Aristocratic women in medieval France / / edited by Theodore Evergates

• Pubblicazione: Philadelphia [Pa.], : University of Pennsylvania Press, c1999
• Edizione: 1st ed.
• Descrizione fisica: 1 online resource (288 p.)
• Disciplina: 305.48/9621
• Soggetto topico: Upper class women - France - History; Upper class women - France - Social conditions; Women - History - Middle Ages, 500-1500
• Soggetto geografico: France History Medieval period, 987-1515
• Soggetto non controllato: European History; Gender Studies; History; Medieval and Renaissance Studies; Women's Studies; World History
• Altri autori: EvergatesTheodore
• Note generali: Description based upon print version of record.
• Nota di bibliografia: Includes bibliographical references (p. [235]-256) and index.
• Nota di contenuto: Frontmatter -- Contents -- Maps and Genealogical Tables -- Preface -- Introduction / LoPrete, Kimberly A. / Evergates, Theodore -- 1. Adela of Blois: Familial Alliances and Female Lordship / LoPrete, Kimberly A. -- 2. Aristocratic Women in the Chartrain / Livingstone, Amy -- 3. Aristocratic Women in the County of Champagne / Evergantes, Theodore -- 4. Countesses as Rulers in Flanders / Nicholas, Karen S. -- 5. Women, Poets, and Politics in Occitania / Cheyette, Fredric L. -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Contributors -- Index
• Sommario/riassunto: Were aristocratic women in medieval France little more than appendages to patrilineal families, valued as objects of exchange and necessary only for the production of male heirs? Such was the view proposed by the great French historian Georges Duby more than three decades ago and still widely accepted. In Aristocratic Women in Medieval France another model is put forth: women of the landholding elite-from countesses down to the wives of ordinary knights-had considerable rights, and exercised surprising power.The authors of the volume offer five case studies of women from the mid-eleventh through the thirteenth centuries, and from regions as diverse as Blois-Chartres, Champagne, Flanders, and Occitania. They show not only the diversity of life experiences these women enjoyed but the range of social and political roles open to them. The ecclesiastical and secular sources they mine confirm that women were regarded as full members of both their natal and affinal families, were never excluded from inheriting and controlling property, and did not have their share of family property limited to dowries. Women across France exchanged oaths for fiefs and assumed responsibilities for enfeoffed knights. As feudal lords, they settled disputes involving vassals, fortified castles, and even led troops into battle.Aristocratic Women in Medieval France clearly shows that it is no longer possible to depict well-born women as powerless in medieval society. Demonstrating the importance of aristocratic women in a period during which they have been too long assumed to have lacked influence, it forces us to reframe our understanding of the high Middle Ages.
• Titolo autorizzato: Aristocratic women in medieval France
• ISBN: 1-283-21108-4; 9786613211088; 0-8122-0061-6
• Formato: Materiale a stampa
• Livello bibliografico: Monografia
• Lingua di pubblicazione: Inglese
• Record Nr.: 9910807144803321
• Lo trovi qui: Univ. Federico II
• Serie: Middle Ages series.