Constructing Godly Queenship in Post-Reformation Europe. Progress Review - Tyler Horton

This thesis will examine how autonomous female sovereigns (queens regnant) balanced the challenges associated with maintaining their role as ‘female kings’ in patriarchal societies while also negotiating the religious conflict that characterised early modern Europe following the Reformation. I will show that contemporary understandings of sex, religion, and power could be used to both justify and condemn female authority in this period, using three queens regnant as case studies: Mary I of England, Mary Queen of Scots, and Christina of Sweden. Ultimately, I will argue that emphasising a queen regnant’s ‘godly’ authority over their commonwealth and subjects was an essential strategy to legitimise their royal authority.