Princely Power in Late Medieval France: Jeanne de Penthièvre and the War for Brittany (original) (raw)
Related papers
The War of the Two Jeannes and the Role of the Duchess in Lordship in the Fourteenth Century
Medieval Feminist Forum, 2014
he breton civil war began late in the summer of 1341 and should have been over before the new year began. King Philip VI of France sent in his son John of Normandy (the future Jean II) to capture and remove the rebel claimant to the duchy, John of Montfort, which was accomplished by December. But Jeanne of Montfort, the wife of the defeated claimant, refused to give in, directing the rebel forces and seeking an ally in King Edward III of England, and so the war dragged on for six more years. In 1347, Edward's forces captured Philip' s choice for the duchy, Charles of Blois, and his wife, Jeanne of Penthièvre, took over to lead their party in much the same way as Jeanne of Montfort had. This episode in Breton history immediately captured the imagination of contemporary chroniclers, the most famous of whom was Jean Froissart, who recounted breathtaking adventures involving last-minute escapes on horseback and intense skirmishes at sea. 1 The allure of the "War of the Two Jeannes" lived on beyond the Middle Ages, providing fodder for an epic poem in the nineteenth century, 2 a play in 1949, a bande dessinée (or illustrated history book) in the early twenty-first century, and a spectacle historique performed in Vannes, Brittany in 2012. 3 mff, sjursen http://ir.uiowa.edu/mff/vol51/iss1/ scholarship on fourteenth-century French noblewomen is rather thin overall, with the bulk focusing on individual women from the latter part of the century. 6 A study of the two Jeannes sheds light on a neglected region and time while also offering much material pertinent to issues of lordship, gender, and warfare. By looking at these two women as integral members of the lordship couple that comprised the leadership of the duchy, we can examine the division of labor between the nobleman and his wife and reevaluate the historiography of noble power in this period. Equally important, this article moves beyond arguments that noblewomen' s power was relegated to the "domestic" or "private" sphere. Recent work on noblewomen' s experiences argues for greater recognition of women' s participation in medieval politics, uncovering their work as mediators, gift givers, diplomats, and regents, among other roles. 7
Women, Gender and Lordship in France, c.1050–1250
History Compass, 2007
Arguing that scholars should follow methods of analysis developed by historians of women in the early Middle Ages and must confront problems in the so-called 'Duby thesis', this article shows how anachronistic analytical categories and insufficient source criticism have masked our appreciation of the extensive political activities of non-royal aristocratic women in France during the eleventh to thirteenth centuries. Emphasising the domestic context of lordship and political action in this period, as well as the multivalence of gender as an explanatory category, it reveals strong continuities between women's powers in the early and central Middle Ages and shows that female lords were a routine and acceptable part of the medieval French political scene.
Women Rulers in Europe: Agency, Practice and the Representation of Political Powers (XII-XVIII)
2008
This text may be downloaded for personal research purposes only. Any additional reproduction for other purposes, whether in hard copy or electronically, requires the consent of the author(s), editor(s). If cited or quoted, reference should be made to the full name of the author(s), editor(s), the title, the working paper or other series, the year, and the publisher. The author(s)/editor(s) should inform the History and Civilisation Department of the EUI if the paper is to be published elsewhere, and should also assume responsibility for any consequent obligation(s).
The queens regnant of Navarre: succession, politics, and partnership, 1274-1512
Choice Reviews Online, 2014
's book on the five female sovereigns of the medieval Pyrenean kingdom of Navarre is a timely study considering the latest scholarship on politically active queens in medieval Iberia. This scholarship on ruling women, however, has focused predominantly on individual queens. Woodacre's study is unique in that she examines as a group five queen-regents to investigate the political careers and marital partnerships of these women in order to determine how they exercised power as monarchs and shaped the history of the kingdom of Navarre.
