INTRODUCTION

Extract

The four hundredth anniversary of the death of Elizabeth I and the accession of James I inspired a number of conferences, the majority seemingly devoted to the new Stuart Britain. The last queen of England received her commemoration in the exhibitionElizabethheld at the National Maritime Museum from May to September 2003. The Museum and the Royal Historical Society also agreed to sponsor a conference to accompany the exhibition. Nigel Rigby, head of research, and Robert Blyth, curator of imperial and maritime history, organised both the mounting of the conference and the subsequent editing of the papers with the consummate professionalism that has become the National Maritime Museum's hallmark.