Early modern queens consort and dowager and diplomatic gifts

Non-regnant queens played an integral role in maintaining amicable relations between rulers in the early modern period. This article focuses on one specific means by which dowagers and consorts shaped international relations: the diplomatic gift exchanges in which they participated. Foreign rulers recognised non-regnant queens as a source of influence and power at court; unsurprisingly they adopted gifting strategies designed to persuade the queens to support their proposals. Gift-giving within English diplomacy is used as a locus for exploring English attitudes and practice towards queens consort and dowager, as well as the practices adopted by both English and foreign non-regnant queens in order to assert their place within diplomatic relations. As diplomatic practices were largely based on notions of reciprocity (with gradations to take account of status if necessary), the prism of English relations offers insights into international practice more broadly. The liminal position that queen consorts and dowager held within the international honour society potentially lent them greater diplomatic flexibility than their husbands and sons. This made them both a potential asset and a potential threat to the effective implementation of their husband’s diplomacy. The patterns of gifting of which English queens consort were a part paralleled, complemented, and complicated the diplomatic relationships that their husbands sought to forge. When faced with unprecedented diplomatic situations, queen consorts could often engage in gifting relations with less risk than their sovereign husbands. Furthermore, this flexibility created opportunities for consorts to become more influential in shaping the direction of policy. More broadly, non-regnant queens could use their parallel, if inferior position, to make their own position on key foreign policy issues clear. They might even, on occasion, attempt to reshape their husband’s foreign policy through their own gifting strategies