Blanche of Castile and Facinger’s “Medieval Queenship”: Reassessing the Argument
In her now classic 1968 essay, “A Study of Medieval Queenship: Capetian France, 987–1237,” Marion Facinger traced the dwindling presence of the queen of France in official documents after an apogee of power for Capetian royal wives, beginning with the reign of Adelaide of Maurienne (r. 1115–37). Facinger concluded that over time, French queens became private individuals, distanced from the king’s official curia. Queenly influence on government was possible only through a queen’s personal relations with her husband, which themselves were contained by his visits to her household, or an occasional invitation by the king to his wife or mother to offer advice, lend her support or, perhaps, serve as regent in his absence. Dowager queens were lords only in their personal domains and even there, they did not enjoy the military privileges usually pertaining to such authority. They spent their retirements in good works, occasionally receiving summons to court to offer an opinion or lend glamor to a state occasion.1
The Pyrenean kingdom of Navarre had a distinctive record with regard to female rule, with five reigning queens between the accession of Juana I in 1274 and the annexation of the realm by Castile in 1512. These five women, in common with all sovereigns, used the language of charters, the imagery on their seals and their visual representation on the coins of the realm to establish and emphasize their authority. They had to negotiate the particular challenge of female rulers; to define their authority both as the natural sovereign of the realm and with regard to their spouse, the king consort. This complex personal and political partnership between the female sovereign and her spouse confounded contemporary understandings of gender roles and the relationship between husband and wife. The husband was perceived, though Biblical tradition, of being the ‘head’ of his wife and yet the wife’s head wore the crown, creating a lack of clarity over how they ought to function as a ruling pair. This complicated power sharing dynamic between the queen and her consort found literal and physical expression in the cartulary and numismatic output of their reign. This paper will provide a comparative analysis of the address clauses, seals and coinage of the five reigning queens of Navarre. It will note the adoption and adaptation of previous models and the significant innovations which occurred, including the great double seal of Blanca I (r.1425-1441) and her consort Juan of Aragon and the portrait coins of Catalina I (r.1483-1512) and Jean d’Albret. It will compare the often divergent representation of authority in textual sources versus visual sources. For example, Juana I (r.1274-1305) was often listed after her husband or a reduced to a mention or consent clause in her cartulary and yet her name appears alone on the coins of the realm, with no mention of her powerful spouse. Taken together, these sources demonstrate the ways in which these queens demonstrated their authority as sovereigns, in context with their male predecessors and in tandem with their spouses. It will add to the understanding of rulership generally by highlighting practices in Navarre, which is often overlooked or omitted in wider surveys. It will also develop awareness of the particular challenges of representing female authority and this more unusual formulation of joint rule.
2007
been involved in this project in one way or another are testimony to the community of scholarship which exists amongst medievalists, archivists, librarians, and caretakers of churches and monuments all over the world. Spending six years in the company of Margaret of York has had many pleasant aspects, but this was the most pleasing by far. None of the other people mentioned here will begrudge my special note of thanks to Professor Anthony Goodman. When I approached him with a vague idea to study Anglo-Burgundian relations, it was he who put me on the trail of Margaret of York. He has been casting a steady eye on the proceedings ever since, and has saved me from more pitfalls than I care to remember. His own experiences in chasing an oftenshadowy medieval woman in the shape of Margery Kempe, as well as his skills as a biographer, honed by his work on John of Gaunt, have proved invaluable to this thesis. Discussing some obscure element of English history, and particularly his ideas on cultural exchange, over a cup of coffee or lunch in Edinburgh are amongst my fondest memories of this thesis. The friendship and highly professional skills of my two supervisors, Dr. Andrew Brown and Dr. Graeme Small, also needs to be specially acknowledged. Their respective historical specialities, and, above all, their huge knowledge of the secondary literature, frequently saved me from making some enormous mistakes. Cooperating with Dr. Dagmar Eichberger on the 2005 exhibition Women of Distinction: Margaret of York and Margaret ofAustria, in Mechelen, taught me a great deal about the way in which women in the late Middle Ages passed on their knowledge. Dr. Eichberger's insights and help frequently show in what follows, and her assistance is gratefully recorded here. I also wish to thank all the other scholars who have helped by discussing their own particular speciality with me, by searching out articles that were difficult to trace, or who have cast their eyes over some of the material found in these pages. In particular, Dr. Edgar de Blieck, who completed his own PhD under the supervision iv of Dr. Graeme Small as I was working on mine, Dr.
In August 1263, the king wrote to his escheators on both sides of the River Trent, informing them that John de Warenne, William de Valence and Hugh Bigod had all agreed to stand as sureties for Isabella de Forz, the widowed countess of Aumale. In return for the agreement to pay her relief, Henry III awarded Isabella seisin of the extensive estates in Yorkshire, Devon, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight that comprised her inheritance from her brother Baldwin de Revières, the former earl of Devon.