Research Paper - UCLA Library

to medieval ideology that saw “the concept of female inheritance as one of transmission of
Gu 33
power, rather than actual wielding of it” and situates queens (and therefore Elizabeth) as a means
of producing royal progeny (Hopkins 31-2). As much as the Queen tried to escape the role of the
queen as mother by remaining unmarried during her lifetime, she is nevertheless forced into that
role discursively after her death.
While the “prophecies” for Elizabeth were written with the past in mind, the hopes that
James’s “honor and the greatness of his name/ Shall be, and make new nations. He shall
flourish” had not been validated yet at the time of Shakespeare and Fletcher’s collaboration
(V.4.50-54). In fact, James had already disappointed the English people on a few occasions, such
as the selling of hundreds of knighthoods, since his coronation in 1604. The two King’s Men
playwrights produce a fantasy version of Tudor history in Henry VIII, writing out the later half of
Henry VIII’s reign as well as any subsequent conflict in Elizabeth and James’s foreshadowed
reigns.
VII. CONCLUSION
Through an analysis of the negative representations of Elizabeth I in The Revenger’s
Tragedy and Henry VIII, I aim to shed light on early modern views towards female authority as
well as more specific attitudes towards Elizabeth herself in the early 1600s. This thesis attempts
to contribute to further understanding of literary portrayals of queenship and complicate notions
of Elizabeth as the legendary virgin monarch.
Although some critics dismiss Jacobean portrayals of Elizabeth I as veiled critiques of
James I and the prevalence of corruption among his courtiers, an examination of contemporary
historical accounts and iconography about the late queen suggest otherwise. Through elegiac