Dora Thornton, Curator of Renaissance Europe, details how Queen Elizabeth I used her portrait to manipulate her public and private image.

As a female ruler in a man’s world, Queen Elizabeth I understood the power of propaganda and the need to manipulate her own image. She identified herself with her people, making a strength out of what was then considered a weakness: the fact that she was a woman. In a famously theatrical speech at Tilbury in 1588, when England was under threat from invasion by the Spanish Armada, she compared her own body to the body politic of England: "I know I have the body but of a weak, feeble woman; but I have the heart and stomach of a king."

The same message is promoted by a gold medal designed by the painter and miniaturist Nicholas Hilliard, which commemorates the survival of England – a divided and vulnerable Protestant nation – from the perceived threat posed by international Catholicism. On one side it shows the Queen three-quarter face, with a Latin inscription that translates as ‘No other circle in the world is more rich’, promoting the strength and wealth of the English crown. On the back of the medal, a lone bay tree on an island in a stormy sea is labelled E R (Elizabeth Regina), ‘Elizabeth, the Queen’. The bay tree was thought to provide protection against lightning as the inscription explains: ‘Not even danger affects it’ – unlike the ship in the background, which is sinking after being struck by a bolt of lightning. This medal promotes Elizabeth as a political survivor; one who has lived through Catholic conspiracy at home and foreign invasion and was designed to be worn as a token of loyalty and allegiance.

Cast: Dora Thornton (Curator)