Masculinity, ambassadorial handbooks, and early modern English diplomacy

Abstract

Despite the increasing scholarly interest in gender and diplomacy, the ways in which masculinity impacted upon early modern ambassadors remains virtually unexplored. This article responds to this lacuna by examining early modern diplomacy through the lens of early modern notions of manhood. It first sets out key themes essential to the construction of early modern notions of masculinity before conducting a detailed discussion of how three works on ambassadors by Alberico Gentili, Jean Hotman, and Francis Thynne discussed specific manly attributes that were particular to the circumstances of embassy and constructed a notion of diplomatic manhood. The final section briefly analyses how several of these areas played out in practice, paying particular attention to an ambassador’s learning, physical activities, and household management. This article argues that we should take concerns about masculinity seriously as a factor influencing both ambassadorial behaviour and responses to ambassadors’ actions. The very nature of diplomatic service seemingly precluded one preeminent field in which men asserted their manhood—the martial arena—and other key components of masculinity could be difficult to maintain adequately during embassy for practical reasons. This led ambassadors to adopt compensatory strategies of various kinds in order to maintain their manly reputations at home and at their host court.