Introduction to special issue: Representing queens

The study of medieval and early modern queens reveals much about the relationship between gender, sexuality, politics, history, and power. The study of queens has been of much interest to a wide range of scholars, from historians to literary and cultural studies scholars, who have re-examined, or sometimes examined for the first time, the lives and reigns of queens from across the medieval and early modern world. This special issue on ‘Representing Queens’ incorporates historical analyses of representations of queens in their own time, as well as later fictional and popular cultural representations of queens.