My programme of branch lectures has now started in earnest, as I visited Swansea in F ebruary and Chichester in March to talk about the ‘Monstrous Regiment of Women'. This is the title of John Knox's diatribe against female rulers published in 1558 and it is a very appropriate topic in this diamond jubilee year marking the Queen's sixty years on the throne. Knox's patriarchal objections to reigning Queens were, of course, largely refuted by the successes of Elizabeth I's 45 year rule.

As readers of The Historian will know, the 1950s were hailed as a ‘New Elizabethan Age' with composers, artists, poets, and playwrights all poised to rival the cultural achievements of the first Elizabeth's reign. The coronation in 1953 was celebrated by Benjamin Britten's new opera ‘Gloriana' about Elizabeth I's stormy relationship with the Earl of Essex...