Lopes, M.A. New Perspectives on the Political Role of Maria Pia of Savoy, Queen of Portugal (1862-1910). 2022 (original) (raw)

“Ilness and death of Maria Francisca Isabel of Savoy (1646-1683), queen of Portugal”, Donne, Cultura e Società nel Panorama Lusitano e Internazionale (secoli XVI-XXI), Viterbo, Edizione Sette Città, 2017, pp. 73-91.

Parlare oggi di donna sembra diventato, almeno in Occidente, uno stereotipo generalizzato e banalizzato. In realtà questo tema presenta ancora aspetti non esplorati, soprattutto se guardato in una prospettiva interculturale (e interlinguistica, giacché il testo che qui si presenta lascia vive le 4 lingue scelte da ciascun autore) atta a cogliere diverse metodologie scientifiche e vari approcci umani. È questo il motivo che ha spinto un gruppo di studiosi di varie Università a riunirsi attorno a tale argomento per approfondire aspetti ancora non del tutto sviluppati e non sufficientemente approfonditi: prima un convegno internazionale tenutosi nel 2011 e ora il volume (pubblicato grazie anche al contributo dell'Instituto Camões) che, oltre a raccogliere quegli interventi, amplia e rilegge la tematica muliebre, coronando gli sforzi di queste e quelle riflessioni congiunte. Gli studi di genere (gender studies, études de genre, Geschlechterforschung) nella presente raccolta di contributi rappresentano così una lettura inter-, multie pluri-disciplinare di quei tracciati storico-culturali (attraversando i tempi dal XVI secolo ai nostri giorni) e linguistico-letterari (solcando larghi spazi geografici, e poliedrici approcci metodologici dal mito alla realtà, dalla poesia al romanzo, da raggruppamenti semantici e morfologici all'esame di aggettivi uniformi), legati all'identità femminile, alla sua costruzione e produzione, alla modalità interpretativa in una socialità nuova capace di osservare da vicino il rapporto tra l'individuo e il suo saper realizzare comunità e cultura. Maria Antonietta Rossi, formatasi presso l'Università degli Studi della Tuscia, ha svolto diversi incarichi di Tutor e di lettore presso il medesimo Ateneo. È docente a contratto di Lingua e traduzione portoghese e brasiliana presso l'Università degli Studi Internazionali e presso la Libera Università degli Studi Maria SS. Assunta di Roma. È traduttrice di opere dal portoghese e ha partecipato a diversi convegni e seminari nazionali e internazionali di interesse lusitano. Ha conseguito il titolo di Dottore di ricerca in "Storia e Cultura del viaggio e dell'odeporica in età moderna" presso l'Università degli Studi della Tuscia.

Pepita or the Queen’s favourite. The intrigue and scandal in the Portuguese court at the end of the Monarchy

Several historians have drawn attention to the importance that certain figures had near to the king or other members of the Royal Family, becoming their favourites and somehow they influenced the royal decisions. If it was a recurring phenomenon during the Ancient Regime, the same will have happened during the Constitutional Monarchy in Portugal. In the reign of D. Carlos (1889-1908) the question of courtly intrigue and the existence of inner circles was mentioned in the press. It was not a novelty. During the previous reign existed a press purposely intended for the satire of the intrigue of the Court. At the beginning of the reign of D. Carlos, a republican newspaper suggested, about the resignation of the government, how the courtly intrigue had influenced it. However, it was not only the periodic press that spread this idea. The subject had also been raised on several occasions in the two Houses of Parliament. These allusions were discussed later, in the works of several personalities of the time, as Raúl Brandão (1919) or Alfredo Pimenta (1945) referring to the existence of two parties of courtiers in the Royal household, one aligned by the King and another by the Queen. However, the relations between the Countess of Figueiró (D. Josefa de Sandoval, whose petit nom was Pepita), lady-in-waiting to the Queen D. Amélia and the Queen herself, went beyond the usual and she became to the contemporary people, her favourite and a source of troubles. Even though this wasn’t the only influential person of the Queen, its predominance reached proportions that were too evident for the society of the time, which climax was the publication of the novel Marquês da Bacalhoa, a roman à clef, in which a lesbian romance between the two was insinuated. In fact, would be only a Republican invention to denigrate the image of the Queen. More than understanding the nature of this relationship, it is important to understand the impact of the existence of a favourite within the Royal Household and the consequences it has brought to the monarchy itself. In fact, besides being the cause of discussions between the royal couple, Pepita raised the envy of some sectors of court society by the favoritism attributed to her, but also the distrust of the political personalities. Actually, this ascendancy was also reflected in the performance of the Queen’s own royal duties, by protecting the position of her favorite in the Court and not caring for the interests of the Monarchy. This had as a consequence the degradation of the image of the Royal Family and the Monarchy itself. Contributing to this, was the demonstrated inability of the Queen D. Amélia in the regulation of conflicts and rivalries within the Court and whose impact would remain even after the regicide that killed D. Carlos.

