‘The Rising Sun Gains Advantage’: The Iconography of George of Denmark as Royal Consort

This essay considers the iconography of George of Denmark (1653-1708), the consort of Queen Anne. Of the few male monarchical consorts in the British Isles, George of Denmark has received the least attention from historians, and in turn his portraiture has been overlooked. Unlike Philip II or Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley (previous consorts of queens regnant in England and Scotland respectively), George was not made king, and his lack of political power appears to have been addressed in his portraiture, where he appropriated earlier male Stuart portrait types and assumed the martial visual language of the male monarch.