Partners both in throne and grave: Mary and Elizabeth - Lessons in Tudor monarchy

About the conference

Mary is buried beneath Elizabeth in their shared tomb at Westminster Abbey. Their Jacobean inscription reads, ‘Partners both in throne and grave, here we rest two sisters'. This interdisciplinary conference aims to reassess Mary and Elizabeth in relation to one another, and as Tudor monarchs.

By bringing together disciplines as seemingly diverse as history, architecture, law, literature, costume and music, the conference seeks to incorporate and move beyond the focus on gender and religion in order to explore the continuities between all the Tudor monarchs, both male and female, Catholic and Protestant. To what extent is it possible to construct a trajectory of Tudor monarchy that focuses on continuities as well as change? And what might we learn from placing the Tudor monarchs in the broader context of European Renaissance monarchy, particularly England's relationship with Spain?

Through a combination of papers, roundtable discussions and ‘masterclasses', the conference, to be held at the Elizabethan manor house, Chawton, will engage in a genuine interdisciplinary conversation that rethinks Tudor monarchy.

Participants
Confirmed participants include Roger Bowers (Jesus College, Cambridge); Karen Hearn (Tate Britain); Paulina Kewes (Jesus College, Oxford); Maria Hayward (Textile Conservation Centre, University of Southampton); Ralph Houlbrooke (University of Reading); Ros King (University of Southampton); John McGavin (University of Southampton), Jeri McIntosh (University of Tennessee); Natalie Mears (University of Durham); Charlotte Merton (Lund University); Anne McLaren (University of Liverpool); Janel Mueller (University of Chicago); Glyn Redworth (University of Manchester); Judith Richards (La Trobe University); Stephen Rice (University of Southampton and University of Oxford); Alexander Samson (UCL); Christopher Skidmore (University of Oxford); Greg Walker (University of Leicester).