Abstract
As queens consort, Henrietta Maria and Marie Antoinette became mistresses of vast households of servants and legal administrators of numerous estates. The bestowal of these households and properties as dower lands in exchange for an actual or promised dowry was crucial to the legitimacy of an Early Modern European royal marriage. The precise nature of a princess’s settlement was central to the diplomatic negotiations that sealed a union between two sovereign powers. The extent of the dower lands, size of the household, and the degree of autonomy the bride received in the management of these spheres reflected the balance of the power between royal houses. once married, the administration of the household and estates provided the consort with opportunities for cultural, religious, and political patronage, allowing her a relatively independent space to further her own conception of her role as wife to the sovereign and mother of the royal children.
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Notes
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Historians who posit that political pornography was a significant cause of the French Revolution, most notably Robert Darnton, Lynn Hunt, and Chantal Thomas argue that obscene images of Marie Antoinette and her circle were widely available and influential throughout Louis’s reign. See Robert Darnton, The Literary Underground of the Old Regime (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1985), pp. 195–196
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© 2016 Carolyn Harris
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Harris, C. (2016). Governing the Queen’s Household. In: Queenship and Revolution in Early Modern Europe. Queenship and Power. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137491688_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137491688_3
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