Drama at the Courts of Queen Henrietta Maria

by Karen Britland

• ISBN13: 9780521847971
• ISBN10: 0521847974
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2006-05-08
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Drama at the Courts of Queen Henrietta Maria considers Queen Henrietta Maria’s patronage of drama in England in the light of her French heritage. Karen Britland challenges the common view of Henrietta Maria as a meddlesome and frivolous woman whose actions contributed to the outbreak of the English civil wars by showing how she was consistent in her allegiances to her family and friends, and how her cultural and political positions were reflected in the plays and court masques she sponsored. Unlike previous studies, this book considers the queen’s upbringing at the French court and her later exile in France during the English civil wars, and is therefore able to challenge received notions about her activities in England during the 1630s. Karen Britland employs innovative research by combining discussions of literary texts with historical and archival research and discussions of art, architecture and music.

Table of Contents

List of figures	vi
Acknowledgements	vii
Note on procedures	ix
Introduction	1	(191)
1 Sex and dancing: Henrietta Maria's wedding ballets	15	(20)
2 Artenice: a new French fashion at the English court	35	(18)
3 Foreign bodies: conflict and co-operation in the early masques	53	(21)
4 Family affairs: Henrietta Maria and continental politics in 1631	74	(16)
5 Tempe Restored: exile/dispossession/restitution	90	(21)
6 'It is my voyce': the fashioning of a self in The Shepherds' Paradise	111	(20)
7 'Fate hath made thy reign her choice': The Temple of Love (1635)	131	(19)
8 Florimène: the author and the occasion	150	(18)
9 Marie de Médicis and the last masques	168	(24)
10 Tyer'd, in her Banish'd dress': Henrietta Maria in exile	192	(24)
Epilogue	216	(9)
Appendix: An early entertainment by Aurelian Townshend	225	(4)
Notes	229	(41)
Bibliography	270	(15)
Index	285