Leonid Andronov/ Painting politicsīy 1590, when the image was painted, Elizabeth had been on the throne for more than 30 years and there was rising domestic discontent with her rule. The Queen’s House, Greenwich, in the foreground. The propaganda potential was considerable and the Armada portrait was no doubt commissioned in order to capitalise on this. No landing forces reached English shores.Īt the time the victory was viewed as nothing short of miraculous and a sure sign of divine support for the rule of the Virgin Queen, Elizabeth I. A combination of atrocious weather and shrewd naval tactics on the part of the English divided the Spanish force, shipwrecking some and diverting others. But when the Spanish launched the actual invasion, delivery from the threat seemed miraculously easy. The Spanish Armada posed an existential threat to Elizabeth Tudor’s reign and had been feared for decades. This invasion force was sent by her rival and brother-in-law, Philip II, to take the English throne and revert England to Catholicism in 1588. The painting, bought from Sir Francis Drake’s descendants, will be on public display from October this year in the Queen’s House, Greenwich, before undergoing conservation in 2017.įew images are as well known as the Armada painting, which shows Queen Elizabeth I basking in the aftermath of the greatest military success of her long reign, the defeat of a Spanish Armada. After what the Heritage Lottery Fund has described as one of the most successful funding campaigns ever, one of three versions of the 1590 “Armada portrait” has been acquired by the Art Fund for £10.3m.
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