Dr. Andrea Nichols - Profile on Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Publications by Dr. Andrea Nichols

The Power of the Mythological Past: Reader Response to Queen Gwendolen and the Thirty-Three Daughters of King Diocletian in English Histories

Forgotten Queens in Medieval and Early Modern Europe: Political Agency, Myth-Making, and Patronage, 2018

Largely except for Arthurian romance and Boudicca, much of what early modern Englishmen read and ... more Largely except for Arthurian romance and Boudicca, much of what early modern Englishmen read and understood as explanations for their national origins has long since faded from popular knowledge. Moreover, even royal women, those at the top of the social-political hierarchy, have been forgotten, even though they had exciting stories and long-term cultural impact. Indeed, Albine and her thirty-two sisters, the daughters of King Dioclesian, and Gwendolyn, Cornish wife of King Locrine, while mythological foreign invaders of England, have had substantial impacts in British culture and history. This chapter examines their medieval roots and cultural significance, particularly through the lens of early modern reader response and historical context, showing why audiences turned away in the seventeenth century, forgetting this complex past.

"How fair, how beautiful and great a prince": Royal Children in the Tudor Chronicles

Literary Cultures and the Child, VOL. I: Medieval/Early Modern Literature and the Child, 2018

When considering the Tudor dynasty and how it was depicted in sixteenth and early seventeenth-cen... more When considering the Tudor dynasty and how it was depicted in sixteenth and early seventeenth-century chronicles, one the most compelling issues is that of succession. This chapter considers the importance of the pregnancies, births of heirs to the throne and other royal children, and the difference in depiction between male and female heirs as is seen in English histories printed during or shortly after the Tudor era. The focus of the chapter will be on the Tudor dynasty, starting with the seven children of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York; continuing with the pregnancies, miscarriages, and childhoods of the heirs born by the first three wives of Henry VIII; and ending with the two phantom pregnancies of Mary Tudor. There is an examination of the narratives of the children in a number of chronicles, including Holinshed’s Chronicles and Foxe’s Acts and Monuments, and works by Edward Hall, John Stow, Richard Grafton, William Martyn, Richard Baker, Polydore Vergil, and Giovanni Biondi. The chapter especially highlights the political, religious, and gender issues that intertwined with the topic of producing a healthy royal heir. Moreover, this chapter illuminates how various authors handled the complicated task of relating such a sensitive issues as pregnancy, miscarriage, stillbirth, the death of an heir, and the significance of the gender of a royal child.

A Biographical Encyclopedia of Early Modern Englishwomen: Exemplary Lives and Memorable Acts, 1500-1650 (16 entries)

A Biographical Encyclopedia of Early Modern Englishwomen, Exemplary Lives and Memorable Acts, 1500-1650, eds. Carole Levin, Michele Osherow, and Anna Riehl, Nov 15, 2016

“Anne Basset.” “Margaret Gamage Howard.” “Elizabeth Jerningham.” “Joan Cosan.” “Margaret Davy.” ... more “Anne Basset.” “Margaret Gamage Howard.” “Elizabeth Jerningham.” “Joan Cosan.” “Margaret Davy.” “Katherine Basset.” “Mary Basset.” “Margaret Bourchier.” “Elizabeth Bryan Carew.” “Elizabeth Hussey Hungerford.” “Honor Plantagenet.” “Briget More.” “Mary Scrope.” “Anne Sapcote Broughton Jerningham Russell.” “Jane Fyneux Roper.” “Mary Norris Carew Champernowne.”

digital edition of Henry II and Richard I’s chapters within Sir Richard Baker’s Chronicle of the Kings of England

co-authored with Kathleen Kokensparger and Yiheng Song.

“‘I was not I?’: Tracing Representations of Cleopatra in English Drama, 1592-1611”

Scholars and Poets Talk about Queens, ed. Carole Levin and Christine Stewart-Nuñez, Aug 2015

Representations of Cleopatra and Elizabeth have shifted frequently over the centuries—starting wi... more Representations of Cleopatra and Elizabeth have shifted frequently over the centuries—starting with their own efforts and continuing with postmortem reinterpretations. Familiarity with Roman history, and its propagandist links to the Tudor dynasty, no doubt helped England easily see Cleopatra as a critique of contemporary worries about Elizabeth. However, comparison of the queens has been sparse, particularly when using early modern English dramatic sources. A cultural and representational analysis of Cleopatra over time in early modern English plays will show Elizabeth recurred throughout as well, and as a result, the Egyptian queen evolved into a culturally recognized symbol of monarchial critique.

Book Review: The Oxford Handbook of Holinshed’s Chronicles (Oxford, 2013)

Book Review: Judith Richards’ Elizabeth I (Routledge, 2012)

2014 Newberry Library Multidisciplinary Graduate Student Conference, Graduate Student Organizing Committee member and Proceedings Editor

Newberry Graduate Student Conference, 2014 Proceedings, Jun 2014

Francois Desprez, Walking Fish from Les Songes Drolatiques de Pantagruel. In Media Revolution: Early Prints from the Sheldon's Vault, Gregory Nosan and Alison G. Stewart (2012). Zea E-Books. Book 9.

Biographical Reinterpretations: Textual Treatment of Elizabeth I and Mary Stuart from 1569 – 1683

Review of digital humanities website Henry III Fine Rolls Project: A window into English history, 1216-1272 by King's College, London's Department of History and Centre for Computing in the Humanities.

“Earl of Carlisle (James Hay)” and “Sir Thomas Warner.”

