Queenship and Political Discourse in the Elizabethan Realms

This book re-evaluates the nature of Elizabethan politics and Elizabeth's queenship in late sixteenth-century England, Wales and Ireland. Natalie Mears shows that Elizabeth took an active role in policy-making and suggests that Elizabethan politics has to be perceived in terms of personal relations between the queen and her advisers rather than of the hegemony of the privy council. She challenges current perceptions of political debate at court as restricted and integrates recent research on court drama and religious ritual into the wider context of political debate. Finally, providing a survey of the nature of political debate outside the court, Dr Mears challenges seminal work by Jürgen Habermas, as well as of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century historians, by showing that a 'public sphere' existed in late sixteenth-century England, Wales and Ireland. In doing so, she re-evaluates how sociologists and historians have, and should, conceptualize the 'public sphere'.

• The first survey of the public sphere in late sixteenth-century England, Wales and Ireland
• Offers a new interpretation of Elizabethan politics and of Elizabeth's queenship
• Integrates recent research on court drama, sermons and art in a wider picture of the court