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Rulership, Authority, and Power in the Middle Ages: The Proprietary Queen as Head of Dynasty
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- By Anaïs Waag
- Edited by Stephen D. Church
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- Book:
- Anglo-Norman Studies XLIV
- Published by:
- Boydell & Brewer
- Published online:
- 16 July 2022
- Print publication:
- 14 June 2022, pp 71-104
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- Chapter
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Summary
Between 1109 and 1328 – when the direct Capetian line was extinguished and women were unequivocally bared from the French throne – a total of sixteen royal women asserted claims or were acclaimed to the thrones of Aragon, Castile and León, England, France, Jerusalem, Navarre, Scotland, and Sicily, with varying degrees of success. In chronological order, they were: Urraca of León-Castile (d. 1126), Melisende of Jerusalem (d. 1161), Empress Matilda (d. 1167), Petronila of Aragon (d. 1173), Sibylla of Jerusalem (d. 1190), Isabella I of Jerusalem (d. 1205), Constance I of Sicily (d. 1198), Maria of Montferrat (d. 1212), Isabella II of Jerusalem (d. 1228), Berenguela of Castile (d. 1246), Sancha (d. 1243) and Dulce (d. 1248) of León, Constance II of Sicily (d. 1305), Juana I of Navarre (d. 1305), Margaret of Norway (d. 1290), and Juana II of Navarre (d. 1349). Notably, only three of these fifteen claims were unsuccessful: Matilda's claim to the English throne (1135–48), Sancha and Dulce of León's joint claim to the Leonese throne (1230), and Juana II of Navarre's claim to the French throne (1316 and 1328).
In the Middle Ages, dynastic contingency led to female succession within European hereditary monarchies. What is less evident is the how, why, and when female succession and female royal rulership were experienced. As rulers positively sanctioned by God, those heiresses who ascended royal thrones were allegedly the equivalent to a king. And yet, the reality of medieval attitudes towards female rule meant that women's power, in practice, was not quite on par with that of a king. My larger research project, of which this article represents a portion, examines the reality of female rule, by means of a systematic and comparative examination of the life experiences and political careers of the sixteen women who sought to claim the title of queen in their own right, rather than as the wife of a king. To do so, the project considers their position, perception, and actual power, how these claims to medieval royal thrones were handled, the circumstances within which these women succeeded and failed to achieve their claims, and the political traditions which played a role in these developments. The present article focuses on the position and perception of the first four women within my project to assert claims to royal thrones: Urraca of León-Castile, Melisende of Jerusalem, Empress Matilda, and Petronila of Aragon.
The Letters of Eleanor and Marguerite of Provence in Thirteenth-Century Anglo-French Relations
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- By Anaïs Waag
- Edited by Andrew Spencer, Carl Watkins
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- Book:
- Thirteenth Century England XVII
- Published by:
- Boydell & Brewer
- Published online:
- 15 December 2020
- Print publication:
- 15 January 2021, pp 111-128
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Summary
The political significance of Eleanor and Marguerite of Provence's marriages to Henry III of England and Louis IX of France, respectively, is well known. Equally, it is generally accepted that the surviving correspondence exchanged between the English and French royal families illustrates both the intimate relationship that developed between them in the decades following these marriages, and the exceptional cooperation between the two kingdoms resulting from this intimate relationship. The details of the correspondence, however, are less known, particularly of the letters written in Eleanor and Marguerite's names. The present essay considers some of these exchanges, focusing on those written during the Second Barons’ War in the 1260s, together with those written during the Provençal inheritance dispute in the 1280s. Through an examination and comparison of these letters, this essay will expound the relationship between language of politics and family, with particular attention to how ‘family’ was used as a conceptual and rhetorical tool for persuasion within thirteenth-century Anglo-French language of politics by members of both the Angevin and Capetian royal families. In doing so, this essay also re-evaluates basic assumptions about the representation and practice of female power, authority, and diplomacy in the thirteenth century.
First, letters. By royal letters, I mean those letters that were written in the names of members of the royal family, were intended for communication between the sender and the receiver, and were concerned with administrative, familial, and/or political matters – but had no juridical force. These letters were always written by scribes or secretaries, who often also translated the agreed-upon message from the vernacular into Latin. Because members of the royal family frequently corresponded with fellow rulers who were also kindred, and because royal letters were fundamental tools in both governing and nurturing relationships between medieval rulers, royal letters necessarily combined the personal with the political. Yet, while the contents of royal letters have been used as sources to contribute to both biographical and historical narratives, the letters and exchanges themselves – their form, formalities, and diplomatic – have been somewhat overlooked. This is due to assumptions that the irretrievable oral messages that generally accompanied letters contained the most important information, while the written message was a mere pretext.