Propaganda or a record of events? Richard Mulcaster’s the passage of our most Drad Soveraigne Lady Quene Elyzabeth through the Citie of London Westminster the daye before her coronacion

Abstract

The pamphlet written by Richard Mulcaster to commemorate the accession of Queen Elizabeth I to the throne, The Passage Of Our Most Drad Soveraigne Lady Quene Elyzabeth Through The Citie Of London To Westminster The Daye Before Her Coronacion, is central to our contemporary understanding of representations of the Queen and of this kind of early modern spectacle. This is demonstrated by the fact that it is a text that is, and has been, constantly used in studies of Elizabeth’s reign, her personality and the nature of spectacle itself. This use began with its appearance in Holinshed’s Chronicle, and the pamphlet continues to be referred to in most contemporary critical and historical studies. This paper questions whether, given its widespread use as both a historical and critical document, it is, in fact, reliable. The research presented here shows that it was something else entirely, and should be treated as such. In this sense, this document is seen to participate in what Walter Benjamin has described as a “triumphal procession”, whereby it has been transmitted throughout history in a normative fashion, being endlessly reproduced in a manner characterised by focusing upon the dominant figure of Elizabeth, occluding its status as a propagandist text.