Virgin Mother, Maiden Queen : Elizabeth I and the Cult of the Virgin Mary

Was Elizabeth I worshipped by her subjects? Many twentieth-century scholars have suggested that the Virgin Queen was a cult-figure who replaced the Virgin Mary.

But how could this be in a Protestant state officially opposed to idolatry?

Helen Hackett examines these issues through readings of a wide variety of Elizabethan texts.

She traces some of the cross-currents in Elizabethan culture, and considers both Elizabeth and the Virgin Mary in terms of the history of representations of gender, sexuality and power.