state of affairs
00:04:52
that is never rectified by her father
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because although Elizabeth is later
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restored to her place in the line of
00:05:00
succession her father never legally
00:05:02
legitimates her and this is a sticking
00:05:05
point that Elizabeth is forced to fight
00:05:07
against for the rest of her life
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particularly when she becomes Queen and
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she uses portraiture as a way of
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asserting her legitimacy
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there aren't actually many surviving
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portraits of Elizabeth that date from
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before her time as Queen but the family
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of Henry VII is one of the earliest that
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we have which once hung in the Palace of
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Whitehall where it's actually set
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it was commissioned by Henry VII in
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around about
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1545. it's the dynastic piece as it's
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intended to emphasize continuity within
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the Tudor dynasty
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the central focus is Henry sat in the
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middle who is flanked by Jane Seymour
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his third wife who crucially is dead at
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this point but her inclusion is merited
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because she had been the mother of the
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Kings longed for male Heir Prince Edward
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who we can see on the king's other side
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in a way it was an attempt to sort of
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try and forget all the chopping and
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changing of Henry's marriages and
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instead really suggests a happy family
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situation that actually of course
00:06:30
infamously didn't exist
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although Henry did not intend that
00:06:35
either of his daughters should succeed
00:06:37
him they were still an important part of
00:06:40
Henry's family and that's why Mary and
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Elizabeth are included
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around her neck Elizabeth wears an
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initial jaw and initial Jewels were
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extremely popular in the 1530s and 1540s
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but one thing about this piece in
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particular is striking
00:06:59
it represents the initial a which can
00:07:02
only be representative of Elizabeth's
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mother and Berlin so why would Elizabeth
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choose to identify herself with amberlin
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in this blatant piece of Tudor
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propaganda perhaps it was a symbol of
00:07:16
loyalty perhaps this necklace had been
00:07:18
given to her unfortunately is one of the
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questions that we'll never be able to
00:07:22
know the answer for sure
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foreign it was probably the following
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year when another portrait of Elizabeth
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was painted perhaps on her father's
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orders and throughout her life Elizabeth
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was extremely fashion conscious and this
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portrait really reflects that because
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she was dressed in the finest and the
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costliest materials she's got Crimson
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satin and she's also wearing a very
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magnificent collection of jewels but the
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emphasis on this portrait when Elizabeth
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was around 13 years old is really her
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learning and her piety because you can
