Parsons, Ed., Medieval Queenship Gillingham, Ed., Richard III: A Medieval Kingship

Abstract

Medieval Queenship, edited by John C. Parsons, is a richly informative anthology. The contributors examine the experience of women of ruling houses of Hungary, Denmark, Leon, and Navarre, as well as the better-known Carolingians, Capetians, Plantagenets, and Valois. The occasional rise-to-power of an exceptional woman is an accepted fact. But these writers see status as most often gained by reputation of fertility combined with virtue, and maintained through respo11S1bility for children.