IMC 2008: Sessions
Session 303: Women in Power, Women Without: The Wives, Widows, and Sisters of Kings and Dukes in the Anglo-Norman World, I
Monday 7 July 2008, 16.30-18.00
Sponsor: | Haskins Society for Anglo-Saxon, Anglo-Norman, Angevin & Viking History |
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Organiser: | Charlotte Cartwright, School of History, University of Liverpool / State University of New York, Oswego |
Moderator/Chair: | Catherine A. M. Clarke, Centre for Medieval & Early Modern Research (MEMO) / Department of English, Swansea University |
Paper 303-a | Being the Duke's Sister: The Role of Adelaide of Aumale (Language: English) Index terms: Gender Studies, Politics and Diplomacy, Social History |
Paper 303-b | Before She Was Queen: Matilda of Flanders as Countess of Normandy (Language: English) Index terms: Gender Studies, Politics and Diplomacy, Social History |
Paper 303-c | The Lady Vanishes: Duchesses of Normandy in the Early 12th Century (Language: English) Index terms: Gender Studies, Politics and Diplomacy, Social History |
Abstract | While much work has been done on prominent and powerful high-status women in the medieval period, less attention has been paid to those who were pawns in the games of diplomatic marriage, who were excluded from power by their husbands or circumstances, or who chose not to seek power or to operate the power at their disposal. These two linked sessions contrast powerful and powerless women in the Anglo-Norman and Angevin worlds. Five of the papers use case studies of individual royal and ducal women, mostly ones who have been relatively neglected in the scholarship and whose lives display different positions in relation to their menfolk: as wives, sisters, mothers, fiancées and widows. The sixth provides an overview of and reflection on the wider topic of why some women exercised power and others did not. |