The Popular Celebration of the Accession Day of Queen Elizabeth I

Abstract

Accession day was an important feast in the emerging political calendar of early modern Britain. Some of the sermons were published and contributed to shaping the royal image. Since a sermon was one of the few traditionally acceptable ways to criticize a monarch and to steer him or her onto the right path, a preacher could stress the ideal traits of the royal image while condemning the negative ones. I analyse this kind of sermon in the period of Charles I's Personal Rule and the Civil Wars. I examine the development of the royal image from the godlike intercessor between God and the people, to the 'toiler' doing his best to achieve peace, and the martyr (even before his captivity and execution), and to the democratized version of the previous 'majestic' image applied to 'the magistrates' in Westminster. This material helps us understand better the theological and political ideal of a ruler, in the years of one of the major crises of the British political system. A ccession day (or 'crownation' day 1 in early modern common parlance) was an important event in the emerging 'political calendar' of the three kingdoms under the early Stuarts. In his seminal work on the public holidays in early modern England, David Cressy stressed the 'unprecedented' increase of the role of accession day under Elizabeth, which had its roots in the religious settlement and 'was aimed to compensate for the reduction in holy days'. 2 It had an important ideological meaning, as a thanksgiving for the country's 'deliverance from popery' headed by the monarch. Roy Strong also paid attention to the importance of this 'sacred day', the celebration of which became customary by 1580s. 3 It was celebrated throughout the country with bell-ringing, bonfires and official services, and sermons were usually published shortly afterwards. As has been mentioned by Kevin Sharpe, the establishment of the Church of England made sermons in general one of the most valuable media for the exaltation of the monarch. 4

Creating Harmonious Subjects? Ballads, Psalms and Godly Songs for Queen Elizabeth I's Accession Day

“…. 39 Yet there is no evidence of government pressure or enforcement from the queen and court, and it was 12 years before there was even an official form of a prayer. According to William Camden, an early seventeenth-century historian, it was the Northern Rising (1569) and the papal bull excommunicating Elizabeth (1570) that initially caused the celebrations to spread.…”

“…98 This merging of celebrations could be maintained for several years: Norwich, for example, continued to hold a combined two-day celebration for 'the daye of the alteracion of her included pageants, plays, fireworks and orations by local children. 100 Music was provided by the city waits and trumpeters, while drummers (sometimes with flutes) might add a military flavour. 101 Singers could also be paid, while in Dover the chamberlains paid for 'certen songes (geven to the maior Iurates and Common Counsell) to be songe at the Coronacion Daye'.…”

Images of Kingship: Charles I, Accession Sermons, and the Theory of Divine Right

“…Roy Strong also paid attention to the importance of this ‘sacred day’, the celebration of which became customary by 1580s. It was celebrated throughout the country with bell‐ringing, bonfires and official services, and sermons were usually published shortly afterwards. As has been mentioned by Kevin Sharpe, the establishment of the Church of England made sermons in general one of the most valuable media for the exaltation of the monarch.…”