Medieval Elite Women and the Exercise of Power, 1100–1400

by Heather J. Tanner
Medieval Elite Women and the Exercise of Power, 1100–1400
Author: Heather J. Tanner
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 317
Release: 2019-01-09
Genre: History
ISBN: 3030013464
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For decades, medieval scholarship has been dominated by the paradigm that women who wielded power after c. 1100 were exceptions to the “rule” of female exclusion from governance and the public sphere. This collection makes a powerful case for a new paradigm. Building on the premise that elite women in positions of authority were expected, accepted, and routine, these essays traverse the cities and kingdoms of France, England, Germany, Portugal, and the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem in order to illuminate women’s roles in medieval power structures. Without losing sight of the predominance of patriarchy and misogyny, contributors lay the groundwork for the acceptance of female public authority as normal in medieval society, fostering a new framework for understanding medieval elite women and power.

Significant Others

by Zita Eva Rohr
Significant Others
Author: Zita Eva Rohr
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 243
Release: 2021-08-30
Genre: History
ISBN: 1000423042
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Significant Others explores the transformative possibilities of alterity or otherness and offers concrete case studies that provide a greater understanding and nuance with regard to aspects of deviance and difference in premodern court cultures. Both public and nominally private spaces were subject to the important influence of significant others, such as women, ethno-religious minorities, and marginalized and/or difficult-to-categorize men. From their positions within and ties to court cultures, these diverse outsiders - ‘others’ - played crucial roles in maintaining a fluidity essential for the successful sustaining of territorial monarchies and polities, challenging our understanding of the more narrowly defined elite behaviours that shaped premodern dynasties, rulers, societies, and cultures of the past. By exploring a variety of case studies from history and literature, such as Moroccan Jews as dhimmis (‘protected persons’), to bastards, mistresses, and sodomites in ancien régime France, to the transformative role of magic in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, this volume makes use of empirical and contextually informed research to respond to theoretical questions posed by recent historiography. With a cross-disciplinary approach, this collection of essays will be a valuable resource for all students and scholars interested in the diverse aspects and contexts of premodern ‘others’.

Laywomen and the Crusade in England, 1150-1300

by DR GORDON M. REYNOLDS
Laywomen and the Crusade in England, 1150-1300
Author: DR GORDON M. REYNOLDS
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
Total Pages: 256
Release: 2024-11-19
Genre: History
ISBN: 1837652244
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Considers how elite women could participate in Crusade, their means and motivations. The popular perception of the medieval Crusades is of conflicts spanning from the Holy Land to the Baltic, with huge armies of religious zealots led by knights wearing crosses. However, the reality is far more nuanced. The vast majority of those living in western Europe did not go on crusade at all. But that does not mean that crusading was not on their minds, or that they could not influence the movement. They urged others to take up the cross, provided financial support, and prayed for the campaigns in the Holy Land; for them, this was crusade. This book investigates how English laywomen were encouraged to support crusades and identify with holy war during the Middle Ages, challenging preconceptions of what crusade "meant", and bringing out the diverse ways of their participation. It draws on detailed analysis of cartularies, judicial records, chronicles and lyrical sources; it also examines the rich material culture of commemoration that celebrated the endeavour, alongside the papal propaganda which idealised women's sponsorship of crusade. This study therefore sheds new light not only on the role of women in crusade, but on their influence and piety more generally.

Sexuality in Medieval Europe

by Ruth Mazo Karras
Sexuality in Medieval Europe
Author: Ruth Mazo Karras
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 265
Release: 2023-04-03
Genre: History
ISBN: 1000859274
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Now in its fourth edition, Sexuality in Medieval Europe provides a lively account of a society whose attitudes toward sexuality both were ancestral to, and differed from, contemporary ones. The volume is structured not by types of sexual interactions or deviance, but to reflect the difference in gendered experiences when sex is seen as an act one person does to another. Sexual activity, within and outside of marriage, as well as sexual inactivity, had different meanings based on gender, social status, religious affiliation, and more. This book considers these iterations of medieval sexuality in its effort to show there was no single medieval attitude towards sexuality. With an emphasis on Christian Western Europe over the entire course of the Middle Ages, it also includes comparative material on neighboring cultures at the time. Alongside being reworked for further clarity and readability, the fourth edition offers substantial new material on trans scholarship and methodological attempts to recoup a trans past; changes in the treatment of sex work and its terminology; and new material on Byzantine and Muslim culture. Sexuality in Medieval Europe is an essential resource for all those who study medieval history, medieval culture, and the history of sexuality in Europe.

The Two Isabellas of King John

by Kristen McQuinn
The Two Isabellas of King John
Author: Kristen McQuinn
Publisher: Pen and Sword History
Total Pages: 276
Release: 2021-10-30
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1526761653
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King John of England was married to two women: Isabella of Gloucester and Isabelle of Angoulême. The two women were central to shaping John and his reign, each in her own way molding the king and each other over their lives. Little is known about Isabella of Gloucester and she has largely become an historical footnote; Isabelle of Angoulême has a reputation as a witch and poisoner. However, both were products of their time, victims and pawns of the powerful men whose voices overwrote the experiences of women. By examining these two very different women through a modern feminist lens, The Two Isabellas offers new insight into one of England’s lesser-known queens and a different interpretation of one of its least popular kings. In The Two Isabellas of King John, Kristen McQuinn offers new and intriguing insights into two of England’s important yet little understood queen-consorts, the wives of King John. Taking a feminist light, McQuinn brightly shines it on both England’s least well-known consort, Isabella of Gloucester, his first wife, and one of its least popular, Isabelle of Angoulême, his child bride.

