Elizabeth’s Ghost: The Afterlife of the Queen in Stuart England

Toward the end of James I’s reign in John Reynolds’ 1624 pamphlet, Vox Coeli, or News from Heaven, Queen Elizabeth I discusses England’s contemporary events with her father, her siblings, Anne of Denmark and Prince Henry. The heavenly Elizabeth supported a strong and militaristic England and was critical of the current king. In the latter part of the seventeenth century Elizabeth was presented as a Protestant heroine in contrast to the Catholic James, Duke of York, later James II. But there was one Stuart successor who was connected positively to Elizabeth. In 1706 in the reign of the last Stuart monarch Elizabeth made another appearance in Queen Elizabeths Ghost: or A Dream. Unlike the earlier Elizabeth who stated that James was not a worthy successor, this Elizabeth praised Queen Anne as her worthy successor. This paper examines a range of sources to further understand the impact Elizabeth I’s afterlife had in the century after her death both in terms of politics and religion, and the perceptions of powerful women.