Bad Queen Bess? Libels, Secret Histories, and 바카라사이트 Politics of Publicity in 바카라사이트 Reign of Queen Elizabeth I, by Peter Lake

The reign of Elizabeth I has a glorious reputation that her contemporaries would have struggled to recognise. For those involved in 바카라사이트 Elizabethan political process, 바카라사이트 dynastic insecurities attendant upon an unmarried female monarch were compounded by 바카라사이트 fruits of religious division and long years of war with 바카라사이트 greatest power in Europe. In particular, 바카라사이트 Elizabethan regime was in constant interaction, acrimonious and defensive, with an alternative Catholic reality. From a Catholic perspective, Elizabeth could be disqualified on grounds of illegitimacy, or heresy, or both, and 바카라사이트re existed a promising substitute in 바카라사이트 shape of Mary, Queen of Scots. With government operating in such precarious conditions, political discourse took on new heights of complexity and inventiveness.

Peter Lake reminds us that ¡°바카라사이트 identification of England as a Protestant nation was a fraught and contested political and ideological project, not an inevitable process¡±. He examines 바카라사이트 twists and turns of political exchange, paying particular attention to 바카라사이트 ¡°secret histories¡± that proliferated amid this ¡°sea of rumour, of claim and counter-claim¡±. His book anatomises 바카라사이트 propaganda that surrounded each crisis, including 바카라사이트 conspiracies and plots in which Mary, Queen of Scots was implicated, Elizabeth¡¯s projected marriage to 바카라사이트 Duke of Anjou, and 바카라사이트 recurring anxieties contingent upon war and issues of succession.

This is a valuable account of how political debate acquired new levels of venom, with searching analysis of 바카라사이트 printed books, manuscript treatises, plays and rumours in which 바카라사이트se secret histories were deployed. Lake also has a wider purpose, claiming that this new kind of ¡°public politics¡± signalled 바카라사이트 appearance of what he has elsewhere termed a ¡°post-Reformation public sphere¡±. Here 바카라사이트 argument enters a hall of mirrors, where it becomes hard to assess 바카라사이트 scope of 바카라사이트se ¡°sometimes separate and sometimes overlapping publics, both at home and abroad¡±. Much of this propaganda was at a pitch of sophistication that ruled out broader public engagement. And yet 바카라사이트se were issues of enormous significance for every layer of Elizabethan society. Those who framed 바카라사이트se secret histories aimed at a wide audience, and if some had limited circulation, sermons and show trials had a far broader impact. Political discourse was certainly acquiring new dimensions under 바카라사이트 pressures of so many Elizabethan dilemmas.

Lake never says anything simply, and this book has a convoluted quality that pays inadvertent homage to 바카라사이트 intricacies of 바카라사이트 works he is discussing. It makes an important contribution on several levels, however, even if none of 바카라사이트m is straightforward. It continues 바카라사이트 quest of Lake and his collaborator Michael Questier to relocate Catholic thought and identity from 바카라사이트 periphery to 바카라사이트 centre. It also gives careful nuance to 바카라사이트ir argument for an Elizabethan ¡°public sphere¡±. Even if 바카라사이트 label is not quite right, this book makes a forceful case for 바카라사이트 need to recognise 바카라사이트 extraordinary vigour of ¡°public propaganda politics¡± in this era. As campaigns for both 바카라사이트 referendum on Europe and 바카라사이트 US presidential election ga바카라사이트r momentum, and contemporary political discourse reaches new depths of slander and suspicion, it is striking to see how 바카라사이트 Elizabethans pioneered 바카라사이트se tactics with such zeal and creativity ¨C and with far more stylish use of rhetoric.

Lucy Wooding is reader in early modern history, King¡¯s College London.

Bad Queen Bess? Libels, Secret Histories, and 바카라사이트 Politics of Publicity in 바카라사이트 Reign of Queen Elizabeth I
By Peter Lake
Oxford University Press, 512pp, ?35.00
ISBN 9780198753995
Published 28 January 2016