The Queen's Post: The Form, Function, and Power of Early Tudor Queens' Correspondence

The Queens' Post project provides the first large-scale analysis of the form, function, and power of early Tudor queens' correspondence.

This project investigates the letters of nine important early Tudor queens, including the wife of Henry VII (d.1509), Elizabeth of York (d.1603), Henry VII's daughters Margaret Tudor (d. 1541) and Mary Tudor Brandon (d.1533), and the wives of Henry VIII (d.1547): Katherine of Aragon (d. 1536), Anne Boleyn (c.1536), Jane Seymour (d.1537), Katherine Howard (d.1542), Anne of Cleeves (d.1557), and Katherine Parr (d.1548).

Using an innovative, interdisciplinary methodology - employing methods from linguistics, literary studies, archival studies, material culture, gender studies, and diplomatic history - The Queens' Post will advance our understanding of the nature and power of royal women's voices and writings of the past, and reconsider the power and position queens held in early modern politics and diplomacy.

The results of this project will have distinctive scientific and societal impact which will be disseminated via a range of outputs aimed at both academic and non-academic audiences. This includes a project monograph, an edited collection, a symposia, a podcast, and various other outreach activities.

The project will also provide a significant methodological contribution to letter-writing studies, by developing a cutting-edge, interdisciplinary framework of analysis to investigate the language, materiality, and delivery of historical correspondence across a network of writers.