Female Patronage in Early Modern England and Russia

The article presents a comparative overview of approaches to the studies of the role played by women in patronage networks and social communications of England and Russian in the 16th — 17th centuries. The studying of political patronage in England is a well-developed field of research. In the last forty years, since 1980s, studies political, social and cultural patronage have grown considerably. The authors of the article analyzed works on English patronage networks and demonstrated the evolution of approaches, from those focused on male public political patronage to a more nuanced understanding of political sphere, not limited to public politics, which includes practices of wielding political influence and decision-making. In the Russian Studies of the last decades, patronage relations are in focus of scholars’ attention, but usually only the male-dominated public politics is explored. It is shown. however, that the data accumulated by recent studies on the participation of Russian women in politics and hierarchies of power proves the studies of women’s patronage promising, since this approach helps view earlier neglected aspects of the political and social history of the 16th — 17th century Russia.