Cassidy Percoco reviewed Tudor queenship by Anna Whitelock (Queenship and power)
Review of 'Tudor queenship' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
A great comparative look at the reigns of Mary and Elizabeth Tudor. In pop culture, the two are typically presented as strong contrasts - Mary an oppressive, unpopular ruler enslaved to her husband and forcing a dour Catholicism on her people; Elizabeth a bright and shining figure whose natural accession to the throne brought joy and freedom - but the essays in this text make strong cases for a continuity from one to the other. Section II, "Precedents and Traditions", in particular focuses frequently on ways that Elizabeth followed in Mary's footsteps in terms of iconography or presentation. Section III, "Educating for Rule", is shorter but has some very interesting information on how Mary was eventually given a princely rather than simply princessly education. And Section IV, "Love and War", includes discussion of the way that Protestant propaganda has influenced later views of the realities of Mary and Philip's marriage, …
A great comparative look at the reigns of Mary and Elizabeth Tudor. In pop culture, the two are typically presented as strong contrasts - Mary an oppressive, unpopular ruler enslaved to her husband and forcing a dour Catholicism on her people; Elizabeth a bright and shining figure whose natural accession to the throne brought joy and freedom - but the essays in this text make strong cases for a continuity from one to the other. Section II, "Precedents and Traditions", in particular focuses frequently on ways that Elizabeth followed in Mary's footsteps in terms of iconography or presentation. Section III, "Educating for Rule", is shorter but has some very interesting information on how Mary was eventually given a princely rather than simply princessly education. And Section IV, "Love and War", includes discussion of the way that Protestant propaganda has influenced later views of the realities of Mary and Philip's marriage, which was not as problematic to the English people as we may sometimes think.
I admit that I skipped the first two essays in "Loyalty and Service" (they focused entirely on Mary and Elizabeth's councillors), but the last - "Women, Friendship, and Memory" by Charlotte Merton - may have been the most interesting in the entire book. This essay explores female kinship and friendship networks in the Tudor courts, naming children to express patron/client relationships, letter-writing, fostering, and the privy chamber.