Women and Medieval Literary Culture

by Corinne Saunders
Women and Medieval Literary Culture
Author: Corinne Saunders
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 880
Release: 2023-07-31
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1108876919
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Focusing on England but covering a wide range of European and global traditions and influences, this authoritative volume examines the central role of medieval women in the production and circulation of books and considers their representation in medieval literary texts, as authors, readers and subjects, assessing how these change over time. Engaging with Latin, French, German, Welsh and Gaelic literary culture, it places British writing in wider European contexts while also considering more distant influences such as Arabic. Essays span topics including book production and authorship; reception; linguistic, literary, and cultural contexts and influences; women's education and spheres of knowledge; women as writers, scribes and translators; women as patrons, readers and book owners; and women as subjects. Reflecting recent trends in scholarship, the volume spans the early Middle Ages through to the eve of the Reformation and emphasises the multilingual, multicultural and international contexts of women's literary culture.

William Marshal's Wife

by Julia A Hickey
William Marshal's Wife
Author: Julia A Hickey
Publisher: Pen and Sword History
Total Pages: 294
Release: 2024-04-30
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1399043293
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The real story of Isabel de Clare, William Marshal's wife, a powerful woman who was a key figure in the history of Ireland, England, Wales and Normandy. Isabel de Clare, the descendant of kings, dukes and freebooters, was one of the wealthiest heiresses in Henry II’s kingdom thanks to the ambitions of her father Richard, Strongbow, de Clare and his marriage to Aoife, daughter of the last king of Leinster. Nature gave her beauty and intelligence. Destiny made her a key figure in the history of Ireland, England, Wales and Normandy. Isabel’s role as a daughter, wife, mother and countess in her own right is the story of medieval aristocratic women and the power that they could wield. Married to a complete stranger when she was just eighteen on the orders of Richard the Lionheart, she found love in the arms of William Marshal - known as the greatest knight who ever lived. Together they established powerbases in Ireland and in Wales, beat off their foes; negotiated the perils of serving King John; and built a powerful kinship network. Marshal declared, ‘I have no claim to anything save through her.’ She was a peerless wife and remarkable woman who played the political game alongside her husband serving successive Plantagenet monarchs, consolidating and extending her inheritance as well as giving birth to ten children. Like her mother before her and her brood of Marshall daughters after her, she was a prize, not a pawn, who knew how to balance her role as a wife and mother alongside the brutal politics of the period.

A Companion to Global Gender History

by Merry E. Wiesner-Hanks
A Companion to Global Gender History
Author: Merry E. Wiesner-Hanks
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 672
Release: 2020-11-19
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1119535786
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Provides a completely updated survey of the major issues in gender history from geographical, chronological, and topical perspectives This new edition examines the history of women over thousands of years, studies their interaction with men in a gendered world, and looks at the role of gender in shaping human behavior. It includes thematic essays that offer a broad foundation for key issues such as family, labor, sexuality, race, and material culture, followed by chronological and regional essays stretching from the earliest human societies to the contemporary period. The book offers readers a diverse selection of viewpoints from an authoritative team of international authors and reflects questions that have been explored in different cultural and historiographic traditions. Filled with contributions from both scholars and teachers, A Companion to Global Gender History, Second Edition makes difficult concepts understandable to all levels of students. It presents evidence for complex assertions regarding gender identity, and grapples with evolving notions of gender construction. In addition, each chapter includes suggestions for further reading in order to provide readers with the necessary tools to explore the topic further. Features newly updated and brand-new chapters filled with both thematic and chronological-geographic essays Discusses recent trends in gender history, including material culture, sexuality, transnational developments, science, and intersectionality Presents a diversity of viewpoints, with chapters by scholars from across the world A Companion to Global Gender History is an excellent book for upper-level undergraduate and graduate students involved in gender studies and history programs. It will also appeal to more advanced scholars seeking an introduction to the field.

The Queens and Royal Women of Sweden, c. 970–1330

by Caroline Wilhelmsson
The Queens and Royal Women of Sweden, c. 970–1330
Author: Caroline Wilhelmsson
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 210
Release: 2024-10-11
Genre: History
ISBN: 1040155200
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This is the first major piece of scholarship to provide an overview of the lives of Sweden’s earliest documented queens, together with some of their most influential female relatives, who lived between 970 and 1330. Spanning a period over 350 years, approximately 40 biographies are included from the semi-legendary Viking queen Sigrid Storråda to Duchess Ingeborg of Norway, the first female de jure and de facto ruler of Sweden. Rather than merely summarising previous research, this study offers new perspectives on the evolution of queenship in medieval Sweden. It tracks the different religious, political, and socio-economic trends which defined and shaped the office of queen and identifies three main phases of development which led to royal women’s economic and political emancipation by the mid-fourteenth century. The study’s main strength lies in its close reading and novel interpretation of the surviving primary sources, enabling readers to understand the importance of these women and wider themes such as state formation, Christianisation, and international politics. The Queens and Royal Women of Sweden, c. 970–1330 is of interest to scholars of queenship and gender studies, medieval historians in general, those with an interest in ecclesiastical history, and anyone studying medieval Scandinavia.