This collection brings together essays examining the international influence of queens, other female rulers, and their representatives from 1450 through 1700, an era of expanding colonial activity and sea trade. As Europe rose in prominence geopolitically, a number of important women¿such as Queen Elizabeth I of England, Catherine de Medici, Caterina Cornaro of Cyprus, and Isabel Clara Eugenia of Austriäexerted influence over foreign affairs. Traditionally male-dominated spheres such as trade, colonization, warfare, and espionage were, sometimes for the first time, under the control of powerful women. This interdisciplinary volume examines how they navigated these activities, and how they are represented in literature. By highlighting the links between female power and foreign affairs, Colonization, Piracy, and Trade in Early Modern Europe contributes to a fuller understanding of early modern queenship.

Fills a gap in scholarship on early modern female rulers and their roles in foreign affairs

1. Introduction.- I. Demonstration of Power.- 2. Mary I, Mary of Guise and the Strong Hand of the Scots: Marian Policy in Ulster and Anglo-Scottish Diplomacy, 1553-1558.- 3. Catherine de Medici and Huguenot Colonization, 1560-1567.- 4. Isabel Clara Eugenia, Governor of the Spanish Netherlands: Trade, Politics, & Warfare, Ruling like a King, 1621-1633.- II. Diplomatic Strategies.- 5. Caterina Cornaro and the Colonization of Cyprus.- 6. Trade and Piracy: The Role of a Potential Queen Consort in the 1620s.- 7. "The Princesses' Representative" or Renegade Entrepreneur? Marie Petit, the Silk Trade, and Franco-Persian Diplomacy.- III. Exotic Encounters.- 8. "I would not have given it for a wilderness of monkeys": Turquoise, Queenship, and the Exotic.- 9. A Vision on Queen Elizabeth's Role in Colonizing America: Stephen Parmenius's De Navigatione (1582).- 10. Captains, Kings, Queens: Politics, Piracy, and the Sea in Middleton's The Phoenix (c. 1603-04)