Aidan Norrie is Lecturer in History at the University Campus North Lincolnshire and the Managing Editor of The London Journal. Aidan has co-edited several collections, including Women on the Edge in Early Modern Europe (2019) and Tudor and Stuart Consorts: Power, Influence, and Dynasty (2022).

• Introduction: Elizabeth I and the Old TestamentChapter 1: Elizabeth I’s Use of the Old TestamentChapter 2: 1558–1569: Legitimizing the RegimeChapter 3: 1570–1584: Popery, Plots, Progresses—and ExcommunicationChapter 4: 1585–1590: Biblical Typology and the Catholic ThreatChapter 5: 1591–1602: The Twilight Years and the Catholic Threat reduxConclusion: Biblical Analogy and Providential RuleSelect BibliographyIndex

Although there have been numerous studies connecting Queen Elizabeth I and Old Testament figures, this is the first book to trace biblical typology over the course of her reign from 1558 to 1603. For the Elizabethans, typology was more than an analogy. It was “prefigurative of the present” (2). It conflated the present and the biblical past. Seeing their queen as a Deborah or Solomon chosen by God to execute his providential design meant that the English, or at least Elizabethan Protestants, were themselves God’s chosen people. Aidan Norrie argues that defining Elizabeth’s actions as God’s actions removed gender as a barrier to her royal supremacy.[...] Elizabeth I and the Old Testament: Biblical Analogies and Providential Rule is an impressively learned study that adds a fresh voice and a provocative point of view to the ongoing scholarly debate about whether Elizabeth’s female kingship was or was not a vital component of the Elizabethans’ own religiopolitical debate.