ABSTRACT
On her throne, Elizabeth was the Virgin Queen; towards the Church she was a mother, with her nobles she was an aunt, to her council lors a nagging wife, and to her courtiers a seductress. But what was the appropriate female role for the Queen in Parliament, when she met her ruling orders ranged as Lords and Commons? At the end of the parliamentary session of 1566-67, she delivered a tetchy speech in which she rebuked them all for meddling in her affairs and disobeying her rules. She concluded:
In other words, ‘I have told you off rather than spanked you, and let that be enough - don’t misbehave again! But there’s no need to be upset, I shall forgive you if you’re good boys from now on - and never forget, Nanny loves you really.’ It was, indeed, the authentic voice of the English nanny. Elizabeth adopted a tone of condes cending superiority towards her Parliaments, confident that if she explained things often enough and slowly enough, the little boys would understand. For Elizabeth, parliamentarians were little boys
- sometimes unruly, usually a nuisance, and always a waste of an intelligent woman’s time.
