Of the three Queens I will consider here (from 1550 to 1700), only one, Elizabeth, was a reigning monarch: Anna of Denmark and Henrietta Maria of France were Queens Consort, the wives of James I and Charles I respectively. As the anointed Queen of England, Elizabeth was the centre of the country's political life: the courts of Anna and Henrietta Maria, established alongside those of their husbands, often provided places from which reservations about the monarch's policies could be articulated. It is interesting to see, in these very different courts, how struggles for inclusion in the Queen's inner circle broke out among courtiers, particularly at the start of each reign. Rather than being ephemeral to the political process, the court of a Queen Consort was, at the very least, a significant locus of powerbroking, as well as of literary patronage and literary production. Early studies of Anna and Henrietta Maria presented these Queens as politically naive and culturally frivolous in a way rarely applied to Elizabeth I. Alfred Harbage, for example, described Henrietta Maria as a 'charming lady' who dignified 'a love of festive toys and tinsel' which in Anna of Denmark 'had seemed childish frivolity'. This backhanded compliment infantilizes both Queens and leads, unsurprisingly, to the value judgement that 'Henrietta had not a jot of literary taste.' In contrast, Elizabeth I is often presented as a woman of impeccable sense, whose education and knowledge impressed foreign ambassadors. This nationalistic construction elevates the English Elizabeth at the expense of her foreign counterparts, yet, if the study of these royal courts reveals anything, it is that the women associated with them were deeply involved in the continental exchange of texts, goods and personnel.