"Exceptional" Women and the Meta-Discourse of Monarchy

This paper will analyze the meta-discourse of monarchy, a field that encompasses the aristocratic elites—friends, mentors, guardians, women religious, and powerful distant kin who form key relationships that confer considerable power. The significance of this group of women have been downplayed by political historians who dismiss women’s alliances as located in the household and therefore personal and not significant. But these women, often members of exceptionally wealthy and powerful families, were more than backbenchers and back-door operators. They formed affinity groups analogous to those of kings and noblemen at court, and were key to diplomacy, patronage, and policy. The paper will present a case study of the court of Catherine of Aragon from 1509 to 1520, using letters, household accounts, state papers, and diplomatic records. It will focus on how both English and Spanish women formed a blended court and were fundamental to the political sphere, not or marginal, not exceptional, and not powerless.