ABSTRACT
Elizabet Cary wrote The History of Edward II after converting to Catholicism in the fall of 1626. Cary’s history affirms the barons’ right to influence Edward’s actions and supports their efforts to reform him, because they intend neither to challenge Edward’s authority nor to overthrow him. Cary’s account even represents the barons’ armed uprising against Edward in a favorable light, minimizing the transgressive nature of their actions in several ways. Cary’s depiction of Isabel’s escape to France illustrates a mode of indirect confrontation with male authority that is characteristic of the entire work. The subject’s intentions, which in Cary’s model distinguish certain acts of resistance from acts of rebellion, prove to be a less workable standard in Isabel’s case than in the barons’. From the time Isabel captures Edward until the story ends, Cary’s history displays considerable ambivalence about the queen’s character.
