Medieval Elite Women and the Exercise of Power, 1100–1400

Heather J. Tanner is Associate Professor of History at The Ohio State University, USA. She is the author of Families, Friends and Allies: Boulogne and Politics in Northern France and England c. 879–1160.

“The central advantage of this well-crafted volume is the new light it sheds on how gender was often a secondary consideration in the operations of medieval politics … the intersections of familial relations and contexts in medieval realities that must be seen in all their complexity to be fully appreciated. The quality scholarship of the authors demonstrates the value of prosopographical analysis and makes a vital theoretical contribution for historians and gender scholars of all periods ... .” (Elizabeth Kinne, Arthuriana, Vol. 30 (2), 2020)

• 1. Introduction.- 2. Power and Agency in Post-Conquest England: Elite Women and the Transformation of the Twelfth Century.- 3. The Most Perfect Knight's Countess: Isabella de Clare, Her Daughters, and Women's Exercise of Power and Influence, 1190–ca. 1250.- 4. Beyond Good Queen Anne: Anne of Bohemia, Patronage, and Politics.- 5. Emma of Ivry, c. 1008–1080.- 6. From Mothers to Daughters: Literary Patronage as Political Work in Ponthieu.- 7. Pirate, Traitor, Wife: Jeanne of Belleville and the Categories of Fourteenth-Century French Noblewomen.- 8. Just Another Day in the Neighborhood: Collective Female Donation Practices at the Hospital of Saint John in Brussels.- 9. A "Necessary Companion": The Salian Consort's Expected Role in Governance.- 10. Power in Pursuit of Religion: The Penitent Sisters of Speyer and their Choice of Affiliation.- 11. Women of Antioch: Political Culture and Powerful Women in the Latin East.- 12. Unexceptional Women: Power, Authority, and Queenship in Early Portugal.- 13. A Lifetime of Power: Beyond Binaries of Gender.