The Lonely Afterlives of Early English Queens

Abstract Queens were important figures within the court communities of pre-Norman England, their status defined by relationship to king, whether as queen-consort, queen-mother, queen-regent, or queen-dowager. These positions with an attendant degree prestige and authority, but a vulnerability vicissitudes king’s fortunes. Often this would lead periods exile from community. Such exiled queens could find refuge on own lands other communities, such abbeys foreign courts. This removal centre power allowed king minimise control any vestigial queenly guard against queen becoming locus for alternative political factions. queens-in-exile form focus article, which seeks establish not only patterns contexts that social isolation occur, queens’ emotional responses it. Here there are four interlinked concepts: (exile), (loneliness), loneliness (the absence community), close individual). observable across experiences array literary historical queens, Beowulf Elene through royal women, Æthelflæd (d. 918), Eadgifu c .966), Emma Normandy 1052). Through analysis experiences, it is possible construct cultural perspectives exercise vulnerability, affect.