ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on Anne’s financial, religious, and cultural patronage. The queen rewarded trusted servants and supported religious houses, using lands to support and cultivate allies. In addition, the chapter investigates Anne’s cultural role, real and imagined, showing ways her Bohemian roots influenced English court culture. Sometimes the evidence reveals more about English chroniclers’ issues with immigrant queens, such as their condemnation of Anne for supposedly introducing excessively pointy shoes, than it does about the queen herself. Finally, the chapter explores how Anne and Richard performed monarchy, from chivalric tournaments to healing rituals, as well as how Anne and her position served as a conduit for some of Richard’s wider ambitions (such as his later attempts to be elected king of the Romans).
