Women in the Medieval Court

Consorts and Concubines

Rebecca Holdorph

• Publisher: Pen and Sword History
• Year: 2022
• Topic: History
• eBook ISBN:
  9781526739827
• Subtopic: European Medieval History
• Index: History

A surprising look at women who wielded power in medieval Europe, from queens to concubines to abbesses.
Medieval society might expect the elite women who decorated its courts to play the role of Queen Guinevere, but many of these women had very different ideas. Great queens, who sometimes ruled in their own right, fought wars and forged empires. Noblewomen acted behind the scenes to change the course of politics. Far from cloistered off from the world, powerful abbesses played the role of kingmaker. And concubines had a role to play as well, both as political actors and as mothers of children who might change a country's destiny. They experienced tremendous success and dramatic downfalls. This book tells the stories of women from across medieval Europe, from a Danish queen who waged political war to form a Scandinavian empire to a Tuscan countess who joined her troops on the battlefield. Whether they wielded power in battle, from a convent, or from a throne—or even in the bedchamber—these women were far from damsels in distress waiting for their knights in shining armor.

Endnotes

Introduction

1.Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, 1a., q. 92, a.1, Obj.1 <http://www.newadvent.org/summa/1092.htm> [Accessed 6 March 2020].

2.Michelle M. Sauer, Gender in Medieval Culture (New York, Bloomsbury, 2015), pp. 24-29.

3.Quoted in Elizabeth Casteen, From She-Wolf to Martyr: The Reign and Disputed Reputation of Johanna of Naples (Cornell, Cornell University Press, 2015), p. 63.

4.André Poulet, ‘Capetian Women and the Regency: The Genesis of a Vocation’, in Medieval Queenship, ed. by John Carmi Parsons (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1993), pp. 93-116 (pp. 94-95).

5.Janna Bianchini, The Queen’s Hand: Power and Authority in the Reign of Berenguela of Castile (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2012), p. 5.

6.Pauline Stafford, Queen Emma and Queen Edith (Chichester: Wiley, 1997), pp. 10-11.

Section One

Chapter One: Wife and Mother

1.Angeliki Laiou, ‘Introduction: Why Anna Komnene?’, in Anna Komnene and her Times, ed. by Thalia Gouma-Peterson, pp. 1-14 (p. 2).

2.Barbara Hill, Imperial Women in Byzantium 1095-1204 (Harlow: Pearson Education Limited, 1999), p. 30.

3.Laiou, ‘Why Anna Komnene?’, pp. 1-3.

4.J. L. Laynesmith, Cecily Duchess of York (London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2017), pp. 10-11.

5.Laynesmith, Cecily Duchess of York, pp. 18-19. This entry and the four above are numbered 1-5. I have tried to fiddle, but to no end.

6.David J. Hay, The Military Leadership of Matilda of Canossa (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2008), pp. 20-21.

7.Hay, Military Leadership of Matilda of Canossa, pp. 21-25.

8.Hay, Military Leadership of Matilda of Canossa, pp. 32-34.

9.Hay, Military Leadership of Matilda of Canossa, pp. 8-9.

10.Hay, Military Leadership of Matilda of Canossa, p. 7.

11.Hay, Military Leadership of Matilda of Canossa, pp. 34-37

12.Hay, Military Leadership of Matilda of Canossa, pp. 38-40.

13.Quoted in Hay, Military Leadership of Matilda of Canossa, pp. 41-42.

14.Hay, Military Leadership of Matilda of Canossa, p. 43.

15.Theodore Evergates, Marie of France: Countess of Champagne, 1145–1198 (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2019), pp. 2-3.

16.Evergates, Marie of France, pp. 3-4.

17.Evergates, Marie of France, pp. 5-6.

18.Evergates, Marie of France, pp. 6-7.

19.Evergates, Marie of France, p. 11.

20.Evergates, Marie of France, pp. 11-17.

21.Evergates, Marie of France, p. 18.

22.Evergates, Marie of France, pp. 18-20.

23.Evergates, Marie of France, p. 22.

24.Evergates, Marie of France, p. 23.

25.Everga...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Introduction
• Section One: Noblewomen
• Section Two: Consorts
• Section Three: Reigning Queens
• Section Four: Concubines
• Conclusion
• Bibliography
• Endnotes
• Plate section