Elizabeth is certainly one of the most famous English monarchs. Her life and reign have inspired many biographies, histories, and dramatic works. It's not only the history of one woman, the way she was perceived by her people and subsequent generations, but the history of literature, of art, of religion, and culture, for each generation writes its own history, and they write it according to their identifications of the world, their experiences and expectations.


The history of the reputation of Queen Elizabeth as a monarch and a woman, both during her life and after, consequently has the potential to yield a wealth of information about this mysterious, controversial historical figure, her age, and subsequent generations. 

To understand Elizabeth's popularity and success, it's maybe necessary to place her in cultural context. On reflection, it perhaps matters little if we in the 21th century consider Elizabeth to have been a successful monarch or not, but only the way she was viewed in her own lifetime, by her own people, who shared her cultural existence.