Katie McNey

Using my ORCA grant, I went to London from May 12 to May 20. While there, I uncovered connections and information that will contribute significantly to my research on Eleanor of Aquitaine and her relationship to later women in England. My goal, as outlined in my proposal, was to establish how the mere perception and perhaps icon of Eleanor as a patron has had a considerable influence on subsequent rulers of Europe, as evidenced by the evolution of art and music throughout the centuries. In particular, I hoped to identify her influence on other influential rulers, such as Elizabeth I and Henrietta Maria, the queen of Charles I, as preserved in works of art—limned miniatures, portraits, tapestries, etc.—that are not readily available as reproductions in books. Accordingly, I carefully documented numerous artifacts and paintings from the National Gallery, the British Library, the British Museum, the National Portrait Gallery, Tate Museum of Modern Art, the Globe, the Henry VIII exhibit at the Tower of London, and the Victoria and Albert Museum. I even found relevant objects d’art outside of London proper at places like Dover Castle, the Cathedral of Canterbury, and Leeds Castle. The result of my research was the discovery of unrecognized connections between Eleanor and her successors: people, events, places, symbols, and themes that have pointed my study in a new direction. In this report I have cited examples of these connections and the materials I examined and will examine further.

One of my primary foci was royal portraiture—both large scale and miniature. From my study, I identified several key artists who worked for Elizabeth and Henrietta Maria. One of these is Anthony Van Dyck. He painted numerous portraits for the royal family of Charles I, as seen at the National Gallery and Tate Modern where an entire exhibit featured his work. I will investigate his portraits in more depth in order to closely examine the symbolism he uses, particularly in the portraits of Henrietta Maria. Another artist I discovered is Nicholas Hilliard. He did miniature portraits and cameos, particularly of Queen Elizabeth I—works of art that are rarely, if ever, recorded in textbooks. He also did a miniature of Charles I. I found his work in the National Portrait Gallery, the Victoria and Albert Museum, and the British Museum, taking pictures where permitted and detailed notes where not. His pictures, though small, are rich in symbolism; again, I will study the works of both of these artists, as men who were commissioned by the same patrons on multiple occasions, to look for common themes that point back to Eleanor.

In addition to the portraits of Elizabeth and Henrietta Maria that I studied (even in Leeds Castle), I came across notable memorabilia from Eleanor’s time—seals and rings of her family members, twelfth-century caskets and belongings depicting the courtly love theme, and contemporary tapestries. Perhaps most exciting, I was able to approach the facsimile of her effigy, as well as those of her family members, at the Victoria and Albert Museum, and thus take detailed photographs of her only known “portrait.” The British Museum’s display of Elizabeth’s letters in which she refuses to name a successor and the Magna Carta also provided important background information on the period and Plantagenet family. Studying what I garnered from these and many other artifacts will better enable me to piece together a picture of Eleanor and her influence on later women (I address the connection between Elizabeth’s delay tactics and Eleanor’s own marriage arrangements with Henry, for example, in my thesis.) One interesting connection I discovered was that Eleanor’s husband, Henry II, built the keep at Dover Castle; later, in 1625, it was used to receive the bride of Charles I: Henrietta Maria. Facts like this I would likely not have learned without having actually visited the site. There is also a chapel in the keep with details that closely match its contemporary, the Canterbury Cathedral—both now known as Thomas Becket’s—which I also visited to look for signs of Eleanor and her family (and where I noted Henry I depicted in a stained glass window).

While doing my own research, I also came across close to twenty paintings that held interest for the current research of my mentor, Dr. Brandie Siegfried. She is doing work on depictions of women writing and reading, and our research paths have intersected on numerous occasions. I emailed her detailed information about each of the paintings.

This trip to London has given me a vast amount of invaluable data with which to work—data that I would not have had access to without the aid of this grant—and I am confident that the information I found will yield further connections that I do not yet recognize, whether about Eleanor’s role as a patron, her influence on Elizabeth I, Henrietta Maria, and other rulers, and the impact of medieval women in general. I am eager to add these findings to my ongoing research and anticipate submitting an article to a national journal within the year.