• Introduction to Special Issue: Representing Queens
• Stephanie Russo (bio)

Queens were at a unique nexus of gender and power in the medieval and early modern world. On one level, their power was inexorably tied to their bodies, as the mothers of future monarchs. However, the power exercised by queens could, and often did, extend far beyond their ability (or not) to bear an heir. As history has repeatedly shown, queens were key political players, not simply the wives of kings. The glamour and appeal of queens has hardly abated in the modern world, too; stories of queens are as easily consumed today as they ever were.

The study of medieval and early modern queens reveals much about the relationship between gender, sexuality, politics, history, and power. The study of queens has been of much interest to a wide range of scholars, from historians to literary and cultural studies scholars, who have re-examined, or sometimes examined for the first time, the lives and reigns of queens from across the medieval and early modern world.

The recent spate of publications relating to queenship studies is reflective of the strength of the field. The flourishing ‘Queenship and Power’ series, published by Palgrave Macmillan, is a testament to the outstanding scholarship in the field currently being conducted by medieval and early modern scholars. The Royal Studies Journal, established in 2014 and run by the Winchester University Press, also regularly publishes scholarship on queenship studies. The ‘Kings and Queens’ conference series, organised by Dr Ellie Woodacre, is also a popular forum for the dissemination of the latest innovative queenship studies research.

That queenship studies is enjoying a particularly rich period is demonstrated by the fact that there are two major publication projects currently in development. The first is the English Consorts: Power, Influence, Dynasty project, which is a four-volume series to be published by Palgrave Macmillan. This project will incorporate biographies of all the English consorts, as well as thematic dynasty-wide essays. Alongside this project will be a monograph series on the Queens of England, published by Routledge, which aims to produce richly contextualised book-length biographies of all the queens of England. Both of these projects have been designed to supplement the popular Penguin Monarchs series of books, aiming to fill the lacunae left by the absence of queens consort from this series.

Popular culture depictions of queens continue to be widely sought-after. 2018 saw the release of two major films about early modern queens: Yorgos Lanthimos’s The Favourite, and Josie Rourke’s Mary Queen of Scots. Both films are intensely interested in the role of the queen regnant, and focus on the nexus of gender, [End Page 1] sexuality, and power in the courts of Queen Anne and Elizabeth I respectively. Moreover, the ongoing fascination with the Tudor period, and, particularly, with the wives of Henry VIII, shows no signs of slowing down. The Starz series The Spanish Princess, about Catherine of Aragon’s entry into England and her first marriage, premiered in 2019. The series’ presentation of Catherine is comparable to the teen Mary Queen of Scots of the CW series, Reign (2013–17), in which the French court was imagined as a kind of early modern high school. Over the past year, there have been two television adaptations of the life of Catherine the Great: HBO’s Catherine the Great (2019), and Hulu’s The Great (2020). While Netflix’s flagship series, The Crown (2016–) takes us into the mid-twentieth century, the premise of the series—to take viewers into the private life of Queen Elizabeth II— attests to the ongoing fascination with the emotional lives of queens. What unites all of these texts is their interest in unpicking the space between the domestic and the political, and between the public and the private. What, they ask us, are queens really like? The focus on the domestic that characterizes historical fiction about queens suggests that, while we have a model for what masculine power and authority look like, when we think about queens, we consistently still turn to the private emotional lives of queens to make sense of female rule.

Over the next three years...

• 特刊简介：代表皇后
• 斯蒂芬妮·鲁索（Stephanie Russo）（生物）

在中世纪和早期的现代世界中，皇后区是性别与权力的独特纽带。一方面，作为未来君主的母亲，他们的权力与自己的身体息息相关。但是，皇后行使的权力可能而且经常确实超出了他们继承人的能力（或没有能力）。正如历史反复表明的那样，皇后是主要的政治角色，而不仅仅是国王的妻子。皇后的魅力和吸引力在现代世界也几乎没有减弱。关于皇后的故事今天和以往一样容易被人们吸收。

对中世纪和早期现代皇后的研究揭示了许多有关性别，性，政治，历史和权力之间的关系。从历史学家到文学和文化研究学者，皇后的研究引起了广泛的兴趣，从历史学家到文学和文化研究学者，他们都重新审视了或有时是第一次审视了中世纪和中世纪皇后的生活和统治时期。早期的现代世界。

最近有关皇后研究的大量出版物反映了这一领域的实力。帕拉格雷夫·麦克米伦（Palgrave Macmillan）出版的《皇后与权力》（Queenship and Power）系列欣欣向荣，这证明了中世纪和早期现代学者目前在该领域所表现出的杰出学术成就。由温彻斯特大学出版社（Winchester University Press）创办并于2014年成立的《皇家研究杂志》（Royal Studies Journal）还定期出版有关皇后研究的奖学金。Ellie Woodacre博士组织的“国王与皇后”会议系列也是一个流行的论坛，用于传播最新的创新皇后研究。

皇后研究正处于一个特别丰富的时期，这一事实可以从以下事实中得到证明：目前有两个主要的出版项目正在开发中。第一个是《英语配偶：力量，影响力，王朝》项目，这是由Palgrave Macmillan发行的四卷丛书。该项目将包括所有英国配偶的传记，以及整个王朝主题的论文。除此项目外，还将由Routledge出版有关英格兰皇后的专着系列，其目的是针对英格兰所有皇后产生内容丰富的书本化传记。这两个项目都是为了补充流行的《企鹅帝王》系列书籍而设计的，目的是填补由于该系列中没有皇后配偶而留下的空白。

关于皇后的流行文化描写仍然广受欢迎。2018年放映了两部有关早期现代女王的主要电影：约格斯·兰西莫斯（Yorgos Lanthimos）的《最爱》（The Favorite）和乔西·罗克（Josie Rourke）的苏格兰玛丽·玛丽女王（Mary Queen of Scots）。这两部影片都是有强烈的兴趣在女王的角色，并注重性别的关系[尾页1]分别性能力，功率在安妮女王伊丽莎白一世的法庭。此外，对都铎时期，特别是对亨利八世的妻子的持续迷恋，没有丝毫放慢的迹象。Starz系列《西班牙公主》，讲述了阿拉贡（Agonal）的凯瑟琳（Catherine）进入英国和她的第一次婚姻，该电影于2019年首映。该系列的凯瑟琳（Catherine）演讲可与CW系列苏格兰少年玛丽·玛丽·王后（Reign）（2013-17）媲美，法国法庭将被想象成一种早期的现代高中。在过去的一年中，对凯瑟琳大帝的生活进行了两部电视改编：HBO的《凯瑟琳大帝》（2019年）和Hulu的《大帝》（2020年）。而Netflix的旗舰系列《王冠》（2016–）将我们带入20世纪中叶，该系列的前提是将观众带入伊丽莎白二世皇后的私生活中，这证明了皇后对情感生活的持续迷恋。所有这些文本的统一之处在于它们有兴趣揭露国内与政治之间，公共与私人之间的空间。他们问我们，皇后真的喜欢什么？对表征皇后历史小说的家庭的关注表明，尽管我们有一个男性权力和权威的模范，但当我们考虑皇后时，我们始终如一地依靠皇后的私人情感生活来理解女性。规则。

在接下来的三年中...