Contents

Acknowledgements

List of Abbreviations

List of Figures

List of Contributors

Introduction

Part One Tudor England

Petticoats and Politics: Elisabeth Parr and Female Agency at the Early Elizabethan Court

Jane Dormer’s Recipe for Politics: A Refuge Household in Spain for Mary Tudor’s Ladies-in-Waiting

Part Two Habsburgs

I. The Imperial Court in Vienna

Ladies-in-Waiting at the Imperial Court of Vienna from 1550 to 1700: Structures, Responsibilities and Career Patterns

“In service to my Lady, the Empress, as I have done every other day of my life”: Margarita of Cardona, Baroness of Dietrichstein and Lady-in-Waiting of Maria of Austria

II. The Court in the Spanish Netherlands

Women and the Politics of Access at the Court of Brussels: The Infanta Isabella’s Camareras Mayores (1598–1633)

Dwarfs—and a Loca—as Ladies’ Maids at the Spanish Habsburg Courts

Part Three France

‘A Stable of Whores’? The ‘Flying Squadron’ of Catherine de Medici

In Search of the Ladies-in-Waiting and Maids of Honour of Mary, Queen of Scots: A Prosoprographical Analysis of the Female Household

Clients and Friends: The Ladies-in-Waiting at the Court of Anne of Austria (1615–66)

Part Four The Stuart Courts

Perceptions of Influence: The Catholic Diplomacy of Queen Anna and Her Ladies, 1601–1604

The Goddess of the Household: The Masquing Politics of Lucy Harington-Russell, Countess of Bedford

The Female Bedchamber of Queen Henrietta Maria: Politics, Familial Networks and Policy, 1626–40

Part Five The Swedish Court

Living in the House of Power: Women at the Early Modern Swedish Court

Epilogue The Politics of Female Households: Afterthoughts

Bibliography

Index