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see she's got her finger marking the
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page of a book it's probably a copy of
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the Bible or the New Testament
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this really emphasizes Elizabeth's
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scholarly abilities for which she was
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renowned
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having been this demoted figure after
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the execution of her mother amberlyn
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Henry's final wife Catherine Parr has
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gone to great efforts to try and bring
00:08:29
the family back together in some ways
00:08:32
she was a very precocious very
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intelligent young woman proficient in
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languages Catherine Parr was an educated
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learned woman too who with Elizabeth
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together they would read the Bible they
00:08:45
would conduct translations so this
00:08:48
represents a Pious
00:08:50
precociously intelligent and able young
00:08:53
woman at the end of her father's life
00:08:56
about to face the prospect now of her
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Young Brother Edward VI becoming King
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the only thing to note about this
00:09:04
portrait is that Elizabeth is very
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clearly being identified as Henry VII's
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daughter as per the inscription which
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says Elizabeth the King's Daughter so
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she's not legitimate but she is still an
00:09:18
important part of Henry Gates family and
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this portrait also later appears in
00:09:24
Henry VII's inventory which suggests
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that it may have been commissioned on
00:09:28
his orders
00:09:30
thank you
00:09:35
in 1553 Elizabeth's half-sister Mary
00:09:39
succeeds as Queen of England and she's
00:09:42
the first queen remnant of England to be
00:09:45
crowned the idea of female monarchy is
00:09:48
quite unpopular because it's
00:09:50
unprecedented in England people are
00:09:52
unsure about what's going to happen and
00:09:55
Elizabeth has a particularly difficult
00:09:57
time under Mary
00:09:59
in 1554 she was accused of complicity in
00:10:03
the white Rebellion to overthrow her
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half-sister
00:10:07
much to her distress she was forced to
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endure a spell of imprisonment in the
00:10:12
Tower of London and given that her
00:10:15
mother met her end there we can only
00:10:17
imagine Elizabeth's Terror at this
00:10:20
perilous situation
00:10:22
on the anniversary of her mother's
00:10:24
execution Elizabeth is released from the
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tower but she's taken to endure a spell
00:10:30
of house imprisonment under the
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custodian ship of Sir Henry Bedingfield
00:10:35
and it's very clear that Mary Harbors
00:10:38
this huge distrust for Elizabeth
00:10:43
nevertheless by 1558 it was very clear
00:10:46
that Mary wasn't going to produce any
00:10:49
children of her own she'd experienced
00:10:51
probably two Phantom pregnancies and
00:10:54
it's only at this point that Elizabeth's
00:10:57
ascendancy to the throne has gone from
00:10:59
being a possibility to a certainty
00:11:05
Mary died on the 17th of November 1558
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and Elizabeth succeeded to the throne on
00:11:13
a wave of popular and heartfelt
00:11:15
enthusiasm on the 15th of January 1559
00:11:19
Elizabeth was crowned at Westminster
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Abbey
00:11:23
we see a dramatic change in Elizabeth's
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portraiture as well from the time that
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she becomes Queen because she's gone
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from being Henry VII's daughter a
00:11:32
princess with very little chance of
00:11:35
succeeding to the throne to a queen of
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England who's trying to navigate her way
00:11:40
in a man's world and establish and
00:11:43
certify her Authority and portraiture
00:11:46
provides a very important way for her to
00:11:49
do this
00:11:50
it may have been around this time that a
00:11:52
portrait depicting her in full
00:11:54
coronation regalia was painted to Mark
00:11:57
the occasion although the only surviving
00:12:00
image we have of this now dates from
00:12:03
much later in Elizabeth's life