Caterina Sforza: the shifting representation of a woman ruler in early Modern Italy

Caterina Sforza’s fame as ruler of the small territories of Imola and Forlì in the late fifteenth-century has persisted over the centuries. Yet her fame has shifted and changed with the Niccolò Machiavelli’s comments on her life greatly affected her reputation. Her powerful Medici descendants further tempered her legend without diminishing her fame. The various levels of archival traces for Sforza’s life and legend present a remarkable example of how accretions of information and interpretation become history.

The Royal Chancellery at the end of the Portuguese Middle Ages: diplomacy and political society (1970 – 2005), e-journal of Portuguese History, vol. VII, nº 2, Winter 2009, pp. 1-23.

The aim of this text is to review the research undertaken in Portugal on the question of the medieval royal chancellery and diplomacy and their relationship with the study of royal bureaucracy. In this sense, we characterize the lines of development that are to be noted in the research undertaken into political societies and royal power based on the records of the royal chancellery in the last thirty years. Initially, we focus our attention on the relationship established between the royal chancellery and diplomacy and later we highlight the main themes and problems studied under the scope of the social history of institutions. Finally, we refer to the use of prosopography as a method applied to the study of medieval Portuguese elites. Key-words: royal chancellery and diplomacy; royal power; political elites; historiography; Portugal; Middle Ages.

The power of the Genitrix -Gender, legitimacy and lineage: Emma of Normandy, Urraca of León-Castile and Teresa of Portugal (Master Thesis)

During the middle Ages, the role and powers of women as queens suggested not only ambiguity and limitation, but also a permanent flux of transformations. For queens of the eleventh and twelfth-century like Emma of Normandy (Emma Ælgifu), Urraca of Leon-Castile and Teresa of Portugal, the confirmation of their status, both royal and social, relied not only on their identity as consecrated individuals and owners of an office, but it also depended on how that office was carried out beside its masculine counterpart. The current mechanisms were designed ultimately for a share in power, and yet the life paths of Emma, Urraca and Teresa and the actions they took confirmed them as individual authorities, generating a conflict with the intellectual and government understanding of their time, in its majority (if not entirely) masculine. ------------ Durante a Idade Média, o papel e poder da mulher como rainha não é só ambíguo e limitado mas também em permanente fluxo de transformação. Para rainhas do século XI e XII, como Emma da Normandia (Emma Ælgifu), Urraca de Leão e Castela e Teresa de Portugal, a afirmação do seu status, tanto real como social, dependia, não só da sua identidade como individuo consagrado e detentor de um cargo, mas também do ofício desempenhado ao lado do elemento masculino. Os mecanismos regentes visavam, em última instância, uma partilha de poder e, porém, os percursos de vida de Emma, Urraca e Teresa e as acções tomadas pelas mesmas afirmaram-nas como autoridades individuais, gerando conflito com o entendimento intelectual e governativo na época, de maioria (se não inteiramente) masculina.

La reconfiguración política de la monarquía católica: La actividad de don Juan José de Austria (1642-1679)

2015

Los estudios antecedentes sobre la figura de D. Juan Jose de Austria fueron comenzados por Gabriel de Maura y Gamazo (duque de Maura). Este trabajo ha constituido la base de las obras de gran parte de los autores que han analizado la actividad politica del hijo de Felipe IV durante el reinado de Carlos II, o de personajes de primera importancia con el vinculados. Sin embargo, los analisis del personaje no se han circunscrito exclusivamente a los anos del reinado de Carlos II, sino que numerosos expertos han abordado su trayectoria vital. Todos ellos estan realizados desde una minuciosidad empirica, poniendo de manifiesto de manera exhaustiva los documentos y bibliografia existentes. Actualmente una investigacion sobre Don Juan Jose de Austria solo puede enmarcarse en la perspectiva de los estudios revisionistas sobre la supuesta "decadencia espanola" del siglo XVII. Nuestro equipo de investigacion, liderado por mi colega, el Dr. Jose Martinez Milan, y codirector de la tesi...