In this essay I will be discussing the factors that led to a successful or unsuccessful partnership between a reigning queen and her consort. I will be using many examples of the successful and unsuccessful marriages of regnant queens in this essay including the marriage of Queen Isabel of Castile to Ferdinand of Aragon and the marriage of Mary Tudor to Philip of Spain as well as the second marriage of Mary Queen of Scots to Lord Darnley. I will be assessing what factors made these marriages successful or unsuccessful as well as why these factors had an impact on these marriages.
Between 1500 and 1800 the roles of women were beginning to change, this was partly due to humanistic teachings. Before this time the role of women, whether they were rich or poor, consisted of them being a wife, the husband had any and all authority over his family. The wife had a duty of obedience to her husband. During this time women were seen as weaker and inferior than men. There was a clear power imbalance between wives and their husbands during this time. …show more content…
One such example of this is Queen Anne of England and her husband Prince George of Denmark. With many married regnant queens, their male consorts would have a coronation the same as the Queen yet, unusually, George of Denmark remained Prince George rather than becoming a King Consort. Prince George of Denmark had no interest in sharing his wife’s Royal authority. This was unlike his brother in law, William of Orange, who insisted he share his wife’s, Mary the second, throne (Beem and Taylor, 2014, pp. 1-2). Prince George of Denmark was happy to remain a Prince consort to Queen Anne rather than become