00:12:06
so it's depicting a 26 year old Queen
00:12:08
even though it was painted in 1600 when
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Elizabeth was coming to the end of her
00:12:13
life and here we have the classic image
00:12:16
of of queenship Elizabeth holding the
00:12:20
orb and scepter wearing her Herman
00:12:22
mantle showing herself enthroned as she
00:12:25
would appeared at the coronation and
00:12:27
this in a way is the kind of poster girl
00:12:29
image and I think many people perhaps
00:12:32
see this image as representing the
00:12:34
accession of the first queen such was
00:12:37
this sort of success and ubiquity of
00:12:39
Elizabeth's reign
00:12:42
but the reality here is in fact that
00:12:45
Elizabeth is wearing the hand-me-down
00:12:46
gowns of her half-sister Mary who in
00:12:49
fact was the first crown queen of
00:12:51
England and on Mary's death the the
00:12:54
coronation robe was hastily refurbished
00:12:57
but then worn Again by Elizabeth and I
00:12:59
think that's a timely and instructive
00:13:02
reminder really that actually Elizabeth
00:13:04
did follow her sister Mary who did wear
00:13:08
the crown for the first time and in many
00:13:11
ways Elizabeth was able to learn from
00:13:13
her sister's mistakes but also kind of
00:13:16
benefit from the fact that it would be
00:13:18
Mary who had been the first woman to
00:13:20
wear the crown and had to negotiate
00:13:22
power and being a queen in what was
00:13:25
essentially still very much a man's
00:13:27
world
00:13:28
[Music]
00:13:34
the Hampton portrait which was
00:13:37
commissioned in the early 1560s is a
00:13:41
very rare full-length portrait of
00:13:43
Elizabeth is one of the only full-length
00:13:45
images that we have of the queen and
00:13:48
this was painted very early in her Reign
00:13:51
when Elizabeth was the most eligible
00:13:54
bride in Europe
00:13:57
so you can see the fruit and the foliage
00:13:59
in the background which is very much an
00:14:01
emphasis on fertility the colors of red
00:14:05
and white that have been chosen in
00:14:07
Elizabeth's costume were an emphasis on
00:14:10
the white rose of York and the red rose
00:14:13
of Lancaster that marked the combined
00:14:16
dynasties that Elizabeth had descended
00:14:18
from
00:14:20
we can also see Elizabeth holding a
00:14:23
glove in a sign of power this is very
00:14:26
much an image that would have been sent
00:14:29
out potentially to suitors who were
00:14:32
eager to obtain the Queen's hand in
00:14:34
marriage
00:14:39
it shows and represents the young queen
00:14:41
that she was at this point but actually
00:14:44
is responding to a particularly perilous
00:14:48
time because quite soon after
00:14:49
Elizabeth's succession in 1562 she
00:14:52
suffered from smallpox and indeed for a
00:14:54
time was unconscious there was a sense
00:14:56
that her life was very much in danger
00:14:58
and therefore the future was in very
00:15:01
precarious position and so this really
00:15:04
was a kind of attempt to re-establish
00:15:06
her Authority after that brush with
00:15:09
death
00:15:10
thinking about her both as a Tudor but
00:15:13
also as a future wife because although
00:15:15
she was Queen at this point she was also
00:15:17
of course expected absolutely to marry
00:15:20
not least to have a male partner in
00:15:23
government women were not regarded as
00:15:25
able to govern and rule on their own but
00:15:27
to provide an air
00:15:31
in the first few years of Elizabeth's
00:15:34
Reign the emphasis was very much on who
00:15:37
was the queen going to marry and
00:15:40
particularly in 1559 rumors began to
00:15:44
abound of Elizabeth's relationship with
00:15:46
her favorite Robert Dudley
00:15:49
course Robert Dudley was married
00:15:52
although when his wife died in
00:15:54
mysterious circumstances there were
00:15:57
continued rumors that he might end up
00:15:59
managing to convince Elizabeth to marry
00:16:02
him unfortunately for him the death of
00:16:05
his wife put an end to all of those
00:16:08
hopes because Elizabeth realized that to
00:16:10
marry him now would permanently tarnish
00:16:13
her reputation
00:16:15
and again there was suggestion among
00:16:17
hostile agents and ambassadors that
00:16:20
actually perhaps she wasn't even a
00:16:22
virgin that she in fact had slept with
00:16:24
Robert Dudley and others or that she had
00:16:27
some kind of physical impediment which
00:16:29
meant that she couldn't have children
00:16:30
and therefore wouldn't be a desirable
00:16:32
marriage Prospect to a foreign Prince so
00:16:35
these portraits are saying she's fertile
00:16:37
she's chased she's all the things that
00:16:39
you would want as well as trying to
00:16:41
emphasize her Authority and we begin to
00:16:45
see in this period the need to mask the
00:16:48
fact that actually she's getting old
00:16:52
it's important to remember that
00:16:54
Elizabeth represented for the Catholics
00:16:57
of Europe and of course the Catholics in
00:16:59
England those who had been loyal to
00:17:02
Catherine of Aragon and then to
00:17:03
Elizabeth Sister Mary
00:17:05
she was this illegitimate pretended
00:17:07
Queen who should not have exceeded the
00:17:10
throne she was Protestant she was
00:17:12
