Chapter 2 - The Politics of Intimacy

Summary

MANY musical images of Elizabeth were public or semi-public in nature, being circulated in print or produced during grand occasions like the progresses. By contrast, Hilliard's miniature of Elizabeth playing the lute (Figure 1.1) was a private, personal possession. It belonged to Henry Carey, Lord Hunsdon, and was probably a gift from Elizabeth. The Carey family were close to the Queen and would have been accustomed to hearing her play for recreation in her private apartments. Hunsdon was her cousin, and responsible for the famous incident in which the Scottish ambassador was caught eavesdropping on Elizabeth's virginalplaying (pp. 45–7). His sister and two of his daughters were ladies of Elizabeth's Privy Chamber. As well as depicting the royal image, the miniature was an expression of the Carey family's privileged relationship with the Queen.

The intimate quality of the miniature reflects the private nature of Elizabeth's own music-making. Her performances were reserved for distinguished guests, royal favourites, personal servants, and family relations, as was proper for an upper-class amateur musician. Like Hilliard's portrait, Elizabeth's music-making counterpointed her image as monarch and her private self as musician. Through her performances she not only portrayed a particular royal persona but also shaped her courtly relationships. Men like Hunsdon with regular, close access to the Queen's recreation were in the minority: for the majority of courtiers and all foreign visitors, Elizabeth's performances were a rare honour. Aware of their political potential, Elizabeth employed the intimacy of private music-making to charm foreign visitors, develop relations with courtiers and ambassadors, and influence the course of diplomatic negotiations. Moreover, Elizabeth's courtiers began to follow her example, singing or commissioning intimate performances of their own poetry to the Queen in the hope of renewed or continued favour at the expense of their rivals. This ‘politics of intimacy’ was characteristic of the workings of Tudor government, in which political power depended on access to the monarch and a courtier or diplomat's personal relationship with the Queen. In such circumstances recreational activities like music gained political significance as a means through which personal relationships could be fostered, which in turn would lead to power and influence.