Queen Elizabeth I Feeding the Dutch Cow

Image

Name: Queen Elizabeth I Feeding the Dutch Cow (The Milch Cow)
Author: unknown
Date: c.1633-1639
Medium: Oil on Panel
Size: 52 × 67cm
Location: Rijksmuseum, the Netherlands
Copyright: Public Domain
Permalink: https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/nl/collectie/SK-A-2684
Description: 

This cartoon was probably completed in the period following the visit of François, Duke of Anjou (brother of King Henry III of France) to Queen Elizabeth's court in 1581–82 to discuss his marriage proposal and his military support for the Anglo-Dutch alliance against the Spanish. Anjou's subsequent mission to the Netherlands met with disaster when his army was massacred by the citizens of Antwerp in early 1583.

The cartoon depicts a cow which represents the Dutch provinces: King Philip II of Spain is vainly trying to ride the cow; Queen Elizabeth is feeding it; William of Orange is milking it; and the cow is defecating on the hand of the Duke of Anjou, who is holding its tail.

The caption reads:
Not longe time since I sawe a cowe
Did Flaunders represente
Upon whose backe King Philup rode
As being malecontnt.

The Queene of England giving hay
Wheareon the cow did feede,
As one that was her greatest helpe
In her distresse and neede.

The Prince of Orange milkt the cowe
And made his purse the payle.
The cow did shyt in Monsieur's hand
While he did hold her tayle.

(Reference: Mack P. Holt, The Duke of Anjou and the Politique Struggle During the Wars of Religion, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0521892783, pp. 164–65.)