unmarried and in fact the rightful Queen
00:17:15
was the Catholic Mary Queen of Scots who
00:17:18
on Elizabeth's succession claimed the
00:17:20
English throne
00:17:22
so Elizabeth's position was precarious
00:17:25
in the early years and that was
00:17:27
expressed in a number of plots and
00:17:30
rebellions
00:17:32
so we begin to see
00:17:34
an attempt to in portraiture respond to
00:17:38
a number of different threats first of
00:17:40
all emphasizing the Queen's virginity
00:17:44
at the beginning of the 1570s there were
00:17:47
those at court privately who had begun
00:17:50
to suspect that Elizabeth may not marry
00:17:53
but that was certainly not the image
00:17:55
that she was trying to project which we
00:17:58
can see in both the Phoenix and the
00:18:01
Pelican portrait both of which were
00:18:03
created by Nicholas Hilliard Healing Art
00:18:07
was actually a Goldsmith by trade and he
00:18:11
didn't end up painting very many
00:18:12
half-length portraits in fact the
00:18:15
Phoenix and the Pelican portrait are two
00:18:17
of the few half-length portraits that he
00:18:20
ever painted because Hilliard's skill
00:18:22
was really with Miniatures but like
00:18:25
Holbein before him the emphasis in his
00:18:28
paintings was really on realism and
00:18:30
detail
00:18:32
relatively recent work has shown that
00:18:34
these portraits came from the same
00:18:37
workshop and actually some of the tree
00:18:39
dating has shown that they were made
00:18:41
around the same time so we can see the
00:18:43
Pelican and the Phoenix portrait as a
00:18:46
pair and we can see the face pattern
00:18:48
inverted the Phoenix was a symbol that
00:18:51
was used regularly by Elizabeth and it
00:18:54
was also symbolic of Chastity and
00:18:57
rebirth she is wearing a costume of the
00:19:00
very highest value
00:19:03
Elizabeth was really renowned for her
00:19:05
wardrobe and when she died she reputedly
00:19:08
had nearly 2 000 dresses but all of
00:19:11
these were composed of separate Elements
00:19:13
which we can see here we can see the
00:19:16
Magnificent rough that she wears around
00:19:17
her neck we can see the fabulous sleeves
00:19:20
and a magnificent bodice all of which
00:19:23
had been embroidered this was really
00:19:26
high status work of the highest quality
00:19:30
the Pelican portrait tries to convey a
00:19:33
similar message it's named because of
00:19:36
the Pelican jewels that Elizabeth can be
00:19:38
seen wearing and like the Phoenix this
00:19:41
was a symbol that Elizabeth adopted
00:19:43
fairly regularly throughout her reign
00:19:46
the emphasis on this portrait is really
00:19:48
in motherhood because the Pelican was
00:19:50
believed to draw blood from its own
00:19:52
breast with which to feed its young so
00:19:55
it's symbolic of Elizabeth as the mother
00:19:58
of her Nation
00:20:01
foreign
00:20:04
sort of time that the Phoenix and the
00:20:06
Pelican portraits have been painted
00:20:08
we've also got the darling portrait of
00:20:11
Elizabeth
00:20:12
we know that Elizabeth sat for at least
00:20:15
five artists throughout the course of
00:20:17
her life but this image is particularly
00:20:20
important because it was the face from
00:20:22
this portrait that many of Elizabeth's
00:20:24
later portraits were based on this face
00:20:28
pattern that became the the officially
00:20:30
sanctioned one which it was ordered had
00:20:33
to be used in portraits of the queen and
00:20:36
all portraits had to be signed off by
00:20:39
the queen Sergeant painter essentially
00:20:42
creating a kind of censorship around the
00:20:44
image of Elizabeth and we think that for
00:20:46
the later portraits of her Reign it was
00:20:49
actually her ladies her ladies in
00:20:50
Waiting who would sit for the portraits
00:20:52
because the gowns that they wear Accord
00:20:55
with those that appear in the wardrobe
00:20:57
accounts essentially there's a cut and
00:21:00
paste job that the face pattern is then
00:21:02
added into the image denoting Elizabeth
00:21:05
when in fact Elizabeth hadn't sat for
00:21:07
the portrait herself
00:21:10
the image has now very sadly faded from
00:21:13
its original and Elizabeth appears
00:21:15
almost quite cold
00:21:17
what's also really important about this
00:21:20
piece is that it's a huge reflection of
00:21:23
status so we can see Elizabeth's Crown
00:21:26
in the background we can also see the
00:21:28
double String of Pearls that she wears
00:21:30
around her neck she's carrying an
00:21:33
ostrich feather fan which may have been
00:21:35
gifted to her by one of her courtiers
00:21:37
and also there hangs are particularly
00:21:40
important Jewel from her waist which is
00:21:43
a ruby surrounded by images of several
00:21:47
Roman gods and this is really intended
00:21:50
as a reflection of Elizabeth's classical
00:21:52
learning so the classics were extremely
00:21:55
popular in the 16th century and we know
00:21:58
that Elizabeth was extremely fond of
00:22:01
reading about the classics so this also
00:22:04
may have been a gift from one of her
00:22:05
cultures intended as a compliment
00:22:07
towards the Queen's learning
00:22:11
foreign
00:22:15
[Music]
00:22:17
see the execution of Mary Queen of Scots
00:22:20
who's been Elizabeth's prisoner for the
00:22:23
