ABSTRACT
The relationship between ruler and consort, analysed in great depth in the rest of this book, became particularly complicated if the sovereign was a woman. In England this ‘anomalous’ case occurred for the first time in 1553 when Mary I ascended the throne. In order to prevent her husband Philip II of Spain from interfering with English politics, in 1554 Parliament issued the Act declaring that the Regal Power of this Realm is in the Queen’s Majesty as fully and absolutely as ever it was in any of her most noble Progenitors, Kings of this Realm, thereby enabling Mary to ‘use and enjoy the Crown and Sovereignty over her Dominions and Subjects’ without the assistance of her male consort.1
