Mary II, Panegyric and the Construction of Queenship

The queenship of Mary II (1689–1694) was the linchpin of the Glorious Revolution, providing a veneer of legitimacy to the transfer of power from father to husband that was essential for the new regime’s survival. One of the key vehicles for the public construction of her queenship was panegyric poetry, whose conservative forms were perfect for making the unconventional appear conventional. Through court odes, pamphlet poems, university anthologies, and ballads, in English and Latin, a rich body of panegyric was composed to bolster Mary’s queenship in public. In 1689, the establishment of Mary as an innovative kind of limited queen, balanced between the traditional roles of regnant and consort, was accompanied by rich poetic augmentation. Later, panegyrics shifted towards constructing her as an effective domestic queen by incorporating and repackaging developments in her queenship in practice.