Elizabeth I and her court

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Elizabeth gave her favourites titles: for example, she made Robert Dudley Earl of Leicester in 1564. She also gave them profitable monopolies, such as the Earl of Essex's farm of the customs on sweet wines, which brought him a large income.

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Elizabeth and her ministers deliberately created an image of the queen that made her seem powerful, chosen by God and devoted to her people, and this helped her overcome the doubts many people had about a female ruler.

From early in the reign the government tried to control how the queen was shown. A draft proclamation of 1563 aimed to stop unofficial portraits, and the portraits that were produced were packed with symbols. In the Ermine Portrait of 1585 the ermine represented purity. The Armada Portrait, painted soon after 1588, shows her hand resting on a globe, with the defeated Armada behind her, suggesting she ruled the seas. In the Ditchley Portrait of about 1592 she stands on a map of England, as if she were the protector of the whole country. As she aged, painters used an approved youthful face, so that the queen never appeared old or weak.

Elizabeth also turned her single status into a strength. She was presented as the Virgin Queen, married to her kingdom and sacrificing a family for her people. Poets praised her as Gloriana; Edmund Spenser's 'The Faerie Queene' (1590) was dedicated to her. From the 1570s her Accession Day, 17 November, was celebrated with bell-ringing across England, while at court knights competed in the Accession Day tilts in her honour.

Her personal presence mattered too. She dressed magnificently, covered in jewels and pearls, and courtiers knelt when they spoke to her. On her summer progresses towns welcomed her with pageants and speeches, so thousands of ordinary people saw her. She used speeches to great effect: at Tilbury in 1588 she declared that she had the 'heart and stomach of a king', and in the Golden Speech of 1601 she reminded MPs of her love for her people.

These methods were linked by a single aim. By making herself seem glorious, pure and God-given, Elizabeth answered those who said a woman could not rule, discouraged rebels and foreign enemies, and distracted attention from her age and her refusal to name a successor.

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Interpretation A is convincing about the skill and importance of Walsingham's intelligence work, but its claim that Elizabeth would 'almost certainly' have been murdered without him is an exaggeration.

The interpretation accurately describes Walsingham's methods. As Secretary of State from 1573 to 1590, he built a network of agents in foreign courts and among English Catholic exiles, used informers and double agents at home, intercepted letters and employed the codebreaker Thomas Phelippes. His successes were real. In 1583 his agents watched Francis Throckmorton and uncovered a plan for a French invasion led by the Duke of Guise with Spanish support; the Spanish ambassador, Mendoza, was expelled. In 1586 he trapped Mary, Queen of Scots: through a double agent, Gilbert Gifford, letters to and from Mary at Chartley were smuggled in beer barrels and read by Walsingham, and when Mary approved Babington's plan to kill Elizabeth, he had the evidence that led to her trial and execution in February 1587. This removed the main Catholic claimant to the throne.

However, the interpretation overstates his role. The Ridolfi Plot of 1571 was uncovered before Walsingham became Secretary, mainly through William Cecil. Many of the plots were badly organised and had little support, and most English Catholics remained loyal, as they showed in 1588. Elizabeth also had other protections: the Bond of Association of 1584 and the Act for the Queen's Safety of 1585 meant anyone who benefited from her murder would be excluded and pursued. Some historians argue that Walsingham did not simply uncover the Babington Plot but encouraged it in order to trap Mary, so the claim that he stopped plots 'before they could strike' hides how much he manipulated events. The final claim is speculation: we cannot know what would have happened without him.

Overall, Interpretation A is convincing that Walsingham was vital to Elizabeth's security in the 1580s, but it is exaggerated in suggesting that her survival depended on him alone.

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I disagree with the statement. Entertainment was an important and very visible part of court life, but it was not the court's main purpose. The court was above all the centre of political power: it was where England was governed, where patronage was distributed and where the monarchy displayed its majesty. Even its entertainments usually served these political ends.

There is evidence for the statement. Elizabeth's court was famous for its entertainments. Companies of actors such as Leicester's Men and later the Lord Chamberlain's Men performed plays at Christmas and Shrovetide, chosen and checked by the Master of the Revels. There were masques, music and dancing - the queen herself danced the galliard - as well as hunting and card games. Every 17 November knights jousted in the Accession Day tilts, and at New Year courtiers presented the queen with gifts. A visitor might well have thought the court existed for pleasure.

However, the court's most important purpose was government. The Privy Council met at court, and ministers such as William Cecil and Francis Walsingham spent their days on state business, from defence and religion to the plots of Mary, Queen of Scots. Foreign ambassadors were received in the Presence Chamber, and decisions about war and peace were made there. Because power depended on access to the queen, being at court was essential for anyone who wanted influence.

The court was also the centre of patronage. Offices, titles, lands and monopolies were all granted there, and ambitious men came to court to win rewards for themselves and their followers. This made the court the arena of faction, from the rivalry of Cecil and Leicester in the early reign to the bitter struggle between Essex and Robert Cecil in the 1590s. Keeping the great nobles at court also kept them under the queen's eye and dependent on her favour.

Display was another key purpose. The magnificence of the court - the jewels, the clothes, the kneeling courtiers and the elaborate ceremony of the queen's meals described by Paul Hentzner in 1598 - showed subjects and foreign visitors the wealth and power of the monarchy. The court also supported culture: Thomas Tallis and William Byrd of the Chapel Royal were given a monopoly on printing music in 1575, and poets and painters such as Edmund Spenser and Nicholas Hilliard worked for courtly patrons.

Even the entertainments had political purposes. The Accession Day tilts celebrated the queen's rule and gave courtiers like Essex a chance to show their devotion, and masques and plays flattered her and displayed her glory. Overall, entertainment was part of the court's life, but its main purpose was political: it was the centre of government, patronage and royal display, and entertainment was one of the ways those purposes were achieved.