Heart and Stomach of a King: Elizabeth I and the Politics of Sex and Power

"I may have the body of a weak and feeble woman, but I have the heart and stomach of a king."
--Elizabeth I

Whether this sentence is an accurate transcription of Elizabeth's speech at Tilbury in 1588, it does characterize some of the struggles, contradictions, and cultural anxieties that dominated the collective consciousness of England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. In The Heart and Stomach of a King, Carole Levin explores contemporary representations of the unmarried, childless Elizabeth and focuses on the ways in which members of her court, foreign ambassadors, and a motley--and sometimes delusional--collection of subjects responded to her. Throughout, Levin's purpose is to explore how gender constructions, role expectations, and beliefs about sexuality influenced both Elizabeth's self-presentation and others' perceptions of her as a female, and Protestant, ruler.

Levin focuses on topics such as the queen's succession; the representation of Elizabeth as a religious figure; reports of her sexual license and rumors about her legions of illegitimate children; and recurring stories of the survival--and return to power--of Elizabeth's long dead brother, King Edward VI. Levin mines an extraordinary number of sources: tracts, pamphlets, religious works, Parliamentary statutes and speeches, sermons and homilies, plays and ballads, and diplomatic correspondence. But it is her reconstruction of gossip and rumor, and the use she makes of records of court cases involving people arrested for slandering the queen, that give The Heart and Stomach of a King much of its distinctive character. Levin notes that while these sources do not always provide accurate information about Elizabeth's life, they do provide a great deal of information about the social-psychological response to queenship.

The Heart and Stomach of a King is a fresh, insightful, and provocative examination of Elizabeth I that helps us to understand the intersection of politics with gender and of sexuality with power. It will be of interest to students and scholars of English history and literature, and of Renaissance, women's and cultural studies.

"Levin is stimulating on topics such as Elizabeth I's use of the image of the Virgin Queen, one which could be helpfully confused in the popular imagination with that of the discarded Catholic Virgin Mary."
--The London Times

"[Levin's account of] how the public responded to Elizabeth and to her extraordinarily successful reign will appeal to anyone interested in Elizabeth Tudor or, more generally, women in power."
--Publisher's Weekly

"To support her refreshingly perceptive ideas about the question of how Elizabeth crafted her images and how those around her responded to those representations, Levin uses many sources--tracts, pamphlets, religious works, Parliamentary statutes and speeches, sermons, homilies, ceremonies, progresses, plays, . . . and court cases involving arrests for slandering the queen. Written in a lucid, often witty, prose style, Carole Levin's volume . . . promises to become a classic of enduring interest to specialists and general readers alike."
--Sixteenth Century Journal

"Carole Levin's achievement lies in helping to restructure what is considered important about Elizabeth Tudor's life and reign, and in paying attention to a combination of ritual and rumor that enriches our sense of the alterity of early modern England."
--Shakespeare Quarterly

Carole Levin is Professor of History at the State University of New York. She is the author of Propaganda in the English Reformation: Heroic and Villainous Images of King John, and editor (with Karen Robertson) of Sexuality and Politics in Renaissance Drama, and (with Jeanie Watson) Ambiguous Realities: Women in the Middle Ages and Renaissance.