WOMEN AND POLITICS IN EARLY MODERN ENGLAND, 1450-1700; ED. BY JAMES DAYBELL

This collection of essays examines women's involvement in politics in early modern England, as writers, as members of kinship and patronage networks, and as petitioners, intermediaries and patrons. It challenges conventional conceptualizations of female power and influence, defining 'politics' broadly in order to incorporate women excluded from formal, male-dominated state institutions. The chapters embrace a range of interdisciplinary approaches: historical, literary, palaeographic, linguistic and gender based. They deal with a variety of issues related to female intervention within political spheres, including women's rhetorical, persuasive and communicative skills; the production by women of a range of texts that can be termed 'political'; the politicization of marital, family and kinship networks; and female involvement in patronage and court politics. Women and Politics in Early Modern England, 1450-700 also looks at ways in which images of female power and authority were represented within canonical texts, such as Shakespeare's plays and Milton's epic poetry. The volume extends the range of areas and texts for the study of women, gender and politics, and locates women's political, social and cultural activities within the contexts of the family, locality and wider national stage. It argues for a blurring of the boundaries between the traditional categories of the 'public' and the 'private,' the 'domestic' and the 'political'; and enhances our understanding of the ways in which women exerted political force through informal, intimate and personal, as well as more official, and formal channels of power. As a whole the book makes an important contribution to the reassessment of early modern politics from the perspective of women. A Blend Of Traditional Tudor History And Insights From Feminist Theory This Volume Is Not A Definitive Study Of Women And Politics. Rather It Presents Essays That Are Concerned With Socially Elite Women, Well-connected Aristocrats And Literate Women Of The 'middling Sort' During The Early Modern Period. Rethinking Women And Politics In Early Modern England / James Daybell -- Sisterhood, Friendship And The Power Of English Aristocratic Women, 1450-1550 / Barbara J. Harris -- Rhetoric Of Requests : Genre And Linguistic Scripts In Elizabethan Suitors' Letters / Lynne Magnusson -- Politics In The Elizabethan Privy Chamber : Lady Mary Sidney And Kat Ashley / Natalie Mears -- Portingale Women And Politics In Late Elizabethan London / Alan Stewart -- Negotiating Favour : The Letters Of Lady Ralegh / Karen Robertson -- 'suche Newes As On The Quenes Hye Wayes We Have Mett' : The News And Intelligence Networks Of Elizabeth Talbot, Countess Of Shrewsbury (c.1527-1608) / James Daybell -- Esther Inglis And The English Succession Crisis Of 1599 / Tricia Bracher -- Cavendish-talbot Women : Playing A High-stakes Game / Sara Jayne Steen -- Aristocratic Women, Power, Patronage And Family Networks At The Jacobean Court, 1603-1625 / Helen Payne -- Anne Of Denmark And The Historical Contextualisation Of Shakespeare And Fletcher's Henry Viii / Susan Frye -- Beyond Microhistory : The Use Of Women's Manuscripts In A Widening Political Arena / Elizabeth Clarke -- Loyal And Dutiful Subjects : Englisn Nuns And Stuart Politics / Claire Walker -- Assuming Gentility : Thomas Middleton, Mary Carleton And Aphra Behn / Valerie Wayne. Edited By James Daybell. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. Cover 1 Half Title 2 Dedication 3 Title 4 Copyright 5 Contents 6 List of Figures 8 Notes on Contributors 9 Acknowledgements 12 List of Abbreviations 14 1 Introduction: Rethinking Women and Politics in Early Modern England 18 2 Sisterhood, Friendship and the Power of English Aristocratic Women, 1450-1550 38 3 A Rhetoric of Requests: Genre and Linguistic Scripts in Elizabethan Women's Suitors' Letters 68 4 Politics in the Elizabethan Privy Chamber: Lady Mary Sidney and Kat Ashley 84 5 Portingale Women and Politics in Late Elizabethan London 100 6 Negotiating Favour: the Letters of Lady Ralegh 116 7 'Suche newes as on the Quenes hye wayes we have mett': the News and Intelligence Networks of Elizabeth Talbot, countess of Shrewsbury (c. 1527-1608) 131 8 Esther Inglis and the English Succession Crisis of 1599 149 9 The Cavendish-Talbot Women: Playing a High-Stakes Game 164 10 Aristocratic Women, Power, Patronage and Family Networks at the Jacobean Court, 1603-1625 181 11 Anne of Denmark and the Historical Contextualisation of Shakespeare and Fletcher's Henry VIII 198 12 Mothers, Lovers and Others: Royalist Women 211 13 Beyond Microhistory: the Use of Women's Manuscripts in a Widening Political Arena 228 14 Loyal and Dutiful Subjects: English Nuns and Stuart Politics 245 15 Assuming Gentility: Thomas Middleton, Mary Carleton and Aphra Behn 260 Index 274 Women's involvement in politics - the narratives of kings and queens, and colourful stories of women's participation in court plots and intrigues - has always been the domain of biographers and historians interested in old-fashioned high political history.