---
title: The Armada Portrait of Elizabeth I (Royal Museums Greenwich version), oil on panel
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/armada-portrait-elizabeth-i-greenwich-1588/
description: 'A full-face portrait of Elizabeth I seated between two sea scenes: on the left English ships and fireships against the Spanish fleet, on the right…'
section: Collection
---

[Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/)

[![The Armada Portrait of Elizabeth I (Royal Museums Greenwich version), oil on panel](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/armada-portrait-elizabeth-i-greenwich-1588.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/armada-portrait-elizabeth-i-greenwich-1588.jpg)

# The Armada Portrait of Elizabeth I (Royal Museums Greenwich version), oil on panel

A full-face portrait of Elizabeth I seated between two sea scenes: on the left English ships and fireships against the Spanish fleet, on the right Spanish ships wrecked on a rocky shore. Her hand rests on a globe beside an imperial crown; the sea scenes and the globe are the symbols scholars read as the message of the picture.

## Text on the object

Checked for printed text

No printed or legible text on this object.

[← Woodcut 'A table describing the burning of Bishop Ridley and Father Latimer at Oxford', in John Foxe, Actes and Monuments (1563)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/foxe-latimer-ridley-burning-1563/) [Medal of Elizabeth I: portrait in a ruff, reverse an ark on stormy waves with SAEVAS TRANQVILLA PER VNDAS (18th-century aftercast of a 1588 model) →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/elizabeth-i-ark-medal-aftercast-1588/)

## Using the same techniques

- [Fragments of the Abydos king list from Ramesses II's temple, in the British Museum: rows of royal cartouches](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/abydos-king-list-ramesses-ii-temple-british-museum/) (New Kingdom Egypt · 0000 · Card stacking, Transfer)
- [Clay cylinder with the Ehulhul inscription of Nabonidus, king of Babylon, describing work on three temples](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/cylinder-nabonidus-ehulhul-inscription-555bce/) (Neo Babylonian Empire · 0000 · Transfer)
- [Seated limestone statue of Hatshepsut as king, with feminine royal titles on the throne, reassembled from fragments broken up at Deir el-Bahri](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/hatshepsut-seated-statue-limestone-met-1458bce/) (New Kingdom Egypt · 0000 · Transfer, Testimonial)
- [Glazed-brick panel with a striding lion, from Babylon (reign of Nebuchadnezzar II)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/ishtar-gate-panel-striding-lion-nebuchadnezzar-ii-604bce/) (Neo Babylonian Empire · 0000 · Transfer)
- [Limestone relief block of Ramesses II wearing the White Crown, a jubilee relief from his temple at Herakleopolis](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/jubilee-relief-ramesses-ii-herakleopolis-met-05-4-256/) (New Kingdom Egypt · 0000 · Transfer)
- [Line drawing of the Great Kadesh battle relief on the walls of the Ramesseum, from Breasted's History of Egypt](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/kadesh-relief-ramesseum-breasted-drawing-1275bce/) (New Kingdom Egypt · 0000 · Card stacking, Transfer). Content note: A drawing of an Egyptian royal battle relief showing Hittite soldiers and horses killed and drowned, as the king's monument presented the battle; it is a one-sided image made by the winning side's own account.
- [Gypsum alabaster slab inscribed in cuneiform, from Nimrud (Kalhu), reign of Ashurnasirpal II](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/nimrud-slab-ashurnasirpal-ii-inscription-883bce/) (Neo Assyrian Empire · 0000 · Transfer, Glittering generalities)
- [Egyptian alabaster jar inscribed with the name of Xerxes the Great in four languages (Old Persian, Elamite, Babylonian, Egyptian), 486 to 466 BCE](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/xerxes-jar-four-languages-486bce/) (Achaemenid Empire · 0000 · Transfer)