The “body politic” was a metaphor for the nation, comparing it to a living, physical body with the ruler as its head. Queen Elizabeth often invoked this idea to frame and justify her right to rule England as the daughter of Henry VIII. The metaphor allowed subjects to think of their monarch as a living embodiment of the nation and thus skirted the issue of Elizabeth’s literal gender by endowing her with a symbolic male body.

The divine right of kings was the belief that kings and queens derived their authority from divine power rather than from their people. Because a monarch was considered ordained by God, treason was a terrible crime and usually cost the offender their life. This idea was prevalent in the medieval and early modern periods to justify the monarchy even if the subjects were dissatisfied with the leader.

The Protestant Reformation reached England in the 16th century when Elizabeth’s father, Henry VIII of England, officially split from the Catholic Church to divorce his first wife and marry Anne Boleyn. This decision ushered in a time of conflict between Protestants and Catholics, and represented a larger conflict within Christianity.