Royal Sexualized Bodies at the Tudor Court

This cluster of seven short essays focuses on sexualized representations of Tudor queens, especially in moments of pregnancy, childbirth, and public display. Each of the essays covers a familiar subject, such as Henry VIII’s “Great Matter,” in a new way, thus exposing the sexual politics of such events. The cluster shows how five Tudor queens were sexualized by their contemporaries, how their first sexual experiences were understood, and the ways in which beauty and fertility were discussed. Collectively, these essays suggest that a greater discussion of how these royal Tudor female bodies were understood in their own time will allow for more work on how that sexualization and de-sexualization was carried across time and genre, down to our own period.