Queens Consort Cultural Transfer and European Politics c.1500-1800

<p><em>Queens Consort Cultural Transfer and European Politics</em> examines the roles that queens consort played in dynastic politics and cultural transfer between their natal and marital courts during the sixteenth seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. This collection of essays analyses the part that these queens played in European politics showing how hard and soft power high politics and cultural influences cannot be strictly separated. It shows that the root of these consorts’ power lay in their dynastic networks and the extent to which they cultivated them. The consorts studied in this book come from territories such as Austria Braunschweig Hanover Poland Portugal Prussia and Saxony and travel to among other places Britain Naples Russia Spain and Sweden. The various chapters address different types of cultural manifestation among them collecting portraiture panegyric poetry libraries theatre and festivals learning genealogical literature and architecture.</p><p>The volume significantly shifts the direction of scholarship by moving beyond a focus on individual historical women to consider ‘queens consort’ as a category making it valuable reading for students and scholars of early modern gender and political history.</p>