ELISABETA I A ANGLIEI – SURSE ALE PUTERII UNUI MONARH FEMEIE
ELIZABETH I OF ENGLAND – SOURCES OF POWER OF A WOMAN MONARCH

Summary/Abstract: This article is part of a more ample study of the Elizabethan reign aimed at justifying the government of a woman leader in a world where political power is associated preponderantly - if not entirely - with men. As some personalities of the time claimed that women’s governing can be but “monstruous”, this article is meant to reinforce the idea that, with the right assistance, a woman is as suitable as a man in a ruler’s shoes. Hence this essay offers for consideration a series of premises as well as a summary of relevant data concerning Elizabeth I’s political acts, all pointing to the conclusion that a woman-monarch’s reign can be even more boisterous, more relentless and sometimes more vicious and uncontrollable than a man’s. Without adopting a feminist perspective on Elisabeth I’s political career and therefore pleading for women’s superiority over political leaders of the opposite gender, this analysis undertakes to illustrate the idea that, at least in Elisabeth I’s particular case, femininity is a trump in the political game: her authority and her typically feminine engagement in the act of governing single her out and place her in a gallery of leaders who have had the rare privilege of giving their name to the epoch they lived in. As the Latins put it: "Dux femina facti".

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