CFP for Queens in Waiting: Potential and Prospective Queens, Ambitions and Expectations

We are seeking proposals for essays to be included in a proposed volume on ‘Queens in Waiting’ to be submitted to the Queenship and Power series (Palgrave). The collection seeks to explore the processes of becoming or attempting (successfully or not) to become queen through a collection of case studies of individual women or comparative groupings of women. Potential topics could include but are not limited to:

  • Female heirs (and spares) to the throne
  • The wives of heirs (and spares) to the throne
  • Child Queen regnants waiting to come of age/ wield independent power
  • Female claims in succession wars/disputes
  • Betrothals to / child brides of, Kings or heirs to the throne
  • Wives or mothers of monarchs who had to wait for elevation of status or coronation (for example until the birth of an heir or the death of a husband)
  • The role of potential and rival queens (whether rival or consort) in usurpation or succession wars/disputes
  • Aspirations to queenship
  • Education/preparation of female relatives for queenship
  • Linguistic and cultural preparation of foreign brides for queenship in a new realm
  • Recognition (or not) of status as future queen through title/ grant of wealth or official influence/ status at court / legal status in wills/succession acts etc
  • Assessing and negotiating ‘worthy’ marriages for royal women/ potential brides for a king or heir to the throne.
  • Attempts of non-royal women (or their families) to marry into the succession
  • Careers of women who became or attempted to become queen serving at court
  • Precedence at court between Queens past, present and future (for example relations between queens and their mothers or daughters-in-law, or scenarios where a long-reigning monarch has several generations of potential future Queens in line for the throne)
  • Expectations of/from a future queen – ‘suitability’ for queenship
  • Agency (or not) of individual women in becoming Queen through marriage or through assertion of their own succession rights etc.
  • Multiple attempts by the same woman to become Queen of the same or different realms
  • Understandings of Queenship as a vocation or destiny
  • ‘Pretender’ Queens, exiled Queens

Proposals which cover political, ceremonial and/or representational aspects of any of these topics will be considered and we are open to essays considering different cultural, geographical or chronological contexts.

Proposals of 350-500 words along with a brief CV should be sent to Sarah Betts and Chloë McKenzie at queensinwaiting2018@gmail.com by 15 November 2018.