Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in
Palgrave Macmillan
Book cover

Anna of Denmark and Henrietta Maria

Virgins, Witches, and Catholic Queens

  • Book
  • © 2017

Overview

Authors:
  1. Susan Dunn-Hensley

    1. Wheaton College, Wheaton, USA

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

  • Employs a unique comparative approach to trace representations of queenship from the Jacobean through the Caroline periods
  • Challenges misogynistic readings of the early Stuart queens and their political and artistic activities
  • Appeals to scholars of queenship studies, gender studies, early modern drama, and the Jacobean and Caroline periods
  • Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras

Part of the book series: Queenship and Power (QAP)

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this book

Log in via an institution
eBook USD 99.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book USD 129.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book USD 129.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access

Licence this eBook for your library

Institutional subscriptions

Table of contents (8 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-ix
    Download chapter PDF

  2. Introduction

    • Susan Dunn-Hensley
    Pages 1-16

  3. Anna of Denmark and Henrietta Maria: Catholic Queens in a Protestant Land

    • Susan Dunn-Hensley
    Pages 17-44

  4. Witches and Queens: Queen Anna and Representations of Female Power

    • Susan Dunn-Hensley
    Pages 45-74

  5. Performing Power: Gender, Authority and Catholicism in Anna’s English Masques

    • Susan Dunn-Hensley
    Pages 75-107

  6. Finding Anna: Anna’s Influence on Early Jacobean Theatre and Her Legacy

    • Susan Dunn-Hensley
    Pages 109-139

  7. Henrietta Maria: The Esther to Her Oppressed People

    • Susan Dunn-Hensley
    Pages 141-164

  8. Envisioning a Catholic Utopia: The Faithful Shepherdess and The Shepherd’s Paradise

    • Susan Dunn-Hensley
    Pages 165-193

  9. Salmacida Spolia: The Last Masque of the Caroline Period and the English Civil War

    • Susan Dunn-Hensley
    Pages 195-222

  10. Back Matter

    Pages 223-230
    Download chapter PDF
Back to top

Keywords

About this book

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. 



Reviews

“Anna of Denmark and Henrietta Maria combines careful research and fresh, accessible prose with an original comparative approach—in positioning these two queens side by side, this study yields numerous rich insights, illuminating more than any separate study could. Susan Dunn-Hensley examines the ways in which the two queens yielded power, and contextualizes the political, religious, and cultural challenges they faced. The result is an essential remedy to powerful narratives of these women as irrational, impractical, and unruly, which have influenced even recent scholarship.” (Jo Carney, Professor of English, The College of New Jersey, USA)

Authors and Affiliations

  • Wheaton College, Wheaton, USA

    Susan Dunn-Hensley

About the author

Susan Dunn-Hensley is a Visiting Assistant Professor at Wheaton College, USA. Her essays on queenship and the sacred feminine appear in “High and Mighty Queens” of Early Modern England (Palgrave 2003) and in Walsingham in Literature and Culture from the Middle Ages to Modernity (2010).

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Anna of Denmark and Henrietta Maria

  • Book Subtitle: Virgins, Witches, and Catholic Queens

  • Authors: Susan Dunn-Hensley

  • Series Title: Queenship and Power

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-63227-8

  • Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham

  • eBook Packages: History, History (R0)

  • Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2017

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-319-63226-1Published: 23 October 2017

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-3-319-87502-6Published: 24 August 2018

  • eBook ISBN: 978-3-319-63227-8Published: 11 October 2017

  • Series ISSN: 2730-938X

  • Series E-ISSN: 2730-9398

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: IX, 230

  • Topics: History of Early Modern Europe, Women's Studies, History of Britain and Ireland, Modern History, History of Modern Europe

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Back to top

Search

Navigation