For my reflective paragraph I chose to explore the topic of womanhood, and how Queen Elizabeth utilized it as means of exerting her power. As a women, Queen Elizabeth obviously already possessed an immense amount of power. There was a problem however; she was a woman in the Middle Ages. During this time, it was highly uncommon to see a man taking orders from a woman. Clearly Elizabeth's situation was different, as she was the Queen, however that doesn't mean other monarchs/men in power were too happy about the idea of taking orders from a woman. I feel as though Elizabeth was aware of her predicament, that's why she employed a variety of subtle tactics to sway many man. We can see in her private letters that she is a brilliant writer. She writes with an air of eloquence, however at times she seems to overdo it slightly. I believe this is all done in an effort to confuse whoever she is sending letters to, as many of the recipients likely couldn't understand the message.
In other letters we can see Queen Elizabeth being very kind and somewhat flirtatious as she attempts to maintain positive diplomatic relationships with many of her suitors. Here, she utilizes her womanhood as a diplomatic tool, she knows she is attractive to many other foreign monarchs, so if she can keep them waiting on her it is likely that the monarchs will never raise a hand to Great Britain.
Overall, Elizabeth was a master at using her womanhood to manipulate people to do her bidding. She also used her womanhood to sway men to her favor, and maintain diplomatic relationships.
