Vintage view: The emotional and political significance of the Chequers Ring

Kya deLongchamps considers the emotional and political significance of the Chequers Ring, one of the few surviving objects connected to the very private life of Elizabeth I, Queen of England.

It’s said that Queen Elizabeth I spent many hours standing in her private chambers before collapsing onto a heap of cushions for a further four nights and finally being carried to her death bed.

A stooped, small, solitary pillar of dignity behind her poisonous lead painted mask, a stiff wig styled up to suggest the glorious red hair robbed by small pox, it’s impossible not to feel some pity for Elizabeth in those final days in 1603.