Elizabeth’s Symbolic Marriage to England: A History of Lasting Union Abstract

Jill M. Hall

This paper examines the rhetoric of Elizabeth’s speech about entering into a symbolic marriage with England from a religious studies perspective in order to investigate how the content of Elizabeth’s speech utilizes a rhetoric of political theology about the king’s two bodies. Via rhetoric, Elizabeth was able to enter into a symbolic marriage with England, which created a union between King Henry VIII and James I’s Protestant goals, thus establishing a national identity in England.