The ‘Holy Days’ of Queen Elizabeth I
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 9878076 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Natalie Mears (0000-0002-5442-834X, Durham University, corresponding author), Paul Williamson (0000-0002-5243-4324, Durham University), Philip Williamson |
| Year | 2020 |
| Volume | 105 |
| Issue | 365 |
| Pages | 201-228 |
| Publication date | 2020-04-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | History (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0018-2648 • E-ISSN: 1468-229X |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/1468-229x.12971 |
| OpenAlex | W3016549037 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
| References cited | 2 |
The annual celebrations of the accession day and birthday of Queen Elizabeth I are a familiar subject in studies of her reign, yet their beginnings, status and purpose have remained uncertain. By examining revisions of the calendar of the Church of England published in the Book of Common Prayer from early in the reign, this article establishes the dates of the first recognition of these public anniversaries. It questions the weight that has been attached to the evidence for these occasions provided in churchwardens’ accounts, and challenges the conventional interpretations that accession day began and spread as wholly spontaneous, local and popular festivities, and expressed a straightforward patriotic ‘cult’ of the queen. While agreeing that they were not holidays, and explaining that they were not strictly ‘holy days’, it is argued that the two anniversaries began as and continued to be religious occasions, and that their origins are best understood in terms of the religious politics of the Elizabethan state. As other scholars have shown by careful exegesis of sermons addressed to the queen, ‘godly’ clergy persistently urged her to undertake further protestant reformation and firmer anti‐Catholic measures. With the anniversaries and in the forms of prayer for accession day, archbishops and bishops provided opportunities and texts both to sustain loyalty to the actual queen and to stimulate hopes of an ideal queen who would more completely fulfil their understanding of her providential role
Accession · Ancient history · Art · Bishops · Cult · Exegesis · Literature · Political science · Politics · Prayer · Protestantism · Queen (butterfly · Reign · American Constitutional Law and Politics · Classics · Historical Studies on Reproduction, Gender, Health, and Societal Changes · History · Law · Philosophy · Reformation and Early Modern Christianity · Religious studies
| Unique citing works | 3 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,5 |
| Citation span | 2020 - 2024 (5) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 3 |