last 19 years and Elizabeth faces a huge
00:22:27
backlash from Catholic Europe
00:22:30
more and more the prospect looms of
00:22:33
finally Spanish decisive action against
00:22:36
Elizabeth
00:22:37
in the summer of 1588 Philip II of Spain
00:22:41
launched 130 ships his Infamous Armada
00:22:45
to set sail against England Elizabeth
00:22:48
gave a rousing speech to her troops at
00:22:52
Tilbury in which she urged them to fight
00:22:55
and made that very famous saying I know
00:22:59
I have the body but of a weak and feeble
00:23:01
woman but I have the heart and stomach
00:23:04
of a king and a king of England too
00:23:08
in fact this is a hugely defining moment
00:23:11
in Elizabeth's Reign because the Armada
00:23:14
was the greatest threat that she had
00:23:16
faced to date
00:23:19
in many ways Elizabeth's Reign is
00:23:22
absolutely identified with the defeat of
00:23:25
the Spanish Armada although arguably it
00:23:28
was more a victory for the English
00:23:29
weather
00:23:31
but I would argue that actually the
00:23:33
Armada portray is incredibly significant
00:23:36
and Powerful for its symbolism
00:23:40
and in a way it shows just how
00:23:42
successfully Elizabeth had over the
00:23:45
course of her Reign managed to
00:23:48
essentially override the reality of her
00:23:52
femininity and the idea that she was a
00:23:55
woman with a body that was seen as weak
00:23:58
and problematic
00:24:00
in fact what she's doing in this poetry
00:24:03
is using her body to make as powerful a
00:24:07
political statement as Henry VII did in
00:24:10
that famous Holbein mural
00:24:15
what she's doing in this portrait is
00:24:17
saying her body her natural body is one
00:24:20
and the same as England
00:24:24
what's really interesting in Elizabeth's
00:24:26
portraits at this time is that full of
00:24:28
symbolism and full of messages
00:24:31
and this one is very much of Victory so
00:24:35
we see Elizabeth with her hand on the
00:24:38
globe it's actually pointing at Virginia
00:24:40
which had been named in her honor as the
00:24:43
Virgin Queen and we see again the crown
00:24:47
in the background symbolic of
00:24:48
Elizabeth's Authority and of monarchy
00:24:53
to her left we see the Spanish ships
00:24:56
which are being tossed around in the sea
00:24:59
are in utter terminal compared with the
00:25:02
English ships on the other side which
00:25:04
are sailing in calm Waters and the
00:25:07
message here is Elizabeth's reign as
00:25:09
being one of peace and prosperity by
00:25:13
contrast to the Tamil that's taking
00:25:15
place in Catholic Europe which Elizabeth
00:25:17
is turning her back to
00:25:21
beside Elizabeth we've got the figure of
00:25:24
a mermaid and mermaids were believed to
00:25:28
be Temptation for soldiers
00:25:31
it's this symbol of England triumphing
00:25:34
over Catholic Europe whilst the mermaid
00:25:37
had been sent to tempt the Spanish
00:25:39
soldiers
00:25:41
however a lot of the imagery in this
00:25:43
portrait is all a bit of an illusion
00:25:45
it's sending out the message that
00:25:47
Elizabeth is all-powerful but it's a
00:25:50
message that her government and the
00:25:52
queen herself wanted people to believe
00:25:58
at a similar time to the Armada portrait
00:26:01
we also have the rainbow portrait of
00:26:04
Elizabeth which hangs in Hatfield house
00:26:07
I think this is one of my favorite
00:26:09
pictures of Elizabeth it's kind of
00:26:11
audacious and it's cunning she's still
00:26:14
wearing the mask of use that we
00:26:16
associate with her younger portraits
00:26:18
this is very much a high status portrait
00:26:22
that is intended to Dazzle that's
00:26:25
intended to impress and to convey
00:26:28
Elizabeth's magnificence
00:26:31
she is wearing a rainbow
00:26:33
the Latin inscription in the background
00:26:36
basically says that there can be no
00:26:39
rainbow without the sun Elizabeth is the
00:26:42
sun she is the queen she oversees
00:26:45
everything
00:26:46
we can see that her dress shows a design
00:26:50
of eyes and ears reflecting the fact
00:26:53
that Elizabeth was believed to be able
00:26:55
to see and hear everything that was
00:26:57
going on in her kingdom which of course
00:27:00
she was because she had this tremendous
00:27:01
spy Network under the auspices of
00:27:04
Francis Walsingham at this time
00:27:07
she also wears a serpent Jewel on her
00:27:10
sleeve this is a reflection of her
00:27:13
wisdom because the serpent was believed
00:27:15
to be an extremely cunning creature she
00:27:18
also wears the crown in her headdress
00:27:21
another indication of her majesty
00:27:25
so in a response to the reality which is
00:27:29
Elizabeth weak towards the end of her
00:27:32
Reign feeling vulnerable in a
00:27:34
faction-ridden court but here instead
00:27:37
denoting power all-knowing or seeing and
00:27:41
a youthful image of authority
00:27:46
in 1592 we also see the production of
00:27:50
one of the most iconic images of
00:27:52
Elizabeth the so-called ditchley
00:27:55
portrait
00:27:58
this was probably commissioned by Sir
00:28:00
Henry Lee who was the Queen's Champion
00:28:03
for many years and probably painted in
00:28:07
order to commemorate a visit that
00:28:09
Elizabeth made to Sir Henry Lee at his
00:28:12
home at ditchley near Oxford in 1592.
