Remembering Queen Mary in Book Dedications

Four printed books were dedicated to Queen Mary I during Elizabeth I’s reign. These dedications are the starting point of an investigation into Mary’s reputation and reception in Elizabethan England, beginning with an attempt to determine how and why Mary was used in printed book dedications posthumously. This article explicates those dedications and the printers to look for commonalities and religious affiliations that could explain their printing. It suggests that textual records of Mary continued to be printed in Elizabethan England, drawing attention from Catholics as well as Protestants who were able to invoke her name in a positive way.