| List of illustrations | page vii | |
| List of tables | x | |
| List of contributors | xi | |
| Acknowledgements | xv | |
| Introduction | 1 | |
| CLARISSA CAMPBELL ORR | ||
| 1 | Maria Giovanna Battista of Savoy-Nemours (1644–1724): daughter, consort, and Regent of Savoy | 16 |
| ROBERT ORESKO | ||
| 2 | Queen Hedwig Eleonora of Sweden: dowager, builder, and collector | 56 |
| LIS GRANLUND | ||
| 3 | Partner, matriarch, and minister: Mme de Maintenon of France, clandestine consort, 1680–1715 | 77 |
| MARK BRYANT | ||
| 4 | Piety and power: The Empresses-Consort of the High Baroque | 107 |
| CHARLES W. INGRAO AND ANDREW L. THOMAS | ||
| 5 | Catherine Ⅰ of Russia, consort to Peter the Great | 131 |
| LINDSEY HUGHES | ||
| 6 | ‘Bárbara succeeds Elizabeth . . .’: the feminisation and domestication of politics in the Spanish monarchy, 1701–1759 | 155 |
| CHARLES C. NOEL | ||
| 7 | Queen Marie Leszczyńska and faction at the French Court 1725–1768 | 186 |
| JOHN ROGISTER | ||
| 8 | Women and Imperial politics: the Württemberg consorts 1674–1757 | 221 |
| PETER H. WILSON | ||
| 9 | Religion and the consort: two Electresses of Saxony and Queens of Poland (1697–1757) | 252 |
| HELEN WATANABE-O’KELLY | ||
| 10 | Caroline of Brandenburg-Ansbach and the ‘anglicisation’ of the House of Hanover | 276 |
| ANDREW HANHAM | ||
| 11 | The hidden queen: Elisabeth Christine of Prussia and Hohernzollern queenship in the eighteenth century | 300 |
| THOMAS BISKUP | ||
| 12 | ‘The Pallas of Stockholm’: Louisa Ulrica of Prussia and the Swedish crown | 322 |
| MARC SERGE RIVIÈRE | ||
| 13 | Danish absolutism and queenship: Louisa, Caroline Matilda, and Juliana Maria | 344 |
| MICHAEL BREGNSBO | ||
| 14 | Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Queen of Great Britain and Electress of Hanover: northern dynasties and the Northern Republic of Letters | 368 |
| CLARISSA CAMPBELL ORR | ||
| Index | 403 | |