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Gender and Politics in the Henrician Court: The Douglas-Howard Lyrics in the Devonshire Manuscript (BL Add 17492)*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

Bradley J. Irish
Bradley J. Irish*
Affiliation:
The University of Texas at Austin
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Abstract

BL Additional MS 17492, the so-called Devonshire Manuscript of Henrician courtly verse, is a prime example of how social and cultural phenomena contributed to early modern manuscript culture. Among the treasures of the Devonshire MS is a series of lyrics that chronicles a fascinating courtly intrigue of the 1530s: the illicit, clandestine marriage of Lord Thomas Howard and Lady Margaret Douglas, the headstrong niece of Henry VIII. After unpacking this historical drama, this essay advances the first substantial literary analysis of these poems by exploring the textual strategies through which Howard and Douglas attempted to negotiate the crown's insistent management of their erotic life. This treatment of the Douglas-Howard lyrics provides new opportunity to consider how the Devonshire MS reflects and refracts the gender dynamics of the contemporary Henrician court.

Type
Research Article
Information
Renaissance Quarterly , Volume 64 , Issue 1 , Spring 2011 , pp. 79 - 114
Copyright
Copyright © 2011 Renaissance Society of America

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Footnotes

*

This project originated in the Mellon Summer Institute for Vernacular Paleography hosted by the Folger Shakespeare Library in July 2009; I thank Heather Wolfe, Owen Williams, Steven W. May, Alan Stewart, and Adrienne Shevchuk for their guidance and support during the seminar. I am also greatly indebted to Jason Powell, Raymond G. Siemens, Marjorie Curry Woods, Frank Whigham, Wayne A. Rebhorn, Noël Clare Radley, Ruth Ahnert, Kristen P. Walton, and my colleagues at the University of Texas at Austin. I am especially grateful to the editors, reviewers, and staff of Renaissance Quarterly, whose kind and generous attention has strengthened the essay tremendously.

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