ABSTRACT

This article examines the representation of Queen Mary Beatrice of Modena, wife to King James II, from her arrival in England to her exile at the court of St Germain. It builds on recent scholarship, which emphasises the interactive dimensions of restoration court culture, in particular, the royal image. Based on primary research into hundreds of printed texts about Mary Beatrice of Modena, the article analyses how writers wrote and rewrote the queen consort’s image to participate in political debate. It argues that her imagined activities, or ‘dystopian diplomacy’, were important to contemporaries and central to debates about legitimacy in a divided political climate.

摘要

本文考察了摩德纳王后玛丽·比阿特丽斯 (Queen Mary Beatrice of Modena) 的表现，她是国王詹姆斯二世的妻子，从她抵达英格兰到被流放到圣日耳曼宫廷。它建立在最近的学术研究之上，强调修复宫廷文化的互动维度，尤其是皇家形象。本文基于对数百篇关于摩德纳的玛丽·比阿特丽斯的印刷文本的初步研究，分析了作家如何书写和改写王后的形象以参与政治辩论。它认为，她想象中的活动，或“反乌托邦外交”，对同时代人很重要，也是分裂政治气候中关于合法性辩论的核心。