Elizabeth Archibald has long been a fine scholar of Arthurian Literature in general, and for many years also a particular friend and supporter of this journal and of Boydell & Brewer. Elizabeth is also, as most readers will well know, a previous co-editor, with David F. Johnson, of Arthurian Literature. And Elizabeth's positive impact on so many other scholars’ careers has made it very easy to gather contributors to honour her retirement from teaching and service – but not, happily, from research! – with a special issue of the journal dedicated to her own interest in, and many influential contributions to, Arthurian studies. As co-editors, we are both grateful for Elizabeth's friendship and scholarship and mentoring: she is a model academic and a terrific human being, and it is both an honour and a pleasure to dedicate this issue of Arthurian Literature to her.

Elizabeth's energy and generosity were matched by Derek Brewer, and like Derek, Elizabeth has always been very supportive of both the Arthurian community and of early career scholars. Now that we have the Derek Brewer Essay Prize in motion – see the announcement at the back of this volume – it is a privilege to open each volume of Arthurian Literature with the award-winning essay named after the generous and insightful founder of the D. S. Brewer half of the Boydell & Brewer Press to which so many Arthurian and romance scholars are indebted. We begin this volume, then, with a less well-known Arthurian tradition associated with a different but equally powerful Elizabeth: this year's Derek Brewer Essay Prize is Felicity Brown's fascinating study of the uses to which the Arthurian Legend were put in sixteenth-century Ascension Day tournaments celebrating not only Queen Elizabeth I's rule but also the importance of her sailors as the early modern counterparts to medieval Arthurian knights. Although the Derek Brewer Prize is separate from the papers written explicitly to honour Elizabeth, it is a happy aventure that we open our celebration of Elizabeth's excellence with Felicity Brown's study of Arthurian elements in the reign of Queen Elizabeth.