Queen's Mercy

During the Elizabethan era, writers such as Shakespeare, Spenser, Sidney, Daniel, and others frequently expounded on mercy, exploring the sources and outcomes of clemency. This fresh reading of such depictions shows that the concept of mercy was a contested one, directly shaped by tensions over the exercise of judgment by a woman on the throne.

'Villeponteaux offers us a much-needed first book-length study of the contradictory facets of Elizabeth's royal image as a queen of mercy. In a study full of delicate nuance and artful analysis, Villeponteaux brings together the fields of literature, history, theology, and gender studies to create a panoramic view of the queen that shows how some of the most influential writers of the period Spenser, Shakespeare, Heywood, and Sidney presented their queen in images that gave the 'rusty sword' of her peaceful mercy a double-edge. Elizabeth's mercy could be employed to celebrate the queen as a paragon of Christian princely virtue or criticize her judgment as a woman vulnerable to the passions. Villeponteaux's work is as complex as it is accessible, and it gives us a window into the fascinating political world where early modern literature and sovereignty intersect.' - Linda Shenk, Associate Professor of English, Iowa State University, USA, and author of Learned Queen: The Image of Elizabeth I in Politics and Poetry (2009)

Mary Villeponteaux is Associate Professor of Literature at Georgia Southern University, USA.