Tudor History: The Legacy of Queen Elizabeth I with Dr. Elizabeth Norton

Elizabeth I came to the throne in 1558, aged twenty-five. This final Tudor monarch was a skilled politician, carefully constructing the image of the Virgin Queen, which exists to this day. 

Her Majesty presided over a period of expansion abroad and increasing urbanization. Additionally, her reign is remembered as a golden age of the arts, with the first permanent theaters constructed and the works of William Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe, and Ben Jonson still acclaimed today. Yet behind the palace gates, there was strife at home and abroad – with the succession far from settled and conflicts with Spain and in Ireland dominating the latter years of the reign.

Led by Dr. Elizabeth Norton, a British historian and expert on the Tudor period, this conversation will explore the age of Elizabeth. We will unpick the propaganda to glimpse the real Elizabeth, as well as considering the successes and failures of her reign. We will also look in detail at the way that Elizabeth was able to construct her own image, as well as turning the significant negative of her sex into a positive in the popular imagination. Designed to inform curiosity as well as future travels, participants will come away with an increased understanding of the woman who was, arguably, England's greatest monarch.