00:28:16
so Henry Lee had been living quite
00:28:19
openly with his mistress and vavasu and
00:28:23
she had previously had an affair with
00:28:25
the Earl of Oxford which had earned both
00:28:27
a spell of imprisonment in the tower
00:28:30
however the ditchley portrayed with its
00:28:33
theme of forgiveness is reflective of
00:28:35
the fact that Elizabeth has now accepted
00:28:37
that Sir Henry Lee has been living
00:28:39
openly with Anne
00:28:42
thank you
00:28:44
Elizabeth is seen standing on the globe
00:28:47
again she's wearing an extremely high
00:28:50
status lavish costume and some of the
00:28:54
jewels that she wears are possibly those
00:28:56
that can be identified in her 1587
00:28:59
inventory so these may have been real
00:29:02
pieces that were owned by Elizabeth
00:29:06
it's also depicting both the Shadows of
00:29:09
the threats and the turbulent years that
00:29:12
had preceded this moment as well as the
00:29:16
prospect of light that Elizabeth always
00:29:18
brought a sort of goddess Celestial
00:29:20
figure but also just far of course at
00:29:24
odds with the reality of Elizabeth at
00:29:25
this point when she's in her 60s
00:29:35
in the last few years of Elizabeth's
00:29:37
Reign life was quite difficult for many
00:29:39
of her subjects because they'd been bad
00:29:42
harvests and the economy wasn't going
00:29:45
particularly well so the standard of
00:29:47
living had dropped
00:29:50
it was now becoming clear that the queen
00:29:52
was getting old her hair had fallen out
00:29:56
and she was reduced to wearing wigs her
00:29:59
teeth had rotted from eating the sugary
00:30:01
Confections of which she was so formed
00:30:04
but nevertheless she did her best to try
00:30:08
and retain this Mosque of Youth for as
00:30:11
long as possible
00:30:13
this is a newly authenticated portrait
00:30:16
which was thought to come from the
00:30:17
workshop of Marcus gits the painter of
00:30:20
the ditchley portraits and this it seems
00:30:22
was a portrait that slipped through the
00:30:25
censorship net which attempted to catch
00:30:27
any portraits which showed Elizabeth
00:30:30
aging which really depicted her
00:30:33
mortality and you've got her crown there
00:30:35
sort of slipped off it's really a sense
00:30:38
of Time marching on
00:30:41
it gives us a kind of remarkable
00:30:43
tantalizing glimpse of of the reality
00:30:46
which for all of us over centuries it's
00:30:49
kind of eluded us
00:30:50
[Music]
00:30:52
and I suppose some people draw parallels
00:30:54
with the very authentic picture of the
00:30:58
current Queen Elizabeth II by Lucian
00:31:00
Freud
00:31:04
in a way those two portraits are
00:31:06
interesting because
00:31:07
for Elizabeth II to be shown to be Aging
00:31:10
in the way that the Lucian Freud uh
00:31:13
portrait shows is is just a mark of her
00:31:16
strength her longevity
00:31:20
it shows in contrast here that actually
00:31:23
such length had been gone to to try and
00:31:25
prevent this kind of image emerging
00:31:28
which showed that the end of Elizabeth's
00:31:29
Reign she was really really old and that
00:31:31
of course would have been a source of
00:31:32
great deal of anxiety and uncertainty
00:31:35
for people
00:31:36
this really does show quite how duped
00:31:40
people have been over the centuries when
00:31:42
we think of Elizabeth in those masks of
00:31:44
Youth portraits when in fact by the end
00:31:46
this is more accurately what she'd have
00:31:48
looked like
00:31:55
oh
00:31:58
[Music]
00:32:01
on the 24th of March 1603 Elizabeth died
00:32:05
at Richmond Palace and to begin with
00:32:09
there is a great sense of mourning
00:32:11
however there's also the great hope and
00:32:15
expectation of what the reign of James
00:32:18
the first may bring
00:32:21
we begin to see starting in around 1607
00:32:25
this wave of nostalgia for the reign of
00:32:28
good Queen Beth Queen Elizabeth and
00:32:31
suddenly there's this huge mass of
00:32:33
Revival in her portraits and we see this
00:32:36
in an image that was probably painted
