IMC 2022: Sessions
Session 332: Borderlands, II: Transitions, Transformations, and Fluidities - Agency, Memory, and Identity
Monday 4 July 2022, 16.30-18.00
| Sponsor: | Royal Studies Network |
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| Organiser: | Zita Eva Rohr, Department of Modern History, Politics & International Relations, Macquarie University, Sydney |
| Moderator/Chair: | Elena Woodacre, Department of History, University of Winchester |
| Paper 332-a | Princesses Crossing Borders: Ritual, Agency, and Memory (Language: English) Index terms: Gender Studies, Politics and Diplomacy, Women's Studies |
| Paper 332-b | Providing Queenly Resources across Borders: Alcolea de Cinca in the 15th Century (Language: English) Index terms: Gender Studies, Politics and Diplomacy, Women's Studies |
| Paper 332-c | Mary of Woodstock: The Porous Border between Medieval Princess and Nun (Language: English) Index terms: Gender Studies, Religious Life, Women's Studies |
| Abstract | Homing in on the marriages, mobilities, and finances of premodern princesses and queens, this second proposed panel builds upon the ideas of 'Borderlands, I: Traditions, Transformations, and Fluidities - Allegiances and Gender'. Premodern dynastic marriages necessitated the transfer of one spouse to another court with bridal travellers inevitably crossing borders, both geographical and political. Yet such border crossings also necessitated far more important symbolic lines, which sometimes could involve a loss of status for the bride. Money also paid an important role with dowries left unpaid and often disputed, making it hard for a queen to maintain her position and influence and more importantly her queenly identity. Finally, those princesses who chose not to marry could and did manipulate their identities first as kings' daughters (politically) but also as brides of Christ (spiritually) - prioritising one over the other according to circumstances thereby transgressing and blurring the borderlines between their active political and nominally passive spiritual lives. |