From the Everyday to the Extraordinary: Economic Evidence for Queenship in the Chamber Books

The Tudor Chamber Books (1485-1521) are a useful, underexplored source for examining queenship.In addition to the two queen consorts, Elizabeth of York and her daughter in law, Catherine of Aragon, there is interesting coverage of Margaret and Mary Tudor who became respectively Queen of Scots and Queen of France, as well as the early years of Mary I.This article demonstrates how financial records can shed new light on pivotal moments in a royal woman's life, including childhood, betrothals and weddings, widowhood, joys such as coronation ceremonies and stresses of childbirth and infant (or even maternal) loss.It demonstrates the utility of the Chamber Books themselves and of wider financial sources in charting the lives of royal women and understanding more deeply the rhythms and responsibilities of queenship.This article is part of a research cluster in this issue on the economic power of medieval queens.