Created in the year of Elizabeth I’s death, this was the third portrait of the queen engraved by Crispijn de Passe for the London-based publisher Hans Woutneel. The figure was taken from a drawing by Isaac Oliver (now also in the Royal Collection), but the symbols of power such as the sword and Bible were probably improvised by de Passe. The engraver was then living in Cologne, and his separation from his publisher may explain the survival of two proof states of the print (the other in the Rijksmuseum), sent to London for Woutneel's approval as work on the plate progressed.