Dr Elena Woodacre answers key questions about the extent to which royal women exerted their influence during the Middle Ages, the ways in which female rulers chose to portray themselves and the importance of relationships to queenship – from the threat of mistresses and mothers-in-law...
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How much do you think you know about what it was like to be a queen in the medieval era? In a wide-ranging discussion, Elena Woodacre, an expert on queenship at the University of Winchester, explores women as leaders throughout the Middle Ages – as rulers in their own right, as mothers, wives and daughters, strong political and military figures, and patrons of religion and culture.
Here, she considers the extent to which royal women exerted their influence and the importance of relationships to queenship – from the threat of mistresses and mothers-in-law to the need to continue the dynasty – and the ways in which female rulers chose to portray themselves.
How much power did medieval queens actually have?
One of the big debates in this area of research is whether we should use the terms ‘power’ or ‘agency’ when referring to medieval queens – agency is being able to decide something for yourself and not have someone tell you what to do, whereas power is more about telling someone else what to do.
Agency is often used in relation to medieval queens, but there is an argument that this might underplay the power of queens, because the so-called ‘soft power’ is harder to see. That type of influence, particularly when exerted over queens’ husbands, may have taken place in private and not necessarily been noted down. Equally, sometimes it’s not recorded because – especially in the Middle Ages – monastic chroniclers perhaps didn’t want to overplay the power of women, or maybe weren’t as aware of the power of women in those more intimate settings.