In 1622, John Taylor's A Memorial of all the English Monarchs was published. The book contained short biographies in “heroicall verse” of the 150 monarchs who Taylor believed had ruled in England from Brutus to James VI & I. Of all the rulers included, Elizabeth is the only one to be compared to any biblical figures. The biography reads like a hagiographic paean:

Following the death of James and the accession of Charles I in 1625, Taylor issued a new edition of the booklet in 1630 that included a (very brief) biography of Charles. Despite editing James's biography, Taylor did not associate James with Solomon, seemingly choosing to ignore the various lamentory texts that hailed James as “Great Britain's Solomon.” Despite the many associations between Henry VIII and David, or Edward VI and Josiah, for instance, Taylor only saw Elizabeth as a latter-day embodiment of a famed Old Testament figure. We can never know for certain why Taylor made this decision, but it does suggest that Elizabeth's relationship with the luminaries of the Old Testament was so strong that even nineteen years after her death, Taylor felt compelled to use these types to describe and commemorate the last Tudor monarch.

Taylor's biography of Elizabeth neatly encapsulates many of the laudatory texts published in the aftermath of the Queen's death in March 1603. As numerous scholars have shown, the outpouring of grief that accompanied the Queen's death—some of it genuine, some of it for show—not only reflected and repurposed much of the praise offered to Elizabeth during her life, but also cemented the idea of “Good Queen Bess” in English popular culture that remains even today. Taylor's biography also captures many of the themes discussed in the previous chapters: like his Elizabethan predecessors, Taylor believed Elizabeth was a Deborah, not just like Deborah, and had been sent by God to the English. The Old Testament was therefore an enduring source for understanding the last Tudor monarch's reign.