The Facts on File Encyclopedia of the Caribbean, ed. John D. Garrigus

Conference Presentations by Dr. Andrea Nichols

“Scribbles and Bits: Reader Marks and the Depiction of Tudor Queens in English Histories"

In the panel “Interpreting Sovereignty: Views of Queenship in early modern England," organized by... more In the panel “Interpreting Sovereignty: Views of Queenship in early modern England," organized by Andrea Nichols, co-sponsored by UNT

“Marginal Space: Prisoner Markings made in the Tower of London on Paper and Stone"

“‘we should think her a Devil’: Adnett Garrett’s reading of Queen Elizabeth in the Chronicles of the Kings of England"

“‘compleat disimulation but a true picture of…women’: Readers’ Study of Queens in English Histories"

Given the extensive number of works and availability of texts that reveal traces of reader notes ... more Given the extensive number of works and availability of texts that reveal traces of reader notes on queens, this research moves beyond a case study of one particular title or a limited historical period, to a more encompassing and widely useful interdisciplinary study. I have examined over a hundred printed histories of England spanning the beginning of English printing in 1480 to the death of Charles I in 1649, further supported by commonplace books, letters, and manuscript histories. The results have shown that the women most likely to be noted by readers are royal, and particularly queens. In this paper, the lives of the queens most frequently noted by readers will be analyzed: Matilda, Holy Roman Empress and ‘Lady of the English’; Isabelle of France, the wife of Edward II; Catherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, and Elizabeth Tudor. I will investigate such questions as what readers focused on in these women’s lives, how that compares to lesser noted queens, and which depictions of English history attracted the most readers. The sources used include The Chronicle of Queen Jane and Queen Mary, the Chronicles of England, Fabyan’s Chronicle, The Chronicle of the Kings of England; and the works of John Stow, Polydore Vergil, and Richard Grafton. In conclusion, this avenue of research opens a door to see how contemporary readers viewed their history, and how their views can alter our own perception of the past.

“Scribbles and Bits: Reader Marginalia on Queens in English Histories"

Through an examination of marginalia, this paper will highlight readers’ interest in a variety of... more Through an examination of marginalia, this paper will highlight readers’ interest in a variety of mythological, medieval, and early modern queens in England, including Queens Elizabeth I, Mary Tudor, Queen Emma of Normandy, Empress Matilda, and Queen Isabelle of France, the wife of Edward II. By focusing on what early modern readers were writing in these histories, it expands earlier scholarly efforts that focus upon only one of these histories, on one author’s set of works, or on queenship from other perspectives and sources. The paper will cover a variety of manuscript and print histories including the late medieval manus cript Brut Chronicle, William Caxton’s Chronicles of England (1480s), John Hardyng’s Chronicle (1543), Edward Hall’s Chronicle (1550), Cooper’s Chronicle (1565), Raphael Holinshed’s Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland (1577, 1587), and several of John Stow’s works from the sixteenth and early seventeenth century.

"Good Queens, Natural Women, and Monstrous Mothers: Tudor Queenship in the English Chronicles” in Session 11 “Rethinking Women’s Roles: Spiritual Leadership, Monstrous Motherhood, and Political Activity in the Lives of Early Modern Women”

The English Tudor dynasty provides many examples for the study of contemporary cultural, social, ... more The English Tudor dynasty provides many examples for the study of contemporary cultural, social, and political lenses through which a queen’s roles as wife, mother, and political ally were viewed. A queen’s body raised great anxiety when the mysteries of reproduction and fear of female sexuality overlapped with the body politic in her role as a transmitter of royal blood and inheritance. Moreover, this anxiety increased when the early modern phenomenon of queens regnant placed several females on thrones across Europe, since, according to the one-sex model, women were imperfect men. Therefore, a female ruler was such an aberration that some like the Scottish reformer John Knox called it a monstrous usurpation of a sphere that rightly belonged to men.

This paper will examine the issues of queenship, female sexuality, and the sixteenth-century fascination with the monstrous through the specific aspects of birth and inheritance, given the context of the Tudor monarchs’ need to legitimize their claim and continue the bloodline, while they simultaneously worked to weave the fragmented realm into a cohesive nation. What was more important, the royal blood of a rightful ruler, or giving birth to an heir? How did a queen regnant complicate matters? Clearly, Tudor queens’ bodies are crucial in this narrative, not only for continuing the dynastic line, but also for preventing the destruction of the body politic through another civil war. Some of the key sources for viewing how the nascent English nation saw their queens are the newly printed English chronicles, which in the sixteenth-century, as argued by James Knapp and Barrett L. Beer, begin to change into a national history, and plays performed throughout the country. The results will show the complex interaction of monstrosity—both political and biological—gender, and power.

“‘I was not I?’: Tracing Representations of Cleopatra in English Drama, 1592-1626,” in the “Elizabeth I, Literature, and Other Queens” session of the Queen Elizabeth I Society

Representations of Cleopatra and Elizabeth have shifted frequently over the centuries—starting wi... more Representations of Cleopatra and Elizabeth have shifted frequently over the centuries—starting with their own efforts and continuing with postmortem reinterpretations. Familiarity with Roman history, and its propagandist links to the Tudor dynasty, no doubt helped England easily see Cleopatra as a critique of contemporary worries about Elizabeth. However, comparison of the queens has been sparse, particularly when using early modern English dramatic sources, often overshadowed by Shakespeare. Merging these avenues of research into a cultural and representational analysis of early modern Cleopatra plays showed Elizabeth’s recurrence throughout and the Egyptian queen’s evolution into a culturally recognized symbol of monarchial critique.

Talks by Dr. Andrea Nichols

The Myths of Copernicus

A public talk about various popularly held ideas about Copernicus and his heliocentric theory....... more A public talk about various popularly held ideas about Copernicus and his heliocentric theory....separating fact from fiction.