Educating a princess: Elizabeth I's Commonplace book

Abstract

Elizabeth I (1558-1603) received an exceptional humanist education in a time when female learning primarily meant moral and domestic training. Elizabeth’s instruction combined elements of both the privately oriented domestic education of women and the more public rhetorical training reserved primarily for men. Her educational model is most clearly shown in the commonplace book associated with her, which constituted a vital component and indispensable tool in her training. In 1563 a commonplace book, entitled Precationes Priuate, Regiae E[lizabethae]. R[eginae] (STC 7576.7) was published under Elizabeth’s name by the London printer Thomas Purfoot. Aside from Precationes, or private prayers, the composite volume also includes two other works: Sententiae, a collection of sayings, and Regna Quibis Imperat Elizabeta Regina Angliae, a detailed description of the administrative bodies of her realm. Not only are these elements typically found in both male and female commonplace books, but they also reveal her unique princely education shaped by both feminine and masculine rhetorical instruction. The same gendered duality that is present in her commonplace book is also detectable in her speeches. In fact, Elizabeth applied the same compositional techniques associated with her commonplace book in her speeches written for both her subjects and parliament.