Imaging Stuart Family Politics

Reviews / Votes

Winner of the Royal Studies Journal/Canterbury Christ Church University Book Prize

"Murray's book is unique in following this politicized domestic image of the English Stuarts all the way from James I's accession to the reign of his great-granddaughter, Anne. It is also clearly a study-as it sets out to be-of the place of dynasty within images of monarchy, and discusses, in detail, not only the direct role and representation of each individual monarch, but also the immediate heirs to the throne and the "junior" and "rival" heirs as well."

--Sarah Betts, University of York, Royal Studies Journal

"An impressive book, both for its high level of original research, and for its balance of academic sophistication with accessibility. ...This book is a must-read for scholars of British court studies, dynastic politics, and portraiture, but it also holds marked interest and benefit for those interested in ritual and ceremonial, the role and rights of royal women, and the political power of posthumous imagery, memory, and nostalgia."

--Reviews in History

'Murray offers a lucid and fascinating account of the relationship between representation and dynastic politics by focussing on visual depictions of the "heirs and spares" of Stuart and Hanoverian Britain. Drawing on a very wide range of portraits, prints and documentary sources, this important study shows that historians should not dismiss the on-going political significance of the procession of "lost hopes" that the Stuart family - and the nation - endured over the course of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Murray shows how the continuing memorialisation of lost Princes, especially Henry, Prince of Wales and Henry, Duke of Gloucester, brought them undying roles as models or "mirrors" of ideal Protestant kingship. Since none of these figures had faced the reality of rule, the uncompromised ideals that they represented were impossible to live up to; their memories served as a critique of surviving descendants and their governments, expressed in the rueful proverb that asked how things might be better "Did not Good Prince Henry die".'

- Angela McShane, Victoria and Albert Museum, London

'Murray's book provides a compelling account of the potent visual, ceremonial and textual representations of royal progeny - dynasty - in the Stuart period. She convincingly demonstrates how these representations were strategically crafted and deployed to promote political agendas and royal sovereignty. These were not static images made to passively record family and issue. As Murray shows, they were living images of dynastic ambition that necessitated, in varying degrees, both continuity and transformation, being re-negotiated to respond to the changing political landscape. Combining insightful iconographic analyses of portraits, vivid ceremonial accounts, relish in material display and a nuanced understanding of the complex political situation, this far-reaching book is a welcome contribution to the literature on the Stuart court.'

- Erin Griffey, The University of Auckland, New Zealand Winner of the Royal Studies Journal/Canterbury Christ Church University Book Prize

"Murray's book is unique in following this politicized domestic image of the English Stuarts all the way from James I's accession to the reign of his great-granddaughter, Anne. It is also clearly a study-as it sets out to be-of the place of dynasty within images of monarchy, and discusses, in detail, not only the direct role and representation of each individual monarch, but also the immediate heirs to the throne and the "junior" and "rival" heirs as well."

--Sarah Betts, University of York, Royal Studies Journal

"An impressive book, both for its high level of original research, and for its balance of academic sophistication with accessibility. ...This book is a must-read for scholars of British court studies, dynastic politics, and portraiture, but it also holds marked interest and benefit for those interested in ritual and ceremonial, the role and rights of royal women, and the political power of posthumous imagery, memory, and nostalgia."

--Reviews in History

'Murray offers a lucid and fascinating account of the relationship between representation and dynastic politics by focussing on visual depictions of the "heirs and spares" of Stuart and Hanoverian Britain. Drawing on a very wide range of portraits, prints and documentary sources, this important study shows that historians should not dismiss the on-going political significance of the procession of "lost hopes" that the Stuart family - and the nation - endured over the course of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Murray shows how the continuing memorialisation of lost Princes, especially Henry, Prince of Wales and Henry, Duke of Gloucester, brought them undying roles as models or "mirrors" of ideal Protestant kingship. Since none of these figures had faced the reality of rule, the uncompromised ideals that they represented were impossible to live up to; their memories served as a critique of surviving descendants and their governments, expressed in the rueful proverb that asked how things might be better "Did not Good Prince Henry die".'

- Angela McShane, Victoria and Albert Museum, London

'Murray's book provides a compelling account of the potent visual, ceremonial and textual representations of royal progeny - dynasty - in the Stuart period. She convincingly demonstrates how these representations were strategically crafted and deployed to promote political agendas and royal sovereignty. These were not static images made to passively record family and issue. As Murray shows, they were living images of dynastic ambition that necessitated, in varying degrees, both continuity and transformation, being re-negotiated to respond to the changing political landscape. Combining insightful iconographic analyses of portraits, vivid ceremonial accounts, relish in material display and a nuanced understanding of the complex political situation, this far-reaching book is a welcome contribution to the literature on the Stuart court.'

- Erin Griffey, The University of Auckland, New Zealand

"There is no getting away from the fact that the book is a beautifully illustrated and well-written book."

- A Trumpet of Sedition, 2019