From: Intelligence Squared

From: Intelligence Squared To: j [email protected]> Subject: Battle of the Queens: Elizabeth I vs Victoria Date: Thu, 15 Dec 2016 14:47:49 +0000 ri nteingence TD' ueen Elizabeth I vs Queen Victoria Monday 30th Jan, 7pm. Emmanuel Centre They are the eternal queens, the monarchs who transcend history, forever reinvented on page and screen. Elizabeth I was known as 'Gloriana'. and not for nothing. Her 45- year reign set England on an even keel after a century of civil war, regicides and desperate, national anxiety. The defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588 raised her into the pantheon of military monarchs. She secured the future of the English Protestant Church after the brief, fevered reign of her Catholic sister. Bloody Mary. With Elizabeth's patronage. Sir Francis Drake ensured England ruled the waves. Under Elizabeth. Sir Walter Raleigh founded Virginia - named after his Virgin Queen - and laid the foundations of a British America. No age is as closely associated with its monarch as the Elizabethan period, a time of astounding cultural revolution, of Shakespeare, Marlowe and Jonson. All this happened under a woman, in a time when women were marginalised in every other sphere. Elizabeth held near-absolute power, with no Prime Minister to delegate to - while the threat of murder, or losing her throne, was everywhere. Her mother, Anne Boleyn, and her predecessor but one, Lady Jane Grey, were beheaded. With that sort of background - not to mention four stepmothers - it's no wonder she never married or had children. England was her husband; England her child. Just before the Armada was annihilated, she proclaimed, 'I have the body of a weak, feeble woman; but I have the heart and stomach of a king, and of a king of England too.' She was the best of England's queens — and monarchs. Except for one. To fans of Queen Victoria, her glory was all the greater. Succeeding to the throne aged only 18, she could have buckled under the strain and deferred to her advisers. Instead, she took a politics masterclass from her first, adored Prime Minister. Lord Melbourne. Her later Prime Ministers — Gladstone Speaker Advocating Queen Elizabeth I Philippa Gregory One of the most popular novelists writing today. She is best known for her portrayals of women in the Tudor period, and her novel The Other Boleyn Girl was made into a TV drama and a major film. She also wrote the No 1 bestseller The Queen's Fool, a novel about the rivalry between the young Elizabeth and her half-sister Queen Mary. Speaker Advocating Queen Victoria Daisy Goodwin Screenwriter and novelist. She created and wrote the recent hit ITV series Victoria and is currently working on its second season. She has also published the novel Victoria: A Novel of a Young Queen. She has written two other novels, My Last Duchess and The Fortune Hunter, both set in the 19th century. which were New York Times bestsellers. As a television producer, she created a number of programmes including Grand Designs. which is now in its 18th year on Channel 4. Chair and actors to be announced. EFTA00679295 and Disraeli, in particular -were made greater by her guidance. Under her 63-year rule - only recently surpassed by Elizabeth II - the British Empire stretched to the four corners of the earth. In architecture, engineering and industry, Britain hit a global pre- eminence never matched before or since. Under the guiding genius of Brunel. the railway network spread across the country, opening up a new world of commerce and leisure and allowing fresh food and newspapers to be transported across Britain in a day. And it was during Victoria's reign that the great social reform movement began, with figures such as William Wilberforce leading the campaign to abolish slavery, Lord Shaftesbury bringing in laws to reduce child labour and Elizabeth Fry working to improve prisons. While Victoria presided over this great age of innovation in the country, in her personal life she could be radical too. She was the first modern female ruler to balance the duties of marriage and children with the obligations of state. When she married, she was careful to excise the word 'obey from her vows. Her pioneering use of chloroform in childbirth paved the way to painless labour for women everywhere. And at a time when women were generally sexually repressed, in her unabashed passion for Prince Albert she lived a full life that was denied Elizabeth I. In this battle of the queens, Daisy Goodwin, writer of the hit ITV series Victoria, and the accompanying novel of the same name. will argue the case for her heroine. In the Elizabethan corner will stand Philippa Gregory. queen of British historical fiction, author of the Tudor Court series of novels. On stage. a cast of star actors will bring to life the diaries, letters and speeches of the two queens. Who will win the day? Join us on January 30th, hear the arguments, and make up your own mind. I-a-MOOCH( r-grwnter rpoomict rbir au laIta Intelligence Squared is proudly supported by its media partner VANITY FAIR 'many/crow' Unsubsaibe Intelligence' Ltd, Newcombe House, 45 Notting Hill Gate, London WII 3LQ Copyright © Intelligence' Ltd. All rights reserved. EFTA00679296