Queenship in Medieval Europe

Theresa Earenfight’s Queenship in Medieval Europe documents the richly complex lives and works of queens and empresses across eastern and western Europe in the Middle Ages. The book links vital research by generations of scholars to reveal how religion, education, lineage and marriage law fundamentally altered the practice of queenship. The book makes the compelling argument that queens, linked to kings by marriage, family and property, were highly visible women active in a man''s world and vital to the institution of monarchy.

This 2nd edition includes innovative new work on the theories and practices of queenship in the context of wider issues of gender, authority and power. Using an enhanced and entirely reformulated chapter structure, this new edition includes:

· New material on sources, methods and theories that considers recent work on feminist and gender theories
· A framing of the historical study of queens in the wider history of the Middle Ages
· Stronger coverage of gender, dynasty, and legitimacy; the dynamics of women at court and in the royal household; the history of emotions; landholding and lordship; and material culture
· Clearer connections between the history of queens and queenship and the history of women overall
· Analysis of the movement of women across geographical boundaries, including Eastern European, Byzantine, Scandinavian, and Islamic realms
· 23 images
· Historiographical updates throughout