A View of "Elizabeth" Movie from The Perspectives of Machiavelli and Hobbes

In the film Elizabeth, the character who has thoughts similar to those of Machiavelli and can be described as a machiavellian is Sir Francis Walsingham. Walsingham, who returned from exile after Elizabeth ascended the throne, eventually appears in perhaps the only human position that the Queen trusts. When the Empire is about to experience great chaos, and there are a lot of people, lords who want to dethrone and kill the Queen, Francis Walsingham tries everything to protect the Queen. As mentioned at the end of the film, he also serves as the Queen's right-hand man until he dies.

Machiavelli, who has a very important place in the history of political thought, is a thinker of bourgeois origin and aims to establish Italian unity. Machiavelli developed political ideas for this purpose but saw them as tools. He played an important role in the secularization and modernization of the class from which he came, namely the bourgeoisie. At the same time, he argued that the effective way to achieve Italian unity was an absolute monarchy.

At this point, we encounter some of Walsingham's thoughts that can be considered machiavellian. Machiavelli believed that without seeking moral value, all kinds of tools could be used for the main purpose. According to him, the point that distinguishes him from all other politicians who say that "The end justifies the means" is that although he does not seek a moral judgment in the tools he uses, he argues that his goal is a higher, more valuable goal than others. In other words, he's not like politicians who can do anything for their own personal gain. Also, when we watch the film, we can see that Walsingham has set a high goal, such as the Queen staying in power and the empire is continuing. However, he did not observe moral values in any of the methods he used for this purpose. As Machiavelli mentioned, he kept politics separate from morality and religion. He also conveyed these thoughts giving the Queen ideas. On the other hand, he followed Machiavelli's very similar path to this separation of religion, morality, and politics. Machiavelli says that political thoughts should be evaluated independently of morality and religion. According to this idea, if you need to use religion as a tool for your purpose, you should use religion without thinking about the moral dimension of it. Walsingham also offered the Queen exactly that thought in the film. As a result, Elizabeth asserts her virginity to become a sacred value in the eyes of her people. She strengthens her authority by likening himself to the Virgin Mary.

Sectarian wars in Europe have been a major problem for many different empires and states in many periods of history. In the film, we can see that Queen Elizabeth was left between this sectarian conflict from the very beginning. Although the Queen is not happy with this situation and tries to come up with a solution, she does not succeed. These sects, who have become very hostile to each other, do not look warmly at the idea of living intolerance throughout the film. In fact, on the contrary, they consider the Queen's proposals to be disrespectful or even blasphemous to their own beliefs.

At this point, we can use some of the ideas of famous English thinker, Thomas Hobbes, to come up with a solution to these conflicts. First, it is also possible to see in the film a likeness of the English civil wars that Hobbes witnessed and intended to end. The aim of Hobbes ' political theories, shaped by a broad materialist philosophy, is to end these civil wars. He talks about a sovereign power that is necessary for the end of these wars. According to him, after this sovereign power existed and provided political authority, it did not matter much if the power was a church or a king.

However still, as in the case of France, an absolute monarchy in which all powers were gathered in the King seemed to be a more effective method. Hobbes explains the foundations of these thoughts through the state of nature, in which he claims that people live in an unsafe way without the state and society existing. According to this, human nature cannot live in such a lack of authority, distrust always exists, since everyone is in an equal position to kill each other. For this reason, the establishment of sovereignty is essential. In order to establish this sovereignty and end wars, The Social Contract created by people coming together must be applied. In explaining this contract, a sovereign mentions the management of this person, their responsibilities to the people. At this point, the social contract theory, which is too attuned to absolute monarchy, can end sectarian conflicts along with absolute and undivided sovereignty, as Elizabeth tried to do.