The Stomach of a Prince
Term Paper for EUH3142 with Dr. Carole Adams
31 July 2005
The film Elizabeth by Shekhar Kapur shows us in no uncertain terms that the life of Elizabeth Tudor was not a simple one, fraught with assassination attempts, wars, and personal issues, in short, the life of a monarch. The film also deals with the gender issues plaguing Elizabeth quite well. From the Zophy readings, as well as the primary sources of Elizabeth’s speech at Tilsbury and the Act of Unification, one can easily create an image of Elizabeth in their head as an intelligent, articulate, and logical ruler. The film shows us this Elizabeth, but also one of emotion. Though one can read the accounts of a person’s life and understand them to a certain degree, watching a film play out before oneself allows the viewer to get a more visceral sense of how the subject’s life was. As Zophy states, “the young queen also learned to judge character and not let emotions interfere with matters of state.[1]” The film Elizabeth directed by Shekhar Kapur and written by Michael Hirst allows us to greatly understand the circumstances of Elizabeth’s life, the way she was able to overcome them using her wit and will and how that young queen learned the lessons to which Zophy refers.
When we first encounter Elizabeth in this film while Mary Tudor is still on the throne and Elizabeth is residing in her own country house. Since the queen is ailing, her advisors recommend arresting and disposing of Elizabeth, so at least when Mary dies, the throne could still remain in Catholic hands. Elizabeth is quickly arrested and vigorously interrogated with her examiners requesting that she either admit she played a hand in attempts on the Queen’s life or that she renounce her Protestant faith. Elizabeth does neither.
Elizabeth ascends to the throne following Mary’s death and this is when the matriarch’s problems sincerely begin. In one scene of the film, when Elizabeth is preparing to meet with the House of Lords to discuss the Act of Unification, we see the woman of Elizabeth desperately attempting to prepare herself for the meeting by rehearsing her words carefully. However, the Elizabeth that the Lords see is “the sly Elizabeth” who “was a performer worth of the age of Marlowe and Shakespeare.[2]” In this scene, we also see Elizabeth confront and use to her advantage some of the issues dealing with her gender. When she is accused of making light of the act of marriage she quickly turns upon her attacker and presents him with the facts of his two previous divorces and his current marriage.[3] By making these statements, Elizabeth made a bold move. It was not common for women to speak so frankly and pointedly towards a man. By doing this, she set herself not only as her attacker’s equal but above him (as a sovereign should be) by pointing out his flaws.
In another scene where her trusted advisor William Cecil is saying that though she may be sovereign, she is still just a woman, Elizabeth responds with her classic line of , “I may be a weak woman, but I have the stomach of a Prince if I so choose!” This echoes back to the actual quote from her speech at Tilsbury, where she again admits her sex, but begs forgiveness for it based on the masculinity of her heart and mind.[4] Elizabeth seems to get around the issue of gender by openly admitting that she is female, but that she should not be judged by her sex. Her insistence to not choose a husband also promotes thinking of the Queen as just a sovereign, since no one could assume that she was just a figurehead with her husband in full control behind the public view. Though the movie credits this not wanting to marry to the betrayal of Lord Robert Dudley, her paramour, one could not help but question if it was not more of a political move, seeing as everything Elizabeth did was well thought out and calculated.
The movie depicts Elizabeth as an intelligent woman, but one who is often confused. Given the circumstances of her life, however, no one could entirely blame her. The film does draw on our emotions, something that the primary sources and Zophy do not really touch upon, but this makes it all the easier to understand Elizabeth as a human being, rather than just a historical figure.
[1] Jonathan W. Zophy, A Short History of Renaissance and Reformation Europe: Dances over Fire and Water, Third Edition, Upper Saddle River: Prentice-Hall, 2003, 250.
[2] Ibid., 253-254
[3] Shekhar Kapur, Elizabeth, 124 min, (Polygram Filmed Entertainment: 1998), DVD.
[4] Dr. Leonel Sharp to the Duke of Buckingham after 1623 (spelling modernized), available at http://tudorhistory.org/primary/tilbury.html
Works Cited
Kapur, Shekhar. Elizabeth. 124 min. PolyGram Filmed Entertainment, 1998. DVD.
Sharp, Dr. Leonel to the Duke of Buckingham, after 1623. Spelling modernized. Available from http://tudorhistory.org/primary/tilbury.html.
Zophy, Jonathan W. A Short History of Renaissance and Reformation Europe: Dances over Fire and Water, Third Edition. Upper Saddle River: Prentice-Hall, 2003.
All contents copyright Elizabeth Tibbert 2005.