Queenship, Gender, and Reputation in the Medieval and Early Modern West, 1060-1600, 2016
What would we do without Brantome? His corpus is a delight, packed with scandalous observations a... more What would we do without Brantome? His corpus is a delight, packed with scandalous observations about the French royal court as well as anecdotes passed down through the generations. But Brantome’s accessibility as a narrator has caused readers over the centuries to take his gossip for unmediated glimpses of court life, even though many of his subjects lived over a century before his birth. This chapter focuses on a queen, Anne of Brittany (1477–1514), and two regents, Anne of France (1461–1522), and Louise of Savoy (1476–1531), whose modern reputations derive principally from Brantome. Adams opens by considering Georges Minois’s biography of Anne of Brittany, which, following the narrative of Brantome, relates that in the spring of 1492, “[at] court, the young queen [Anne of Brittany] was well accepted, except by her sister-in-law, Anne, now Anne of Bourbon or of France (…)” peahens. This bias causes him to fundamentally misread documents associated with the two Annes, perpetuating the story of jealous rivalry passed down and embellished through the centuries. The purpose of the chapter is by no means to deny the value of the entertaining Brantome. It is, rather, to suggest ways of putting his anecdotes to good use by applying recent theories of female power to them.
Uploads
Papers by Tracy Adams
This collection expands previous regional and individual studies of queenship and female political agency in order to engage in a comparative study of premodern female rule on a global scale. While the field of queenship studies and examinations of gender and power have been flourishing, the literature has tended to be dominated by studies of European royalty. This volume aims to embrace and develop the trend towards an increasingly global outlook for the field of queenship studies. Case studies of women from different periods, places, and religions are deliberately mixed to compare and contrast the realities of queenship in varied settings. Lesser studied examples of queens are provided alongside fresh perspectives on more familiar figures and regions. The authors increase our understanding of understudied individuals and groups of queens, and they encourage the comparison of the practice of queenship in the premodern era. This authoritative and comprehensive Companion will be required reading for all scholars and students of premodern gender and political studies.
For contents list, see flyer
Publisher: Amsterdam University Press
Series: Gendering the Late Medieval & Early Modern World
Women and Power at the French Court, 1483—1563 explores the ways in which a range of women “ as consorts, regents, mistresses, factional power players, attendants at court, or as objects of courtly patronage “ wielded power in order to advance individual, familial, and factional agendas at the early sixteenth-century French court. Spring-boarding from the burgeoning scholarship of gender, the political, and power in early modern Europe, the collection provides a perspective from the French court, from the reigns of Charles VIII to Henri II, a time when the French court was a renowned center of culture and at which women played important roles. Crossdisciplinary in its perspectives, these essays by historians, art and literary scholars investigate the dynamic operations of gendered power in political acts, recognized status as queens and regents, ritualized behaviors such as gift-giving, educational coteries, and through social networking, literary and artistic patronage, female authorship, and epistolary strategies.
Table of Contents:
List of Figures
Notes on Contributors
Susan Broomhall, In the Orbit of the King: Women, Power and Authority at the French Court, 1483–1563
I. CONCEPTUALIZING AND PRACTISING FEMALE POWER
1. Aubrée David-Chapy, The Political, Symbolic and Courtly Power of Anne de France and Louise de Savoie: From the Genesis to the Glory of Female Regency
2. Tracy Adams, Anne de France and Gift-Giving: The Exercise of Power
3. Laure Fagnart and Mary Beth Winn, Louise de Savoie: The King’s Mother, Alter Rex
II. CENTRES AND PERIPHERIES OF POWER
4. Erin A. Sadlack, Literary Lessons in Queenship and Power: Mary Tudor Brandon and the Authority of the Ambassador-Queen
5. Kathleen Wilson-Chevalier, Claude de France and the Spaces of Agency of a Marginalized Queen
6. Lisa Mansfield, ‘Portraits of Eleanor of Austria: From Invisible to Inimitable French Queen Consort
III. THE POWER OF CREATIVE VOICES
7. Cynthia J. Brown, Family Female Networking in Early Sixteenth-Century France: The Power of Text and Image
8. Mawy Bouchard, The Power of Reputation and Skills according to Anne de Graville: The Rondeaux and the Denunciation of Slander
9. Jonathan A. Reid, Imagination and Influence: The Creative Powers of Marguerite de Navarre at Work at Court and in the World
10. Pollie Bromilow, Power through Print: The Works of Hélisenne de Crenne
IV. ECONOMIES OF POWER AND EMOTIONS
11. David Potter, The Life and After-Life of a Royal Mistress: Anne de Pisseleu, Duchess of Etampes
12. Susan Broomhall, ‘“The King and I”: Rhetorics of Power in the Letters of Diane de Poitiers’
13. Denis Crouzet, Catherine de Médicis Tested by the Virtue of Charity (1533–1559): Discourse and Metadiscourse
Index