ABSTRACT
The life of a consort was a public performance. When a princess was chosen by a prince from another territory, she was assigned a role in a political and dynastic drama whose script had been written by others. It was conceived behind the scenes in confidential negotiations and was promulgated in official court publications from genealogies and festival books to panegyric poetry, and in court spectacles from solemn entries and firework displays to operas. In acting the part expected of her – sealing an alliance between her natal and her marital dynasties, bearing an heir to the throne, representing her husband’s magnificence and providing a model of piety and charity for her people – the consort was performing an essential dynastic role and doing so before a local, national and international audience. At her new court, the consort had to find her feet in a strange environment, gradually working out how to mediate between two dynasties and two cultural spheres. This chapter examines the script that was assigned to one 18th-century consort to perform, the personal cost to her of performing it and the way in which her role gradually expanded to encompass a major role in the politics and international diplomacy of her two kingdoms.
