ABSTRACT
It is a common assumption that the queen consort of a ruling sovereign did not have any overt political power and responsibilities. She had no dynastic rights in her adoptive country, nor had she been elected to rule. Indeed, her primary duty lay mainly in the continuity of the dynasty through the production of an heir – in most polities a male heir – to the crown. But many queens consort used their privileged position to convey their own political agenda through informal channels, and therefore challenged the traditional norms and expectations of what can be called ‘consortship’. Among these informal channels, culture and cultural patronage, satellite organisations and networks were not only key instruments in the challenge to the traditional order and to the norms of the court but also gendered spaces of expression and influence located on the margins.1 Some historians have referred to this phenomenon as soft power, or parallel diplomacy, and have shown the strategies deployed by certain women at court.2
