Elizabethan Triumphal Processions by William Leahy

Author:William Leahy [Leahy, William]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, General
ISBN: 9781351940818
Google: Uf1ADgAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2017-03-02T16:20:58+00:00

‘A King may go a progress through the guts of a beggar’

Many of the entertainments produced and performed in honour of Elizabeth during her summer progresses have been preserved, though they differ from the type of text attributed to Richard Mulcaster for the pre-coronation procession in the sense that they are literary rather than descriptive, the audience rarely therefore being mentioned. The presence of the common people on the actual estate of the Queen’s host, in the form of servants or retainers is not described, or is only acknowledged in their participation in the entertainment itself, acting the parts of certain mythological or pastoral figures. Their presence outside of the entertainment, and thus outside of the estate is not described, and it is therefore difficult to form a consistent picture of them (possibly) lining the country road or lane as the procession passed. The few references that do mention this presence in rural processions generally appear in the State Records, such as that of the Spanish Ambassador discussed in the Introduction. The pervasiveness of this particular record in analyses of Elizabeth and Elizabethan processions testifies to the lack of descriptive evidence regarding the common audience at progresses, and the normative desire of the various analyses is evident in their refusal to admit to this record’s ambiguous detailing of the Queen/crowd relationship. Despite this lack of evidence, however, progresses have traditionally been regarded as further examples of effective propaganda, as successful regulatory rituals. This success, as well as Elizabeth’s deliberate propagation of such a policy of propaganda, is outlined by John Nichols, writing in 1823: ‘The plan of popularity which Elizabeth laid down from the beginning of her Reign is marked by no trait so strongly as her practice of making Progresses about her dominions’.128 This is echoed by Christopher Haigh when he writes that progresses ‘were major public relations exercises, with careful preparations for maximum impact’,129 a chance, as David Bergeron says, ‘to see and be seen’, and ‘for winning additional loyalty and support’.130 While it was held for many years (and still is in a number of studies) that these propagandist efforts were directed at cementing relations between Elizabeth and her (powerful) nobles, modern scholars such as Haigh and Neville Williams believe that these progresses were in fact aimed at a much wider public. Williams, for example, writes that ‘Nothing did so much to strengthen the average subject’s bonds of affection to his sovereign as catching sight of her as she rode by with her train of followers, and Elizabeth’s progresses became legendary’.131 That these bonds of affection were strengthened by this public display of the monarch to her subjects in general is accepted unquestioningly where the progresses are regarded as ‘one of the Queen’s major – and successful – policies’,132 aimed at the people, who were suitably subjected in the process.133 According to these readings (all of which are importantly based upon the despatch written by the Spanish Ambassador discussed earlier, and all of which fail, as Alison

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