Название: Later Plantagenet and the Wars of the Roses Consorts: Power, Influence, and Dynasty
Автор: Aidan Norrie, Carolyn Harris, J.L. Laynesmith
Издательство: Palgrave Macmillan
Серия: Queenship and Power
Год: 2023
Страниц: 304
Язык: английский
Формат: pdf (true)
Размер: 10.2 MB

This book examines the lives and tenures of the consorts of the Plantagenet dynasty during the later Middle Ages, encompassing two major conflicts-the Hundred Years' War and the Wars of the Roses. The figures in this volume include well-known consorts such as the "She Wolves" Isabella of France and Margaret of Anjou, as well as queens who are often overlooked, such as Philippa of Hainault and Joan of Navarre. These innovative and authoritative biographies bring a fresh approach to the consorts of this period-challenging negative perceptions created by complex political circumstances and the narrow expectations of later writers, and demonstrating the breadth of possibilities in later medieval queenship. Their conclusions shed fresh light on both the politics of the day and the wider position of women in this age. This volume and its companions reveal the changing nature of English consortship from the Norman Conquest to today.

Royal consorts have played an important role throughout English (and British) history. Yet, their lives and tenures have been treated unevenly by successive generations of scholars and popular historians. This volume, along with its three companions, aims to redress this uneven treatment.

While all consorts held an equal position—that is, they were all spouses of a reigning monarch—their treatment by both history and historians has varied considerably. Some, like Eleanor of Aquitaine, Margaret of Anjou, Anne Boleyn, and Prince Albert, have been the subject of countless biographies, articles, and cultural works and adaptations. On the other hand, non-experts could be forgiven for not being aware of Berengaria of Navarre, Isabella of Valois, Catherine of Braganza, or Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen. Certainly, the surviving evidence for the tenures of each consort differs greatly, and other factors must be examined—it is no coincidence that each of these four unfamiliar consorts was not the mother of their husband’s successor. Nevertheless, these volumes treat the consorts as equitably as possible, offering biographies that provide an insight into how each consort perceived, and shaped, their role and how their spouse and subjects responded to their reign. While all occupying the same office, each consort brought their own interpretation to the role, and by contextualising a consort’s tenure against both their predecessors and successors, these volumes illuminate some fascinating continuities, as well as some unexpected idiosyncrasies.

In putting these volumes together, numerous—and sometimes competing—factors were carefully considered. On the one hand, we erred on the side of inclusivity throughout, hence the inclusion of Margaret of France, Elizabeth Cromwell, and Dorothy Cromwell—the wives of Henry the Young King and Lords Protector Oliver Cromwell and Richard Cromwell, respectively. There can be no doubt that these women all functioned as a consort in the “traditional” sense of the term during their husband’s period in power. Conversely, we have not included Geoffrey V, Count of Anjou, or Guilford Dudley—husbands of Empress Matilda and Lady Jane Grey, respectively. There is much more to be said on the issue of monarchical succession in England: scholars especially still have yet to really come to terms with how to conceptualise the succession when it deviates from the “ideal”—that is, when the deceased king (yes, king) was succeeded by his eldest son. The absence of Geoffrey and Dudley here should not be taken as an endorsement of the view that their wives did not rule England: rather, we acknowledge that regardless of the political power their wives wielded, they themselves did not function as consorts to their wives. It is for this reason, and this reason alone, that they do not appear within these pages. These men certainly supported their wives—indeed, much more could be said about the “soft power” they exercised—but like Sophia Dorothea of Celle and Wallis Simpson, they themselves did not serve as the consort of a reigning monarch.