Anna Of Denmark And Henrietta Maria: Virgins, Witches, And Catholic Queens (queenship And Power)
by Susan Dunn-Hensley /
2017 / English / PDF
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This book examines how early Stuart queens navigated their roles as
political players and artistic patrons in a culture deeply
conflicted about the legitimacy of female authority. Anna of
Denmark and Henrietta Maria both employed powerful female
archetypes such as Amazons and the Virgin Mary in court
performances. Susan Dunn-Hensley analyzes how darker images of
usurping, contaminating women, epitomized by the witch, often
merged with these celebratory depictions. By tracing these
competing representations through the Jacobean and Caroline
periods, Dunn-Hensley peels back layers of misogyny from historical
scholarship and points to rich new lines of inquiry. Few have
written about Anna’s religious beliefs, and comparing her
Catholicism with Henrietta Maria’s illuminates the ways in which
both women were politically subversive. This book offers an
important corrective to centuries of negative representation, and
contributes to a fuller understanding of the role of queenship in
the English Civil War and the fall of the Stuart
monarchy.
This book examines how early Stuart queens navigated their roles as
political players and artistic patrons in a culture deeply
conflicted about the legitimacy of female authority. Anna of
Denmark and Henrietta Maria both employed powerful female
archetypes such as Amazons and the Virgin Mary in court
performances. Susan Dunn-Hensley analyzes how darker images of
usurping, contaminating women, epitomized by the witch, often
merged with these celebratory depictions. By tracing these
competing representations through the Jacobean and Caroline
periods, Dunn-Hensley peels back layers of misogyny from historical
scholarship and points to rich new lines of inquiry. Few have
written about Anna’s religious beliefs, and comparing her
Catholicism with Henrietta Maria’s illuminates the ways in which
both women were politically subversive. This book offers an
important corrective to centuries of negative representation, and
contributes to a fuller understanding of the role of queenship in
the English Civil War and the fall of the Stuart
monarchy.
