Mary and Elizabeth

[this from the London Renaissance Seminar ...]
CALL FOR PAPERS: 'Partners both in throne and grave: Mary and Elizabeth. Lessons in Tudor Monarchy'
Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Culture, University of Southampton, 10-12 September 2007

Mary is buried beneath Elizabeth in their shared tomb at Westminster Abbey. Their Jacobean inscription reads, Partners both in throne and grave, here we rest two sisters‚. This multi-disciplinary colloquium aims to reassess Mary and Elizabeth in relation to one another, and as Tudor monarchs. By bringing together disciplines as seemingly diverse as history, architecture, law, literature, costume and music, this colloquium seeks to incorporate and move beyond the focus on gender and religion in order to explore the continuities between all the Tudor monarchs, both male and female, Catholic and Protestant. To what extent is it possible to construct a trajectory of Tudor monarchy that focuses on continuities as well as change? And what might we learn from placing the Tudor monarchs in the broader context of European Renaissance monarchy, particularly England's relationship with Spain? Through a combination of papers, roundtable discussions and masterclasses, this conference will engage in a genuine interdisciplinary conversation that rethinks Tudor monarchy.

Topics to include: Historiography; Representations in art and literature; Court music and entertainment; Royal favourites and court intimates; Princely education; Anglo-Spanish relations; Royal supremacy and religious reformation; Law, government and policy-making; War and diplomacy; Political thought and the role of counsel; European monarchies.

Confirmed participants: Karen Hearn, Paulina Kewes, Maria Hayward, Ralph Houlbrooke, Ros King, Jeri McIntosh, Natalie Mears, Charlotte Merton, Anne McLaren, Stephen Rice, Alexander Samson, Christopher Skidmore, Greg Walker.

Abstracts of 300 words, for papers of approximately 20 minutes, should reach the organisers by 16 March 2007.

For more information see:
http://www.rensoc.org.uk/Partners%20both%20in%20throne%20and%20grave/PartnersHomepage.htm

Conference organisers:
Dr Alice Hunt, School of Humanities, University of Southampton a.hunt@soton.ac.uk
Dr Anna Whitelock, Corpus Christi College, Cambridge amw52@cam.ac.uk