IMC 2016: Sessions
Session 533: At Their Majesties' Pleasure: Necessary Extravagances? - Fashion, Food, and Gift-Giving in Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe
Tuesday 5 July 2016, 09.00-10.30
Sponsor: | Royal Studies Network |
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Organiser: | Zita Eva Rohr, Department of History, University of Sydney |
Moderator/Chair: | Elena Woodacre, Department of History, University of Winchester |
Paper 533-a | Beyond the Pleasure Principle: Consumption and Display at the Late Medieval and Early Modern Courts of Aragon and France (Language: English) Index terms: Gender Studies, Historiography - Medieval, Politics and Diplomacy, Women's Studies |
Paper 533-b | Anne of France: Gift-Giving and the 'Transmission of Affect' (Language: English) Index terms: Gender Studies, Historiography - Medieval, Politics and Diplomacy, Women's Studies |
Paper 533-c | Can a Princess Have Too Many Platform Shoes?: Style, Patronage, and Display at the Court of the Fashionable Catherine of Aragon (Language: English) Index terms: Gender Studies, Historiography - Medieval, Politics and Diplomacy, Women's Studies |
Abstract | The importation of 'foreign' styles and behaviours as royal women moved between their natal and marital houses was not infrequently viewed with a jaundiced eye by those on the alert to criticize the exotic and apparently extravagant. Yet the transmission and translation of cultures of style and patronage reaped benefits for many ruling dynasties - and their subjects. This is also true of the culture of gift-giving as practised by pre-modern stateswomen, which created bonds of loyalty and reinforced group solidarity. These papers dovetail with recent research on the political spaces embedded within female elite and royal households as well as broader studies on the dynamics of patronage, and the 'transmission of affect'. |