Reviews
317
Queen’s Apprentice: Archduchess Elizabeth, Empress María, the
Habsburgs, and the Holy Roman Empire, 1554–1569. Joseph
F. Patrouch. Studies in Medieval and Reformation Traditions,
Vol. 148. Leiden, Boston: Brill, 2010. x + 456 pp. $147.00.
ISBN 978–90–04–18030–7.
In this ambitious work, Joseph F. Patrouch uses the Archduchess Elizabeth,
daughter of the Holy Roman Empress María and the Holy Roman
Emperor Maximilian II, as the linchpin for a larger investigation into
European politics, religion, gender, and Habsburg court culture during the
tumultuous decades of the mid-sixteenth century. The network of “emperors, queens, kings, archduchesses, archdukes, dukes, regents, knights, nuns,
and cardinals” around the Archduchess includes “grandparents, parents,
siblings, spouses, daughters, sons, in-laws, aunts, uncles, and cousins” (1),
not to mention the many non-related figures at court and across Europe
drawn by Patrouch into his examination. By focusing on the years between
Elizabeth’s birth and her betrothal (1554–1569), Patrouch is able to
include numerous coronations (María and Maximilian were crowned rulers of Bohemia and Hungary, in addition to becoming first heirs and then
holders of the imperial title), periods of war and peace with the Ottoman
Empire, religious developments from the Peace of Augsburg to the results
of the Council of Trent, and the complicated marriage negotiations around
not only Elizabeth and her older sister Anna, but also their numerous
paternal aunts.
As the title indicates, Queen’s Apprentice is intended as a work that
focuses on the female court (primarily that around María) and the ways in
which a young woman of the Habsburg family would be raised within and
educated for a set of gender-specific roles. One of the most important, which
Patrouch foregrounds, is the way in which the queen’s body was just as crucial as the king’s in establishing and maintaining successful rule. He makes
a very successful argument that Maximilian’s ascension to the position of
Emperor owed a great deal to his wife, whose “body’s success provided the
political capital which advanced the cause of the central European Habsburgs
in relation to their relatives in Iberia” (6). The roles of women in court culture — primarily in ceremonial events and celebrations — are analyzed and
presented as areas of power and negotiation, especially where marriage was
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concerned. Patrouch makes clear the ways in which occasions such as the
1560 Vienna Festival, held to celebrate visits from various Habsburg relations and European dignitaries, involved events where women of the court
could fulfill their roles as part of the “unofficial channels of authority and
influence which power provided (and requires)” (9). Patrouch’s comparative
analysis of the multiple coronations both Maximilian and María participated
in makes especially clear the importance of symbolism and ceremony in the
acquisition and display of power.
In light of the extensive cast of Habsburgs — not to mention the
members of other royal and noble families who have an important role to
play — the lack of any family trees or genealogical charts is, frankly, baffling. Reading that “[Archduchess] Elizabeth’s aunt Eleonora, the duchess
of Mantua, had given birth to another child, a daughter christened Ana
Catarina. This baby would grow up to be Elizabeth’s aunt” (290–91) is
likely to make anyone unfamiliar with the intricacies of Habsburg marital
politics blink and wonder if they read something wrong.
By placing Archduchess Elizabeth rather than her mother at the center, Patrouch focuses his argument on the upbringing of a young woman
who was destined to play a significant role on the sixteenth-century marriage market and to someday have her own court and exercise power as a
queen. However, this book is not primarily about practices of child-rearing.
Elizabeth left almost none of her own source documents; in some ways, she
is the center but not the primary subject of this investigation into Central
European court culture and gender roles in royal households. We see her
only partially, catching glimpses in official documents and correspondence
in the midst of Patrouch’s presentation of coronation ceremonies, tournaments, a meeting of the Imperial Assembly in Augsburg, or daily life in
Wiener Neustadt. There is a very thin line — which Patrouch does not
always successfully negotiate — between using Elizabeth as a representative example of generations of Habsburg archduchesses and infantas and
wandering into the speculative realm of what Elizabeth “might have,” “could
have,” or “probably” experienced growing up. This tendency is especially
notable in discussions of female role models and the female religious life;
Elizabeth’s eventual founding of and death within a convent in Vienna
lingers around every mention of female religiosity in sixteenth-century
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Catholicism. The world outside of María’s court features at least as prominently as the world within it; events in the rest of Europe, particularly
Iberia, France, and Hungary, shape the lives and prospects of the young
Habsburgs. A significant part of this outside world involves the male members of the Habsburg family. For a book which claims to be about a mother
and daughter, a great deal of time is spent on a father and son, namely, the
oft-contentious relationship between Ferdinand and Maximilian, especially over religion. By examining the ways in which this relationship affected
the chances of Maximilian’s becoming Holy Roman Emperor — and thus
the lives of both Elizabeth and María — and by arguing that María’s court
served as an intermediary between her father-in-law’s Catholicism and
her husband’s reformist inclinations, Patrouch connects their story to his
examination of Elizabeth’s upbringing and the role of female courts.
Above all else, this is a richly detailed book. Patrouch has used an
impressive range of both primary and secondary sources, including not only
court regulations and personal correspondence, but such diverse materials
as coinage, published accounts of tournaments and ceremonies, music
and plays, and detailed analyses of the material culture of the Habsburg
court through buildings, clothing, jewelry, and other objects. The short
biographical sketches he provides of even minor court figures add flavor
without miring the reader in detail. His painstaking investigation of the
structure of life within the female court gives readers a glimpse of an aspect
of early modern life that has rarely been examined. For any scholar interested in court culture or in tracing the oft-complicated personal relations
among the upper levels of sixteenth-century European society, the insightful work that Patrouch does here will be invaluable.
Jen Welsh
College of Charleston
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