Queenship, Gender, and Reputation in the Medieval and Early Modern West, 1060-1600

This edited collection opens new ways to look at queenship in areas and countries not usually studied and reflects the increasingly interdisciplinary work and geographic range of the field. This book is a forerunner in queenship and re-invents the reputations of the women and some of the men. The contributors answers questions about the nature of queenship, reputation of queens, and gender roles in the medieval and early modern west. The essays question the viability of propaganda, gossip, and rumor that still characterizes some queens in modern histories. The wide geographic range covered by the contributors moves queenship studies beyond France and England to understudied places such as Sweden and Hungary. Even the essays on more familiar countries explores areas not usually studied, such as the role of Edward II's stepmother, Margaret of France in Gaveston's downfall. The chapters clearly have a common thread and the editors' summary and description of the collection is valuable inassisting the reader. The collection is divided into two sections "Biography, Gossip, and History" and "Politics, Ambition, and Scandal." The editors and contributors, including Zita Eva Rohr and Elena Woodacre, are scholars at the top of their field and several and engage and debate with recent scholarship. This collection will appeal internationally to literary scholars and gender studies scholars as well historians interested in the countries included in the collection.

Zita Eva Rohr is a Research Associate and Tutor attached to the Department of History at the University of Sydney, Australia. Lisa Benz completed her PhD in history at the University of York, UK She is the author of Three Medieval Queens: Queenship and the Crown in Fourteenth-Century England (Palgrave, 2012).

Introduction: Queenship, Reputation and Gender in the Medieval and Early Modern West 1060-1600 Zita Rohr and Lisa Benz St John.- Part One: Biography, Gossip and History.- 1. Lifestyles of the Rich and (in) Animate: Object Biography and the Reliquary Cross of Queen Adelaide of Hungary Christopher Mielke.- 2. Gender, Reputation, and Female Rule in the World of Brantôme Tracy Adams.- 3. True Lies and Strange Mirrors: the Uses and Abuses of Rumor, Propaganda and Innuendo during the closing stages of the Hundred Years War Zita Rohr.- 4. Etienne Pasquier on French History and Female Strategies of Power James Dahlinger.- Part Two: Politics, Ambition and Scandal.- 5. The Unruly Queen: Blanche of Namur and Dysfunctional Rulership in Medieval Sweden Christine Ekholst with Henric Bagerius.- 6. Conspiracy and Alienation: Queen Margaret of France and Piers Gaveston, the King's Favorite Lisa Benz.- 7. Isabeau of Bavaria, Queen of France: Queenship and Political Authority as 'Lieutenante-Générale' of the Realm Rachel C. Gibbons.- 8. Leonor of Navarre: The Price of Ambition Elena Woodacre.