Queenship and Counsel in Early Modern Europe

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.

“This is a valuable addition to the Queenship and Counsel series and a useful work for anyone wanting to learn about how queens in Early Modern Europe were counselled and how they received that counsel, with some, like Elizabeth I, taking counsel but often still ignoring it and making her own decision. It is still a very academic work, and so I would only recommend this to those who have some experience of the events in question.” (Charlie Fenton, Tudor Life, Issue 53, January, 2019)​