"Thys Boke Ys Myn": Evolutions of Queenly Literary Authority, 1460-1603

Abstract

This work, “‘Thys boke ys myn’: Evolutions of Queenly Literary Authority, 1460-1603,” conducts a study of Tudor queens and the development of a community of queenly literary practitioners. This project examines Elizabeth Woodville, Elizabeth of York, Anne Boleyn, Katherine Parr, and Elizabeth I. When taken together, I argue that their individual literary practices represent an evolution of female book ownership and authorship that bridges the divide between manuscript and print, private and public.

My work uses the larger investigative methods of feminist book history and bibliography to interrogate the ways in which women’s literary practices have developed alongside historical narratives–often written by men–that largely ignore women’s experience. This project devotes space to Tudor queenship as a development of women using their authority and elite status to foster a community of women’s book ownership and writing. I question the relationship between literary content and material form and reassess the role that elite women played in literary production. I find that the women of this study have built upon the practices of their predecessors, and the ultimate result is Elizabeth I’s ability to author her own self-representation through text. The queens of this project impacted their contemporaries, changed the political and religious landscapes in England, and re-defined queenship. Even though their literary authorities have historically been overlooked—with the notable exception of Elizabeth I—the various forms of labor practiced by the Tudor queens broadened the literary canon and directly preceded the beginnings of commercial women’s writing born from Elizabeth I’s England.