Goddesses and Queens: The Iconography of Elizabeth I is a collection of essays which explores the ways in which the rich and varied image of the queen was developed and negotiated by Elizabeth and her contemporaries, in portraits as well as a range of other printed texts.

The visual images of Queen Elizabeth I displayed in contemporary portraits and perpetuated and developed in more recent media, such as film and television, make her one of the most familiar and popular of all British monarchs.This collection of essays examines the diversity of the queen’s extensive iconographical repertoire, focusing on both visual and textual representations of Elizabeth, not only in portraiture and literature, but also in contemporary sermons, speeches and alchemical treatises. The collection broadens current critical thinking about Elizabeth, as each of the essays contributes to the debate about the ways in which the queen’s developing iconicity was not simply a celebratory mode, but also encoded criticism of her. Each of these essays explains the ways in which the varied representations of Elizabeth reflect the political and cultural anxieties of her subjects

IntroductionA world in crisis: Elizabeth’s iconography and religious tensions1. Elizabeth I as Deborah the Judge: exceptional women of powerCarol Blessing2. Warlike mates? Queen Elizabeth, and Joan La Pucelle in 1 Henry VIBen Spiller3. ‘Rudenesse it selfe she doth refine’: Queen Elizabeth I as Lady AlchymiaJayne ArcherVirginia and the Virgin: Elizabeth and the new world4. Elizabeth I: size mattersDeanne Williams5. ‘And In Their Midst a Sun’: Petrarch’s triumphs and the Elizabethan iconHeather Campbell6. ‘Nature Without Labor’: Virgin Queen and virgin land in Sir Walter Ralegh's The Discoverie of the Large, Rich and Bewtiful Empyre of GuianaHelen J. BurgessThe old world and the new: classical precedents7. The dark side of the moon: Semiramis and TitaniaLisa Hopkins8. A Midsummer Night’s Dream: Shakespeare’s retrospective on Elizabeth I and the iconography of marriageAnnaliese Connolly9. Cynthia waning: Cynthia’s Revels imagines the death of the QueenMatthew SteggleCoda: Elizabeth’s afterlife10. ‘Turn thy Tombe into a Throne’: Elizabeth I’s death rehearsalScott L. Newstok