00:32:39
around seven years after her death
00:32:41
finally in many ways you know the
00:32:43
censorship and the control had been
00:32:46
lifted and people could reflect back on
00:32:49
Elizabeth as she would have been and
00:32:52
appeared at the end of her reign
00:32:54
and so this is really one of the more
00:32:57
real depictions of Elizabeth
00:32:59
here is a queen that looks care worn and
00:33:03
looks exhausted we can see that in her
00:33:06
pose with her head rested on her hand so
00:33:10
no longer is she the queen be decked in
00:33:13
the Magnificent costumes and the
00:33:15
Magnificent Jewels trying to project an
00:33:17
image of majesty
00:33:19
over one shoulder we see Father Time
00:33:23
leaning and the other we see death
00:33:27
the message is that even for a queen and
00:33:31
a queen as great as Elizabeth
00:33:33
immortality isn't an option death comes
00:33:37
to us all
00:33:48
the portraits of Elizabeth's Reign and
00:33:50
there were very many of them
00:33:53
were deliberately
00:33:55
creating and sustaining actually a
00:33:58
fiction and the fiction was first of all
00:34:01
that this is a young fertile perspective
00:34:04
bride when she first became Queen
00:34:08
but later that actually she is this
00:34:11
selfless virgin figure
00:34:13
that she's this kind of goddess figure
00:34:15
that she's this completely all-knowing
00:34:19
powerful figure whose influence
00:34:21
stretches across the country and
00:34:23
potentially across the globe and all of
00:34:26
this was to in some sense distract from
00:34:29
the reality which was Elizabeth was an
00:34:33
unmarried Queen so an unmarried Queen
00:34:35
was problematic in terms of protecting
00:34:37
her reputation but it was also of course
00:34:39
essential to married to provide an heir
00:34:41
and preserve the succession
00:34:43
she needed to appear young because she
00:34:46
represented a dead end the cheetah
00:34:48
Dynasty died with her
00:34:50
and it's kind of remarkable that
00:34:52
Elizabeth is regarded I think as one of
00:34:55
the great monarchs of History because
00:34:58
the reality is she was this really
00:34:59
negligent Queen who didn't do the job
00:35:02
that everyone it was expected to do
00:35:04
which was to ensure the succession she
00:35:07
willfully just chose not to marry and
00:35:09
she didn't even name an heir and then
00:35:11
she died essentially you know this woman
00:35:14
who just wanted to maintain the fiction
00:35:17
that she was going to live forever it
00:35:18
was the most audacious work of spin you
00:35:22
know centuries before the kind of
00:35:24
political Spin Doctors that we think
00:35:25
about today
00:35:27
portraits are some of the most important
00:35:30
sources that we have when studying not
00:35:33
only Elizabeth the queen but also
00:35:36
Elizabeth the woman
00:35:38
Her Image was very tightly controlled
00:35:41
but what we also have to remember is
00:35:44
that there wasn't a great precedent for
00:35:46
female wall at this time
00:35:48
Elizabeth's successors the early Stuart
00:35:51
Kings didn't have the same kind of
00:35:53
issues about gender or about legitimacy
00:35:56
that Elizabeth faced so their portraits
00:36:00
were trying to convey very different
00:36:01
kinds of messages
00:36:04
although Elizabeth herself believed in
00:36:07
the superiority of men she believed that
00:36:10
she herself was the exception and each
00:36:14
of her portraits provide a way of her
00:36:16
conveying this important message
00:36:19
she's gone from a girl to a woman from a
00:36:23
woman to a queen and a queen who used
00:36:27
her image to convey all kinds of
00:36:30
mysterious elements about her
00:36:31
personality and her queenship
00:36:34
as someone who's path to the throne was
00:36:37
littered with uncertainty Her Image
00:36:40
reflects her battle to establish herself
00:36:43
as one of the leading female authorities
00:36:45
in Europe
00:36:47
one of the most powerful women in
00:36:50
history
00:36:51
[Music]
00:37:08
foreign
00:37:11
[Music]
