Queens and mistresses of Renaissance France / Kathleen Wellman.

ISBN:

9780300190656

Title:

Author:

Wellman, Kathleen Anne, 1951- author.

Personal Author:

Wellman, Kathleen Anne, 1951- author.

Publication Information:

New Haven : Yale University Press, [2013]

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xiv, 433 pages) : illustrations

Contents:

Agnès Sorel: the first official royal mistress -- Anne of Brittany: the limits and prospects of a queen -- The women of the court of Francis I: wives and mistresses, sister and mother -- Diane de Poitiers: an idealized mistress -- Catherine de Medici: king in all but name -- Marguerite de Valois: scandalous queen, femme savante -- Gabrielle d'Estrées: nearly a queen.

Local Note:

eBooks on EBSCOhost

Subject Term:

Queens -- France -- Biography.

Mistresses -- France -- Biography.

Renaissance -- France.

France -- History -- 15th century.

France -- History -- 16th century.

France -- Kings and rulers -- Biography.

BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY -- Historical.

HISTORY -- Europe -- France.

Kings and rulers. (OCoLC)fst00987694

Mistresses. (OCoLC)fst01023970

Queens. (OCoLC)fst01085637

Renaissance. (OCoLC)fst01094518

Geographic Term:

France -- Kings and rulers -- Biography.

France -- History -- 15th century.

France -- History -- 16th century.

France. (OCoLC)fst01204289

Format:

Electronic Resources

Electronic Access:

http://ezproxy.angliss.edu.au/login?direct=true&scope=site&db=nlebk&AN=573609

Publication Date:

2013

Publication Information:

New Haven : Yale University Press, [2013]

Available:*

Shelf Number	Material Type	Copy	Shelf Location	Status
944.0209252 23	1:E-BOOK	1	1:ONLINE	Searching... Unknown

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Summary

This book tells the history of the French Renaissance through the lives of its most prominent queens and mistresses, beginning with Agnès Sorel, the first officially recognized royal mistress in 1444; including Anne of Brittany, Catherine de Medici, Anne Pisseleu, Diane de Poitiers, and Marguerite de Valois, among others; and concluding with Gabrielle d'Estrées, Henry IV's powerful mistress during the 1590s.

Wellman shows that women in both roles--queen and mistress--enjoyed great influence over French politics and culture, not to mention over the powerful men with whom they were involved. The book also addresses the enduring mythology surrounding these women, relating captivating tales that uncover much about Renaissance modes of argument, symbols, and values, as well as our own modern preoccupations.

Reviews (2)

Choice Review

Wellman's collective biography of French queens and royal mistresses presents an overview of French history during the 15th and 16th centuries from the perspective of the women whose fertility and perceived suitability for marriage indelibly marked elite politics. The book brings together the lives of figures well documented in Anglophone scholarship, including Marguerite de Navarre and Catherine de Medici, and those less familiar to nonspecialists, such as Agnes Sorel and Gabrielle d'Estrees. Wellman (Southern Methodist Univ.) demonstrates successfully the centrality of marriage and children to dynastic and diplomatic agendas and, by focusing on the transformation of royal courts as political and cultural spaces, illustrates how a few royal women were able to advance their own interests despite severe limitations. She renders comprehensible the gender relations and emotional expectations of the nobility in early modern France in ways most narrative textbooks cannot. The book complements recent scholarship on gender and politics, including William Monter's The Rise of Female Kings in Europe, 1300-1800 (CH, Jul'12, 49-6424). With accessible prose and brief chronologies introducing each chapter, this book is particularly appropriate for undergraduates and general readers. Summing Up: Recommended. All audiences/libraries. J. W. McCormack University of Notre Dame

Library Journal Review

Interest in the private lives of young, attractive women intimately associated with wealthy, older men is not a new phenomenon. Drawing extensively from both primary and secondary sources, Wellman (history, Southern Methodist Univ.) introduces an exceptional set of women whose personal relationships with the most powerful men of the day defined not only their own lives but those of the people around them. Beginning in 1444, when Agnes Sorel became the official royal favorite of King Charles VII, continuing through the numerous influential women at the court of Francis I, and ending with the death of Gabrielle d'Estrees on the eve of her 1599 marriage to Henry IV, this chronicle details the lives of the women central to the development of French history and the Renaissance itself. Wellman's biographical assessments are filled out with impressions of these women by their contemporaries as well as by discussion of how each has been treated in past and recent history and iconography. In addition to maps and portraits, the author offers genealogical tables and time lines for further context. VERDICT It is a testament to Wellman's skills as a historian and writer that an exceedingly complex dynastic period is made both comprehensible and compelling. This will find a receptive audience among scholars of both French history and women's studies.-Linda -Frederiksen, Washington State Univ. Lib., Vancouver (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.