Queenship and Counsel in Early Modern Europe

The discourse of political counsel in early modern Europe depended on the participation of men, as both counsellors and counselled. Women were often thought too irrational or imprudent to give or receive political advice-but they did in unprecedented numbers, as this volume shows. These essays trace the relationship between queenship and counsel through over three hundred years of history. Case studies span Europe, from Sweden and Poland-Lithuania via the Habsburg territories to England and France, and feature queens regnant, consort and regent, including Elizabeth I of England, Catherine Jagiellon of Sweden, Catherine de' Medici and Anna of Denmark. They draw on a variety of innovative sources to recover evidence of queenly counsel, from treatises and letters to poetry, masques and architecture. For scholars of history, politics and literature in early modern Europe, this book enriches our understanding of royal women as political actors.

Helen Matheson-Pollock is Honorary Research Associate at University College London, UK. Joanne Paul is Lecturer in Early Modern History at the University of Sussex, UK. Catherine Fletcher is Associate Professor in History and Heritage at Swansea University, UK.

1. Introduction.- 2. Bona Sforza and the Realpolitik of Queenly Counsel in Sixteenth-Century Poland-Lithuania.- 3. Between Kings and Emperors: Catherine of Aragon as Counselor and Mediator.- 4. Counselloresses and Court Politics: Mary Tudor, Queen of France and Female Counsel in European Politics, 1509-15.- 5. Catherine Jagiellon, Queen Consort of Sweden: Counselling between the Catholic Jagiellons and the Lutheran Vasas.- 6.The Ladies' Peace Revisited: Gender, Counsel and Diplomacy.- 7. Counsel as Performative Practice of Power in Catherine de Medici's Early Regencies.- 8. Mary Stuart and Her Rebels-turned-Privy Councillors: Performance of the Ritual of Counsel.- 9. The Moor's Counsel: Sir Francis Walsingham's Advice to Elizabeth I.- 10. The Queen as the Counselor's Muse: Elizabeth I in The Faerie Queene's Proems.- 11. Reconsidering the Political Role of Anna of Denmark.- 12. Epilogue: "Publica si domini regerent moderamina cunni": Deciphering Queenship and Counsel.