Dedication

George Etheridge’s Encomium was never delivered to Queen Elizabeth I during her Royal Visit to Oxford in 1566, and it is doubtful whether she ever received it. This does not apply, however, to our own electronic edition of the Encomium, which was presented to HM Queen Elizabeth II to remind her of her Royal Visit to Royal Holloway, University of London, on 14 March 2014 when she officially conferred a Regius Professorship in the Department of Music. This was one of twelve Regius Professorships bestowed on British Universities to mark the celebrations of the Diamond Jubilee on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of Her Majesty’s accession to the throne of the United Kingdom. We were subsequently delighted to receive a letter from Buckingham Palace graciously acknowledging the receipt of our gift. In this way, Etheridge’s wish was somehow fulfilled, as his Encomium was at last received — serendipitously, on a similar occasion — by Elizabeth I’s distinguished and cognominal successor almost 450 years later: better late than never !