Review
“This collection of thirteen essays, edited by Susan Broomhall, is a noteworthy contribution to new work on monarchy that looks beyond the king and his coterie of male advisers. The essays study multiple sites and forms of power to better understand how gender affected the deployment of power, authority, agency, and influence.” – Theresa M. Earenfight, Renaissance Quarterly, Volume 73, Issue 3, Fall 2020 “This collection of thirteen essays, enhanced by a substantial introduction, deftly assembled and edited by Susan Broomhall, investigates aspects of female power within the context of the French Renaissance court. (…) This collection amply demonstrates that women, although often unacknowledged, were there in force, creating the culture of the French court.” – Sheila ffolliott, H-France Review Vol. 20 (January 2020), No. 6
From the Inside Flap
Women and Power at the French Court, 1483 1563 explores the ways in which a range of women as consorts, regents, mistresses, factional power players, attendants at court, or as objects of courtly patronage wielded power in order to advance individual, familial, and factional agendas at the early sixteenth-century French court. Spring-boarding from the burgeoning scholarship of gender, the political, and power in early modern Europe, the collection provides a perspective from the French court, from the reigns of Charles VIII to Henri II, a time when the French court was a renowned center of culture and at which women played important roles. Crossdisciplinary in its perspectives, these essays by historians, art and literary scholars investigate the dynamic operations of gendered power in political acts, recognized status as queens and regents, ritualized behaviors such as gift-giving, educational coteries, and through social networking, literary and artistic patronage, female authorship, and epistolary strategies.
From the Back Cover
Women and Power at the French Court, 1483–1563 explores the ways in which a range of women ” as consorts, regents, mistresses, factional power players, attendants at court, or as objects of courtly patronage ” wielded power in order to advance individual, familial, and factional agendas at the early sixteenth-century French court. Spring-boarding from the burgeoning scholarship of gender, the political, and power in early modern Europe, the collection provides a perspective from the French court, from the reigns of Charles VIII to Henri II, a time when the French court was a renowned center of culture and at which women played important roles. Crossdisciplinary in its perspectives, these essays by historians, art and literary scholars investigate the dynamic operations of gendered power in political acts, recognized status as queens and regents, ritualized behaviors such as gift-giving, educational coteries, and through social networking, literary and artistic patronage, female authorship, and epistolary strategies.
About the Author
Susan Broomhall is Professor of Early Modern History at The University of Western Australia. She was a Foundation Chief Investigator in the Australian Research Council (ARC) Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions, and holds an ARC Future Fellowship within the Centre, researching the letters of Catherine de Médicis.
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