The Image of Elizabeth I in Early Modern Spain (New Hispanisms)

Queen Elizabeth I was an iconic figure in England during her reign, with many contemporary English portraits and literary works extolling her virtue and political acumen. In Spain, however, her image was markedly different. While few Spanish fictional or historical writings focus primarily on Elizabeth, numerous works either allude to her or incorporate her as a character. __The Image of Elizabeth I in Early Modern Spain__ explores the fictionalized, historical, and visual representations of Elizabeth I and their impact on the Spanish collective imagination. Drawing on works by Miguel de Cervantes, Lope de Vega, Pedro de Ribadeneira, Luis de Góngora, Cristóbal de Virués, Antonio Coello, and Calderón de la Barca, among others, the contributors to this volume limn contradictory assessments of Elizabeth’s physical appearance, private life, personality, and reign. In doing so they articulate the various and sometimes conflicting ways in which the Tudor monarch became both the primary figure in English propaganda efforts against Spain and a central part of the Spanish political agenda. This edited volume revives and questions the image of Elizabeth I in early modern Spain as a means of exploring how the queen’s persona, as mediated by its Spanish reception, has shaped the ways in which we understand Anglo-Spanish relations during a critical era for both kingdoms. Cover 1 Title Page 4 Copyright Page 5 Contents 8 List of Illustrations 10 Foreword 12 Acknowledgments 18 Introduction 22 Part 1 70 1. From Friendship to Confrontation 72 2. The Political Discourse on Elizabeth I in Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century Spain 102 3. Antichrists, Pope Lovers, and Atheists 134 4. Elizabeth I and the Politics of Representation 158 Part 2 198 5. In Search of Elizabeth I 200 6. Political Rhetoric in Lope de Vega’s Representation of Elizabeth I 248 7. Elizabeth I and Spanish Poetic Satyr 272 Part 3 306 8. Cervantes Upending Ribadeneira 308 9. Elizabeth Tudor, the Elephant, and the Mirroring Cases of the Earl of Essex and the Duke of Biron 334 10. Unma(s)king the Queen 366 Contributors 392 Index 398 Explores the fictionalized, historical, and visual representations of Elizabeth I and their impact on the Spanish collective imagination. Drawing on works by Miguel de Cervantes and Lope de Vega, among others, the contributors to this volume limn contradictory assessments of Elizabeth's physical appearance, private life, personality, and reign.