Queenship in Britain 16601837

Queenship in Britain 1660–1837 looks at the lives of successive Queens, Princesses of Wales and royal daughters, and considers how they used their powers of patronage and operated within the confines of royal family politics. With contributions from an international group of scholars this book brings together new approaches in gender history and court studies to present a re-evaluation of this previously neglected area in the study of the British monarchy. An explanation of these new approaches is contained in a substantial introduction. While the essays perform detailed discussions on a variety of more specific subjects, from how the foreign and Catholic wives of the restored Stuarts coped with a libertine court and a Protestant nation, to the travails of Princesses of Wales, the marriage options of royal daughters, and the question of whether Queen Adelaide (wife of William IV) was a harmless philanthropist re-establishing royal respectability or a real political influence behind the throne.