T
he accession day of Queen
Elizabeth II, 6 February, is
usually marked with gun
salutes at the Tower of
London and elsewhere
in the capital. The Queen
herself generally shuns
celebrations on that day, instead observing it
privately – it is, of course, also the anniversary
of the death of her father, George VI, in 1952.
The current monarch’s approach is in
stark contrast with that of the first Queen
Elizabeth. National exigencies meant that,
as her reign went on and the dangers to
the realm mounted, spectacular national
celebrations on ‘the Queen’s Day’ became
increasingly critical – not simply for spectacle
and festivity but for security and defence.
She had come to the throne on
17 November 1558 following the death of her
Catholic sister Mary I. For many of her sub-
jects it offered the promise of a decisive break
with an unpopular popish past and the dawn
of a new age with a Protestant young queen.
Yet for others Elizabeth was the ‘little
whore’ daughter of Henry VIII and Anne
Boleyn, and the living symbol of the break
with Rome. These people believed that Mary
Stuart, the Queen of Scotland, was the
rightful heir to the throne of England. And
over the years that followed, Mary became the
focus of numerous plots against Elizabeth.
Popular loyalty
Twelve years after Elizabeth’s accession,
17 November became the first royal an-
niversary to be popularly celebrated in
England. It began as a spontaneous outpour-
ing of popular loyalty following the abortive
‘Rising of the North’ in 1569 – a rebellion of
Catholic nobles from northern England who
sought to depose Elizabeth and replace her
with Mary, Queen of Scots.
The first celebration is thought to have
been in 1570 in Oxford, where there was
bell-ringing across the city, though there is
also evidence that Lambeth, the home of the
archbishop of Canterbury – and, as such, a
royalist stronghold – rang its bells in 1569.
Following the rebellion, and after endless
rumours of Catholic plots inspired by the
presence of the Scottish queen – who had fled
to England in 1568 – popular feeling surged,
and annual celebrations involving bell-ring-
ing, bonfires, prayers, sermons and feasting
sprang up across the country. Anxious for
government favour, town officials would
sponsor increasingly elaborate customary
ceremonies including processions and
pageants to celebrate the queen’s life and
reign, and to reaffirm loyalty to her.
In Liverpool in 1576 the mayor, Thomas
Bavand, ordered a great bonfire to be lit in