Berenguela of Castile (1180-1246) and Political Women in the High Middle Ages [Hardcover]

The women in the family which ruled thirteenth-century Castile used maternity, familial and political strategy, and religious and cultural patronage to secure their personal power as well as to promote their lineage. Leonor of England, and her daughters Blanche of Castile (queen of France), Urraca (queen of Portugal), Costanza (a Cistercian nun of Las Huelgas) and Leonor, (queen of Aragon) provide the context for a study focusing on Berenguela of Castile, queen of Leon through marriage and of Castile by right of inheritance, whose most significant accomplishment was to enable the successful rule of her son Fernando.Mother of a Sisterhood: Leonor of England, Queen of Castile (1160?-1214) Princesses Among Men: Leonor's Daughters and the Function of Marriage The Queen Stands Alone: Political Motherhood after Marriage Princesses Among Women: Youth, Old Age, and the Heavenly Bridegroom Living with the Dead Mothers and Crusaders A New Semiramis, or the Manly Queen

'Shadis' Berenguela of Castile is a valuable and significant contribution to our understanding of the role and place of royal women in politics (or, as she puts it, female rulership ), of their significant political and cultural roles in medieval society, and of their ability to act as co-rulers or as queens on their own. Although most medievalists working on the kingdom of Castile know of Berenguela's unique role as queen and as mother of Ferdinand III, there are no modern studies of her reign and life until Shadis' book. As such, Berenguela of Castile is a pioneer work, dealing with a topic hitherto misunderstood or ignored by recent scholarship. - The Medieval Review

'Berenguela of Castile is a major addition to studies of queenship and of Iberia especially. Not only does it bring scholarly attention to an individual monarch who has been often overlooked, it also interrogates the place of women - wives and especially mothers - within the jointly ruled monarchy of western Iberia.' -l£"