From the very start of her reign, Queen Elizabeth I began cultivating a cultlike devotion to her. This is because, as a woman and the illegitimate child of a previous monarch, Elizabeth faced a lot of opposition. To counter accusations of being licentious, she promoted an image of herself as England's virgin mother who would love only her homeland. The queen employed various methods of artistic propaganda to accomplish this.

Perhaps the most obvious form of this available to us today exists in portraiture. She is frequently depicted dressed in black and white, a familiar symbol of chastity. Furthermore, even as she aged, visual depictions of Elizabeth showed her younger, adding to the image of her as a timeless nurturer and protector of the English nation. The Armada Portrait is an excellent example of this. In this portrait, as well as others, Elizabeth has herself shown with common symbols of regal power, such as the crown and globe. The Rainbow Portrait takes this even further, depicting her in a gown covered with eyes and ears, implying that she sees and hears everything that occurs in England.

The written arts of the time also often supported Elizabeth. Arguably, the best example of this is Edmund Spencer's epic poem, The Faerie Queene. This work, and others like it, uses allegory to praise the Tudor dynasty, of which Elizabeth was a part.

The performing arts also flourished during the Elizabethan era. Many plays directly or indirectly praised and supported the queen. Her Master of Revels, Edmund Tilney, was in charge of approving scripts for public and court performances. Naturally, Tilney saw to it that the theater of the day showed the queen in a positive light.