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Daenerys Targaryen as Queen Elizabeth I’s Spiritual Daughter

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Part of the book series: Queenship and Power ((QAP))

Abstract

In popular culture, fascination with female rule has been evident most recently in the widely beloved Game of Thrones. More and more historians working on Royal Studies continue to pay attention to this television phenomenon. It is not surprising, then, to find some correlations between one of the show’s central characters and Elizabeth, given how deeply the Tudor queen is engrained in American memory and history. This chapter argues that in many ways, Daenerys can be seen as Elizabeth’s spiritual daughter. I am not claiming that Daenerys is intended to be seen as a direct counterpart to Elizabeth, but rather that she reflects the spirit and example of the last Tudor queen in her actual rule and that we are still learning from female rule in our modern society (at least up to series seven).

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Notes

  1. 1.

    https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2015/10/game-of-thrones-cate-blanchett-inspired-emilia-clarke. Last Accessed on December 9, 2018. Also see on the two women: http://history-behind-game-of-thrones.com/tudors/daenerys-as-elizabeth-i. Last accessed on November 7, 2018. And http://www.themarysue.com/daenerys-targaryen/. Last accessed on November 7, 2018.

  2. 2.

    Camden, Annales; Michael Dobson and Nicola J. Watson, England’s Elizabeth: an Afterlife in Fame and Fantasy (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002); Thomas Betteridge, “A queen for all seasons: Elizabeth I on film,” in The Myth of Elizabeth, ed. Susan Doran and Thomas S. Freeman (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003), 242–259. See also Jo Eldridge Carney, Fairy Tale Queens: Representations of Early Modern Queenship (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012).

  3. 3.

    See Sue Parrill and William B. Robison, The Tudors on Film and Television (Jefferson, North Carolina and London: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers, 2013); William B. Robison (ed.), History, Fiction, and the Tudors: Sex, Politics, Power, and Artistic License in the Showtime Television Series (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016) and Aidan Norrie, “A Man? A woman? A lesbian? A whore?: Queen Elizabeth I and the Cinematic Subversion of Gender,” in Premodern Rulers and Postmodern Viewers: Gender, Sex, and Power in Popular Culture, ed. Janice North, Karl C. Alvestad, and Elena Woodacre (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2018), 319–340.

  4. 4.

    Elizabeth’s speech on February 10, 1559, William Camden, Annales: The True and Royal History of the Famous Empress Elizabeth (London: B. Fisher, 1625), STC 4497, 27.

  5. 5.

    See Elizabeth H. Hageman and Katherine Conway (eds.), Resurrecting Elizabeth I in Seventeenth-Century England (Cranbury: Rosemont Publishing & Printing Corp, 2007).

  6. 6.

    Patrick Collinson, “Elizabeth I and the verdicts of history,” Historical Research, 76, 194 (2003): 469–491, 470.

  7. 7.

    Brian A. Palvac (ed.), Game of Thrones versus History (Hoboken: Wiley Blackwell, 2017) and Lisa Benz and Zita Rohr (eds.), Tales of Ice and Fire: Queenship, Female Agency, and the Role of Advice in Game of Thrones (forthcoming).

  8. 8.

    Dobson and Watson, England’s Elizabeth, 268.

  9. 9.

    On the discussion regarding feminism and misogyny in Game of Thrones, see Sonam Rai, Women With(out) Dragons: A Critical Analysis of the Representation of Women in Game of Thrones (Unpublished MA Dissertation, St Joseph College, 2017).

  10. 10.

    Legal rule that was changed in 2012.

  11. 11.

    An explanation on how Edward proceeded can be found in Thomas Fuller, The Church History of Britain, from the birth of Jesus Christ until the year M.DC.XLVIII, ed. J. S. Brewer, vol. 4 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1845), 138–140.

  12. 12.

    Carolly Erickson, The First Elizabeth (New York: St. Martin’s Griffin, 1983), 362–363. Also see Carole Levin, The Reign of Elizabeth I (New York: Palgrave, 2002) and Jo Eldridge Carney, “Poisoning Queens in Early Modern Fact and Fiction,” in Scholars and Poets Talk About Queens, eds. Carole Levin and associate editor Christine Stewart-Nunez (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015), 269–284.

  13. 13.

    See Levin, The Reign of Elizabeth I, 8 and on Elizabeth’s years as a princess see: David Starkey, Elizabeth: Apprenticeship (London: Chatto and Windus, 2000).

  14. 14.

    Carole Levin, The Heart and Stomach of a King: Elizabeth I and the Politics of Sex and Power (Philadelphia: Pennsylvania University Press, 1998, second edition 2013), 8.

  15. 15.

    Elizabeth to Queen Mary I, March, 17, 1554, TNA, PRO SP 11/4/3.

  16. 16.

    Elizabeth to Queen Mary I, March, 17, 1554.

  17. 17.

    Ilona Bell, Elizabeth I: The Voice of a Monarch (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010), xiii.

  18. 18.

