Spenser and the Death of the Queen

Abstract

Hadfield is putting Arthur's dream of the Farie Queen in context of the succession: just as arthur and guinevere "failed to produce any children and so plunged Britain into a devastating civil war which destroyed the legacy of the greatest dynasty the island had produced" so to, it was feared, would be the result of Elizabeth's virginity and failure to name an heir. the death on everyone's mind was the queens, and in mutability we see mary/scots and therefore james