Queen Elizabeth I knew perfectly the power of image and manipulated it throughout her life. She possessed a vast repertory of fantastically elaborate dresses and rich jewels. Her passion for dress was bound up with political calculation and an acute self-consciousness about her image. She tried to control the royal portraits that circulated widely in England and abroad, and her appearances in public were dazzling displays of wealth and magnificence. Artists and poets celebrated her in a variety of mythological guises—as Diana, the chaste goddess of the moon; Astraea, the goddess of justice; Gloriana, the queen of the fairies—and Elizabeth, in addition to adopting these fanciful roles, appropriated to herself some of the veneration that pious Englishmen had directed to the Virgin Mary. This image is in the Queens house in Greenwich and is named the Armada portrait. #davidharry #thelondonspy #propaganda #queenelizabethi #tourguide #londonguide #royalportrait #royalty #queenshousegreenwich #armadaportrait #tudor #royalhistory