MARY TUDOR AS ‘SOLE QUENE’?: GENDERING TUDOR MONARCHY

Abstract

Although Mary Tudor had reigned for five years before her, Elizabeth Tudor's reign has often been treated as if it raised issues of English female monarchy de novo. The argument of this paper is that the study of Mary's reign is important in its own right, as well as a necessary introduction for any wider study of English female monarchy. It was during Mary's reign that the accommodations consequent upon the occupation of the traditionally male monarchy by the first female occupant were devised. Those strategies subsequently defined central symbolic forms of Elizabeth's reign and shaped their readings. Moreover, the shifts in ritual and representations during the first queen's reign made to accommodate that other novelty, a king as consort, throw considerable light on the underlying political assumptions of the times, as well as the more gendered aspects of constitutional theory.