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Chapter 4 - Mothers and Messengers

Violent Transmission in Athelston

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2024

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Summary

Genealogical narratives often include a strand of violence and physical effort for women, particularly through childbirth but also through exile, migration for marriage, and establishing an independent life, as the previous chapters show. This chapter explores genealogical transmission and its relationship to violence and women’s action in the context of administrative communication networks in the Middle English Athelston, in which the king kicks his wife, killing his heir, and sentences his pregnant sister to a trial by fire. Drawing on network theory, which emphasizes the “doers” and “doing” of a network, the chapter explores the alignment of the two royal heir-bearers with messengers, which positions the women as key transmitters, not unlike the Virgin Mary at the Annunciation, rather than as wives who simply carry their husbands’ children. In this model of transmission, the women influence succession not only through childbearing but also through royal petitioning, letter writing, and prayer.

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Women's Genealogies in the Medieval Literary Imagination
Matrilineal Legacies in the High Middle Ages
, pp. 125 - 150
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

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  • Mothers and Messengers
  • Emma O. Bérat
  • Book: Women's Genealogies in the Medieval Literary Imagination
  • Online publication: 14 March 2024
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009434720.006
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  • Mothers and Messengers
  • Emma O. Bérat
  • Book: Women's Genealogies in the Medieval Literary Imagination
  • Online publication: 14 March 2024
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009434720.006
Available formats
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To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Mothers and Messengers
  • Emma O. Bérat
  • Book: Women's Genealogies in the Medieval Literary Imagination
  • Online publication: 14 March 2024
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009434720.006
Available formats
×