Reputation and appropriation at the Tudor court: Queen Kateryn Parr and Anne Stanhope, Duchess of Somerset

Abstract

Abstract As daughters of the gentry who rose to positions of power at the Tudor court, Kateryn Parr as the last queen of Henry VIII (r.1509–1547), Anne Stanhope as wife of Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset, and Lord Protector under Edward VI (r.1547–1553), both women were exceptional for their times. Bold, outspoken, advisors to their husbands, both stepped beyond the socially sanctified gender role of modest woman and self-effacing wife. Each was active in claiming the principal female role at the top of the Tudor hierarchy, and while Parr was seen by contemporaries as a constructive force, Stanhope’s reputation was the opposite. Just how precise, however, are these characterizations? The relationship between these two women, collaborative while Kateryn was queen, combative when Anne became the Protector’s lady, display mechanisms of appropriation and confrontation that spilled out into the public forum and affected the power dynamics of the Duke of Somerset’s Protectorate. Their interaction, the credibility of recent attempts at the rehabilitation of Stanhope’s reputation and an analysis of her place in the power politics of her husband’s regency are themes that this article explores.