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Female Piety in the Reign of Elizabeth I

Female Piety in the Reign of Elizabeth I Paige Martin Reynolds In her well-known speech at Tilbury (1588), Queen Elizabeth declared, "I know I have the body but of a weak and feeble woman, but I have the heart and stomach of a king" (326). Elizabeth's rhetoric here, as elsewhere, both acknowledges and challenges contemporary views of women and of female rule. When she replaces her own "weak and feeble" feminine "body" with "the heart and stomach" of a masculine ruler, Elizabeth affirms the theological principle that woman is, according to I Peter 3:7, the "weaker vessel" and thus less capable of governance than man. By calling on the concept of the "king's two bodies," however, Elizabeth also distances herself from common assumptions associated with female physicality by asserting her special status as divinely ordained. In part, Elizabeth privileges her body politic over her body natural in this way in order to legitimize her political sovereignty, despite her femininity. Yet, by using rhetoric that both reflects and resists contemporary attitudes towards women, Elizabeth simultaneously addresses a set of strictly spiritual concerns. This essay examines the cultural connection between female physicality and spirituality, specifically as it relates to the reign of Elizabeth I, whose body was the http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Explorations in Renaissance Culture Brill

Female Piety in the Reign of Elizabeth I

Reynolds, Paige Martin
Explorations in Renaissance Culture , Volume 37 (1): 101 – Dec 2, 2011
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Publisher
Brill
Copyright
© Copyright 2011 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands
ISSN
0098-2474
eISSN
2352-6963
DOI
10.1163/23526963-90000404
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Paige Martin Reynolds In her well-known speech at Tilbury (1588), Queen Elizabeth declared, "I know I have the body but of a weak and feeble woman, but I have the heart and stomach of a king" (326). Elizabeth's rhetoric here, as elsewhere, both acknowledges and challenges contemporary views of women and of female rule. When she replaces her own "weak and feeble" feminine "body" with "the heart and stomach" of a masculine ruler, Elizabeth affirms the theological principle that woman is, according to I Peter 3:7, the "weaker vessel" and thus less capable of governance than man. By calling on the concept of the "king's two bodies," however, Elizabeth also distances herself from common assumptions associated with female physicality by asserting her special status as divinely ordained. In part, Elizabeth privileges her body politic over her body natural in this way in order to legitimize her political sovereignty, despite her femininity. Yet, by using rhetoric that both reflects and resists contemporary attitudes towards women, Elizabeth simultaneously addresses a set of strictly spiritual concerns. This essay examines the cultural connection between female physicality and spirituality, specifically as it relates to the reign of Elizabeth I, whose body was the

Journal

Explorations in Renaissance Culture – Brill

Published: Dec 2, 2011

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