    Estelle Paranque, “Royal Representations Through the Father and the Warrior Figures,” in History of Monarchy, eds. Elena Woodacre et al. (London: Routledge, 2019), 314–329.

  19. 19.

    Elizabeth’s Golden Speech, November 30, 1601, versions 1, in Leah Marcus, Janel Mueller, and Mary Beth Rose (eds.), Elizabeth I: Collected Works (Chicago: Chicago University Press, 2000), 337.

  20. 20.

    See Helen Hackett, Virgin Mother, Maiden Queen: Elizabeth I and the Cult of the Virgin Mary (London: Palgrave, 1994) and Christine Coch, “‘Mother of my Contreye’: Elizabeth I and Tudor Constructions of Motherhood,” English Literary Renaissance 26/3 (1996): 423–50.

  21. 21.

    Camden, Annales, 27.

  22. 22.

    Elizabeth’s Speech at the closing of parliament, April 10, 1593, in Elizabeth I: Collected Works, 329.

  23. 23.

    On Elizabeth’s relationship with Leicester, see Susan Doran, Monarchy and Matrimony: The Courtship of Elizabeth (London and New York: Routledge, 1996), 40–72; Elizabeth Jenkins, Elizabeth and Leicester (London: Phoenix Press, 2003) and Sarah Gristwood, Elizabeth and Leicester (London: Bantam, 2017).

  24. 24.

    See John Guy, Elizabeth: The Forgotten Years (New York: Penguin, 2016).

  25. 25.

    Elizabeth’s answer to the Lords’ petition that she marry, April 10, 1563, delivered by Lord Keeper Nicholas Bacon, Elizabeth I: Collected Works, 79.

  26. 26.

    See Doran, Monarchy and Matrimony.

  27. 27.

    On the French and Elizabeth, see Paranque, Elizabeth I of England Through Valois Eyes.

  28. 28.

    Elizabeth’s Speech to a joint delegation of Lords and Commons, November 5, 1566, in Elizabeth I: Collected Works, 95.

  29. 29.

    Levin, The Heart and Stomach of a King, 121–148.

  30. 30.

    More on this portrait can be found on the National Portrait Gallery’s website: https://www.npg.org.uk/research/programmes/making-art-in-tudor-britain/the-phoenix-and-the-pelican-two-portraits-of-elizabeth-i-c.1575.php. Last accessed on November 9, 2018.

  31. 31.

    Levin explains the context in which Elizabeth uttered those words and how cautious we have to be regarding the source that claims the queen said that, see Levin, Heart and Stomach of a King, 47.

  32. 32.

    Elizabeth’s Armada Speech to the Troops at Tilbury, August, 9, 1588, in Elizabeth I: Collected Works, 326.

  33. 33.

    Henry III to Mauvissière, December 12, 1580, BNF MS. Fr. 3307, fol. 28r°, “que la dicte dame royne n’étoist juste une femme.” Quoted in Estelle Paranque, Elizabeth I of England Through Valois Eyes: Power, Representation, and Diplomacy in the Reign of the Queen 1558–1588 (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019), page.

  34. 34.

    Queen of Scots to Philip II of Spain, September 10, 1565 in Letters of Mary, Queen of Scots, and documents connected with her personal history, Agnes Strickland (ed.), vol. 1, (London: Henry Colburn Publisher, 1842), 16.

  35. 35.

    Susan Doran, “Why Did Elizabeth Not Marry?,” in Dissing Elizabeth: Negative Representations of Gloriana, ed. Julia M. Walker (Durham and London: Duke University Press, 1998), 37.

  36. 36.

    On Elizabeth’s sexuality, see Levin, Heart and Stomach of a King, 65–90.

  37. 37.

    The Secret History of the Most Renowned Queen Elizabeth and the Earl of Essex, by a Person of Quality (Cologne: Printed for Will with the Wisp, at the Sign of the Moon in the Ecliptick, 1680), Wing S2342A.

  38. 38.

    http://www.digitalspy.com/tv/game-of-thrones/feature/a668633/game-of-thrones-nudity-crisis-emilia-clarke-is-saying-no-to-nudes-but-who-else-in-the-cast-wants-to-cover-up/. Last accessed on November 9, 2018.

  39. 39.

    On Elizabeth’s relation to beauty, see Jo Eldridge Carney, Fairy Tale Queens: Representations of Early Modern Queenship (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012), 87–116 and Anna Riehl Bertolet, The Face of Queenship: Early Modern Representations of Elizabeth I (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010).

  40. 40.

    Mary Beard, Women and Power: A Manifesto (London: Profile Books, 2017), 70.

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    1. New College of the Humanities, London, UK

      Estelle Paranque

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      Estelle Paranque

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    Paranque, E. (2019). Daenerys Targaryen as Queen Elizabeth I’s Spiritual Daughter. In: Paranque, E. (eds) Remembering Queens and Kings of Early Modern England and France. Queenship and Power. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-22344-1_13

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    • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-22344-1_13

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