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IMC 2003: Sessions

Session 615: Power in Practice, II: The Power of a Queen's Inheritance

Tuesday 15 July 2003, 11.15-12.45

Sponsor:Department of History, Seattle University
Organiser:Theresa Earenfight, Department of History, Seattle University
Moderator/Chair:Russell Martin, Department of History, Westminster College, Pennsylvania
Paper 615-a'A Woman of Subtlety and a Man's Resolution': Matilda of Boulogne, Geoffrey de Mandeville and the Politics of the Anarchy
(Language: English)
Patricia Dark, St Hilda's College, University of Oxford
Index terms: Politics and Diplomacy, Women's Studies
Paper 615-cThe Power of Queen Melisende's Patronage in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem
(Language: English)
Helen Gaudette, Department of History, City University of New York
Index terms: Crusades, Politics and Diplomacy, Women's Studies
Abstract

These papers take up the problem of a queen's inheritance, both land and lordship, and the ways in which both were contested by nobles as well as sons and brothers. Examining the problem comparatively - England, Portugal, and the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem - reveals that although the challenges were similar the strategies for securing and exercising power and authority differed from place to place, suggesting both the power of personality and the role of political culture as a mediating force for gender differences.