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THE RISE OF THE AMBASSADRESS: ENGLISH AMBASSADORIAL WIVES AND EARLY MODERN DIPLOMATIC CULTURE

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 November 2018

GEMMA ALLEN
GEMMA ALLEN*
Affiliation:
The Open University
*
Department of History, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, The Open University, Walton Hall, Milton Keynes, mk7 6aagemma.allen@open.ac.uk
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Abstract

This article reveals how the ambassadress became an important part of early modern diplomatic culture, from the invention of the role in the early sixteenth century. As resident embassies became common across the early modern period, wives increasingly accompanied these diplomatic postings. Such a development has, however, received almost no scholarly attention to date, despite recent intense engagement with the social and cultural dimensions of early modern diplomacy. By considering the activities of English ambassadresses from the 1530s to 1700, accompanying embassies both inside and outside of Europe, it is possible not only to integrate them into narratives of diplomacy, but also to place their activities within broader global and political histories of the period. The presence of the ambassadress changed early modern diplomatic culture, through the creation of gendered diplomatic courtesies, gendered gift-giving practices, and gendered intelligence-gathering networks. Through female sociability networks at their host court, ambassadresses were able to access diplomatic intelligence otherwise restricted from their husbands. This was never more true than for those ambassadresses who held bonds of friendship with politically influential women at their host or home court, allowing them to influence political decision-making central to the success of the diplomatic mission.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Historical Journal , Volume 62 , Issue 3 , September 2019 , pp. 617 - 638
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018 

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Footnotes

Aspects of this article were given to seminar and conference audiences in Bristol, Cambridge, London, and Plymouth and I am grateful for all their insights and suggestions. I would also like to thank Susan Brigden, Rosalind Crone, Jonathan Healey, and Sarah Ward Clavier for their assistance, and I am particularly indebted to Felicity Heal, Tracey Sowerby, and the journal referees for their valuable comments on drafts of this article. All pre-1800 works were published in London unless otherwise stated.

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108 TNA, SP 70/106, fo. 20r.

109 TNA, SP 78/4A, unfoliated.

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