8 May 2008
A Tale of three Queens:
Lady Jane Grey, Elizabeth I, and Mary, Queen of Scots
Lecture Outline
*The Tudor and Stuart royal lines
*Lady Jane Grey and the culture of death
*Queen Elizabeth and warrior culture
*Mary Queen of Scots and the sonnet tradition
The Tudor and Stuart royal lines
*Family tree
For a fullsized version of the family tree, click here.
*the six wives of Henry VIII
interactive learning tool for 7-10 year olds:
http://www.brims.co.uk/tudors/wives.html
Lady Jane Grey and the culture of death
*Edward VI’s Device for Succession
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3S04myNs_C8
Jane Grey’s death and martyrdom
*From A Certain Prayer of the Lady Jane in the Time of her Trouble (pg. 133-4 in your antho)
“I beseech Thee; which, with Solomon, do cry unto Thee, humbly desiring Thee, that I may neither be too much puffed up with prosperity, neither too much depresssed with adversity; lest I, being too full, should deny Thee, my God; in being too low brought, should despair and blaspheme Thee, myLord and Saviour. O merciful God, consider my misery, best known unto Thee; and be Thou now unto me a strong tower of defence, I humbly require Thee. Suffer me not to be tempted above my power, but wither be thou a deliverer unto me out of this great misery, or else give me grace patiently to bear Thy heavy hand and sharp correction.”
To her Sister Lady Katherine Immediately Before she Suffered (pg 133)
“Live still to die, that you (by death) may purchase eternal life. And trust not, that the tenderness of your age shall lengthen your life. For as soon (if God call) goeth the young, as the old and labour always to learn to die, defy the world, deny the devil, and despise the flesh, and delight yourself only in the Lord.”
*memento mori
Death and the Bride
Death and the Shepherdess
Death and the Bride and Death and the Shepherdess are both from The Danse Macabre of Women. You can find a copy in Mills Library here.
Rene d’Anjou
Source: http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/TourPopup.asp?TourID=159
Cadaver tomb with flesh (1400s)
Cadaver tombs are a good example of church art that survived the purgation of decoration from the churches of England. We might speculate that somehow these images of death continued to be useful or merely a part of the background to a culture that is fascinated by the idea of decay and continues to celebrate a good death as a sign of moral rectitude.
For more examples, visit the Churchmouse at:
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/peter.fairweather/docs/cadavertombs/cadavertombs.htm
Holbein’s Danse Macabre, 1538
Death and the Rich Man
Holbein was the court portrait artist for the Tudors under Henry VIII. He painted many of the portraits of the royal family that you'll see today. He also published an enormously popular series of woodcuts that depict the fall of Adam and Eve, their expulsion from paradise, and the rise of death as a prime mover in society. Holbein's Dance of Death was enormously popular and reprinted many times. You can buy or borrow the book in an edition by Dover:
http://morris.mcmaster.ca/ipac20/ipac.jsp?view=items&aspect=basic_search&uri=full%3d3100001%7e%21405597%7e%210&menu=search&profile=endeca#focus
The Dover edition features an English translation of the French images.
Some good info on it is available here.
An 1892 reprint of the woodcut images and accompanying text in French can be viewed here.
Holbein, The Ambassadors, 1533
*ars moriendi
For some fabulous info on the art of dying, visit here.
*Jane Grey as Protestant martyr
Idea of death as a battle, pg. 134, A Certain Prayer:
“plague me what way Thou wilt. Only, in the meantime, arm me, I beseech Thee, with Thy armour, that I may stand fast, my loins being girded with verity, having on the breast-plate of righteousness, and shod with the shoes prepared by the gospel of peace; above all things, taking to me the shield of faith, wherewith I may be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked; and taking the helmet of salvation, and the sword of Thy spirit, which is Thy most holy word; praying always, with all manner of prayer and supplication, that I may refer myself wholly to Thy will”.
*Foxe’s Book of Martyrs (aka Acts and Monuments)
If you go to EEBO and search "Acts and Monuments", I recommend taking a look at the 1583 edition.
*The debate with Fecknam (in your books, 135-8)
Queen Elizabeth and warrior culture
*Elizabeth’s response to imprisonment, pg. 293, Written on a Wall at Woodstock
*the combination in Elizabeth of female virtue and warrior strength, at times combined with the Protestant tendency to wish to strongly differentiate the Protestant faith from the Catholic
*also true of her in images
The sources of these images of Elizabeth with commentary may be found at Marilee Cody's excellent and comprehensive website, here. This is a terrific site to begin with if you're interested in investigating Elizabeth in portraits.
Portrait with Verses, 1565
Elizabeth at Prayer, 1569, from the frontispiece of her personal prayer book
Compare to this image of St. Birgitta at prayer, from a 1492 manuscript:
Or Judith and Holofernes, an illumination from a medieval manuscript:
Allegory of the Tudor Succession, 1575
Note Elizabeth on the Right with Peace (stepping on the sword) and Plenty (holding the cornucopia):
Source: http://ladysarafina.home.att.net/allegorytudor.JPG
For more portraits, see http://ladysarafina.home.att.net/elizabethan_portraits.htm
Compare to the 1590-5 copy:
The Doubt of Future Foes, 294
Armada Portrait, 1588
Three versions of the Tilbury speech:
An interesting essay topic would be to examine how these 20th- and 21st-century depictions of Elizabeth have been derived from the historical and literary records. From the Tilbury speech, for example, we have three radically different representations here.
Tilbury speech with Glenda Jackson
With Helen Mirrin
With Anne-Marie Duff
But other ways to image Elizabeth, and ways in which she imaged herself:
The Pelican Portrait, 1575 (Source: Marilee Cody's website, URL above)
Compare to the Golden Speech, 1601
And the Sieve Portrait, 1583 (Image and commentary from Marilee Cody)
Background: roundels on curtain Aeneas and Dido; the Sieve is inscribed with Latin phrase meaning, “The good falls to the ground while the bad remains in the saddle”; the globe pictures ships passing into the West, and the phrase, “'I see all and much is lacking”; the portrait itself is inscribed with “'Weary I am and, having rested, still am weary.”
Mary Queen of Scots and the sonnet tradition
*the Petrarchan tradition
*some background on Petrarch and the Petrarchan mode
For more info on Petrarch and the sonnet form, go here.
*1555 Louise Labé’s Oeuvres including 24 sonnets, published in France
To read some samples of Louse Labé's poetry in English translation, go here.
To view some facsimile pages from her Works and read more, go here.
*Mary’s sonnets in French related to this tradition?
*Mary’s life as Theatre of God’s Judgements
A biographical page of Mary's life and some primary sources relevant to the Tudor dynasty is available here.
A fun page that treats Darnley's death as a murder mystery for you to solve is available here.
A critique of the casket letters and a link to transcriptions of the letters can be found here.
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