Abstract
The article aims to explore forms of representation of a monarch in Irish court odes between 1702 and 1714. By 1702, Protestant Ireland to a large extent adopted the political structure of its mother country. The Irish parliament was turning into a regular institution, and the development of the party system was also underway. This posed a threat to the status quo, which the Irish government sought to maintain. To protect the rights of the Crown in England Queen Anne used a theatre of power and heavily relied on self-representation. However, in Ireland, the Queen's representation was limited to the odes for the Queen’s birthdays. Control over the writing of odes was given into the hands of Irish lords-justices, who were heavily involved in party politics. This led to the appropriation of the Queen’s second body by a dominant party in the Irish government: the image of Queen Anne was frequently used to support party politics. The image of the Queen was fairly passive due to her gender and physical disabilities: with the lack of the Queen’s personal control, it was not difficult for the parties to use the monarch’s second body for their purposes. In odes of 1709–1710, the image of Queen Anne was used to support Whig war policies; in 1711–1714 it was transformed to support the new moderate cabinet. As a result, instead of being an important weapon against partisanship, the representation of Queen Anne in Ireland was occasionally used as party propaganda.
Published Version
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