3. What impact did the gender of the monarch have during the reigns of Mary and Elizabeth?

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About this Lecture

Lecture

In this module, we think about the extent that the gender of the monarch had an impact in the reigns of Mary and Elizabeth, focusing in particular on: (i) the fact that Mary was the first queen regnant in English history, and Elizabeth the second; (ii) the extent to which royal ceremonial and English law both presupposed a male monarch, not a female one; (iii) the impact on the royal household and the political influence of institutions such as the Privy Chamber; (iv) the issue of marriage; and (v) the importance of gender in the fields of war and diplomacy.

Course

In this course, we think about the importance of women in politics in the Tudor period (1485-1603). In the first module, we think about how women were viewed in the Tudor period, including both the religious and medical ‘explanations’ for their inferiority to men, and the importance of texts such as Juan Luis Vives’ ‘The Education of a Christian Woman’ in dictating how women should behave. After that, in the second module, we think about the extent to which royal women were able to exercise political power and influence in the reigns of Henry VII and Henry VIII, before turning in the third module to consider the impact of the monarch’s (female) gender in the reigns of Mary and Elizabeth. In the fourth module, we explore the various ways that noblewomen could exercise political influence at the court, before turning in the fifth to think about the extent that women were involved in the Reformation. Finally, in the sixth module, we consider the role that women played in protests and rebellions, including the Pilgrimage of Grace and the Rising of the North, as well as in smaller-scale acts of dissent.

Lecturer

Dr Nicola Clark is Senior Lecturer in Early Modern History at the University of Chichester. Her research focuses primarily on women’s dynastic and political roles across the late medieval and early modern period. Her first book, Gender, Family, and Politics: The Howard Women, 1485-1558 was published by Oxford University Press in August 2018.