Caroline of Ansbach, Augusta of Saxe-Gotha, and Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, three Protestant German princesses became variously Princess of Wales, Queen Consort, and Princess Dowager of Great Britain. Recent research has explored how in fulfilling these roles they made major contributions to the arts, the development of new models of philanthropy and social welfare, the promotion and support of advances in science and medicine, as well as trade and industry, and the furthering of imperial ambition. While local contexts may have conditioned the forms such initiatives took, their objectives were rooted in a European tradition of elite female empowerment.
This symposium, Enlightened Princesses : Britain and Europe, 1700-1820, will bring together eminent academicians and museum scholars to investigate the role played by royal women-electresses, princesses, queens consort, reigning queens, and empresses – in the shaping of court culture and politics in Europe of the long eighteenth century.

PROGRAMME

Sunday, 29 October 2017, Kensington Palace

14.00 Exhibition tour 1
15.00 Exhibition tour 2
16.00 Exhibition tour 3
Tea served in Orangery from 14.00 to 17.00

Monday, 30 October 2017, Hampton Court Palace

9.00 Registration and coffee
9.30 Welcome from John Barnes and Amy Meyers

9.45 Keynote Lecture
Joanna Marschner, Enlightened Princesses : Britain and Europe, 1700–1820

10.30 Break

10.45 Session 1 | Royal Women as Political Agents
Moderator : Lisa Ford
Elise Dermineur, Queens Consort as political agents : A tentative research framework through the example Queen Louisa Ulrika of Sweden (1720–1782) Heather Carroll, ‘Charlotte has the breeches’ : The shifting political perception of Queen Charlotte Allison Goudie, ‘A woman of great feminine beauty, but of a masculine understanding’ : Queen Maria Carolina of Naples and Canova’s statue of the king ‘as Minerva’
Martin Eberle, Luise Dorothea : Duchess of Saxony-Gotha-Altenburg

13.00 Lunch

14.00 Session 2 | Royal Women : Networks and Conversations
Moderator : Lucy Peltz
Elizabeth Montagu, ‘Queen of the Bluestockings’ : Women and literary authority in the age of Enlightenment Lisa Skogh de Zoete, Queen Hedwig Eleanora—A Liebhaberin of the arts : Political culture and sources of knowledge as part of Northern German Court Culture Merit Laine, Creative conversations : Queen Louisa Ulrika and the formulation of Swedish court culture in the Age of Liberty Sonja Fielitz, ‘A silent but impressive language’ : The quietly worked female empowerment of Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz

16.00 Tea

16.30 Discussion
Moderators : Sebastian Edwards and Desmond Shawe-Taylor

17.30 Drinks and musical programme

Tuesday, 30 October 2017, Tower of London

9.00 Registration and coffee
9.30 Welcome by Joanna Marschner and Amy Meyers

9.45 Session 3 | Royal Women as Patrons of Art and Architecture
Moderators : Aurélie Chatenet-Calyste and Desmond Shawe-Taylor Tara Zanardi, Material Temptations : Isabel de Farnesio and the politics of the interior Veronica Biermann, ‘Let’s have a look’ : G.L. Bernini’s mirror for Queen Christina and her self-image Christopher Johns, Two Queens and a villa : Enlightenment sociability in Turin Christopher Baker, Augusta, Princess of Wales and Jean Etienne Liotard Heidi Strobel, Queen Charlotte as patron of female artists

13.00 Lunch

14.00 Session 4 | Royal Women and the Crafting of Image
Moderator : Matthew Storey
Heather Belnap Jensen, Dynastic dressing : The portraits of Caroline Bonaparte Murat, Queen of Naples and the art of costume Eva-Lena Karlsson, Sofia Albertina – a Swedish princess from Rococo to Biedermeier

15.10 Session 5 | Royal Women : Engaging with Nature and Technology
Moderator : Sebastian Edwards
Tessa Murdoch, Measuring time at the Hanoverian Court : Caroline, Augusta and Charlotte as promoters of clock and watch-making in London Emily Roy, Catherine the Great’s Russian mountain : The imagery of the Thunder Stone

16.25 Tea

17.00 Discussion
Moderator : Helen Watanabe-O’Kelly

Ticketing
The fee for attending the conference is £100. Reductions are available for a limited number of students on application to the symposium organiser. The symposium organiser can be contacted at emily.knight chez hrp.org.uk

Co-organised by Historic Royal Palaces, the Yale Center for British Art, and the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, London, in association the exhibition Enlightened Princesses : Caroline, Augusta, Charlotte, and the Shaping of the Modern World, on view at Kensington Palaces, 22 June – 12 November 2017.