Editing Elizabeth I (section)

==Accession==
[[File:Elizabeth I in coronation robes.jpg|thumb|Elizabeth I in her coronation robes, patterned with [[Tudor rose]]s and trimmed with [[Stoat|ermine]]]]

Elizabeth became queen at the age of 25, and declared her intentions to her council and other peers who had come to Hatfield to swear allegiance. The speech contains the first record of her adoption of the medieval [[political theology]] of the sovereign's "two bodies": the body natural and the [[body politic]]:<ref>Kantorowicz, ix.</ref>

{{Blockquote|My lords, the law of nature moves me to sorrow for my sister; the burden that is fallen upon me makes me amazed, and yet, considering I am God's creature, ordained to obey His appointment, I will thereto yield, desiring from the bottom of my heart that I may have assistance of His grace to be the minister of His heavenly will in this office now committed to me. And as I am but one body naturally considered, though by His permission a body politic to govern, so shall I desire you all&nbsp;... to be assistant to me, that I with my ruling and you with your service may make a good account to Almighty God and leave some comfort to our posterity on earth. I mean to direct all my actions by good advice and counsel.<ref>Loades, 36–37 (full document reproduced).</ref>}}

As her [[triumphal progress]] wound through the city on the eve of the [[Coronation of Elizabeth I of England|coronation ceremony]], she was welcomed wholeheartedly by the citizens and greeted by orations and pageants, most with a strong Protestant flavour. Elizabeth's open and gracious responses endeared her to the spectators, who were "wonderfully ravished".<ref>Somerset, 89–90. [http://special-1.bl.uk/treasures/festivalbooks/BookDetails.aspx?strFest=0231 The "Festival Book" account, from the British Library] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160416020206/http://special-1.bl.uk/treasures/festivalbooks/BookDetails.aspx?strFest=0231 |date=16 April 2016}}</ref> The following day, 15 January 1559, a date chosen by her astrologer [[John Dee]],<ref name="IHR">{{Cite web |last=Poole |first=Robert |date=6 September 2005 |title=John Dee and the English Calendar: Science, Religion and Empire |url=http://www.history.ac.uk/eseminars/sem2.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930073802/http://www.history.ac.uk/eseminars/sem2.html |archive-date=30 September 2007 |access-date=26 October 2006 |publisher=Institute of Historical Research}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Szönyi |first=György E. |date=2004 |title=John Dee and Early Modern Occult Philosophy |journal=Literature Compass |volume=1 |issue=1 |pages=1–12<!-- do not not change to bad meta-data **** --> |doi=10.1111/j.1741-4113.2004.00110.x|issn=1741-4113 }}</ref> Elizabeth was crowned and anointed by [[Owen Oglethorpe]], the Catholic [[bishop of Carlisle]], in [[Westminster Abbey]]. She was then presented for the people's acceptance, amidst a deafening noise of organs, fifes, trumpets, drums, and bells.<ref>Neale, 70.</ref> Although Elizabeth was welcomed as queen in England, the country was still in a state of anxiety over the perceived Catholic threat at home and overseas, as well as the choice of whom she would marry.<ref>Loades, xv.</ref>