The Mirror in Albion: Spanish Theatrical Reimaginings of Queen Elizabeth I and Mary Stuart

This essay advances a consideration of two foreign history plays that look back on the execution of Mary Stuart in 1587. Examining Juan Bautista Diamante's La reina María Estuarda (1660) and José de Cañizares's Lo que va de cetro a cetro y crueldad de Inglaterra (circa 1713–18), it analyzes the way in which geographical and temporal distance between an event depicted on stage and the nation in which it is presented provided Spanish playwrights with the unique opportunity not only to comment upon a rival nation's past but also to employ foreign history in the consideration of domestic affairs. In doing so, this article also contemplates the place that England occupied in the changing conceptions of Spain's national and imperial identities in a period marked by anxieties about dynastic succession and waning imperial power.