Royal Progress

Tour of the monarch through the country, visiting cities and the houses of eminent aristocrats. In times without newspapers, radio and TV this was one of the few occasions were the subjects could actually see what their monarch really looked like (no, stamps were not invented then either). Elizabeth I developed the Royal Progress to an art form and an efficient instrument of government. The early Stuarts who promoted the divine-right ideology and separated themselves from this form of getting into contact with their subjects. For which they had to pay dearly.