Queenship and Voice in Medieval Northern Europe [Hardcover]

This book examines female lordship and the power of the political voice in medieval Northern Europe, focusing on three prominent, foreign-born queens of medieval Scandinavia - Agnes of Denmark (d. 1304), Eufemia of Norway (d. 1312) and Margareta of Denmark/Sweden (d. 1412) - who acted as cultural mediators and initiators of political change.The Royal Families of Denmark, Norway and Sweden Three Nordic Queens Sound, voice and vox : The Acoustics of the Self in the Middle Ages 'You Danes must do as I say...': Queen Agnes and the Regicide of 1286 Voicing and Legacy: Queen Eufemia of Norway Margareta of Denmark and the Voice of Identity Afterword: The Queen's Two Voices

In this innovative study, Layher focuses on three late medieval Nordic queens - Agnes of Denmark, Eufemia of Norway, and Margareta of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden - to show how they used their royal voices to augment their authority and advance their political goals in periods of political crisis, specifically, crises of male lordship. Recommended. - CHOICE

This is a marvelous book, original, insightful and important, in which the author demonstrates how Nordic queens of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries employed their positions to shape public opinion and the course of history. Layher analyzes how, faced with crises of different sorts, Agnes, Eufemia and Margareta actualize the potential power of their positions through what he calls the skillful instrumentalization of sound and voice. A necessary tonic for those interested in history and culture in the Middle Ages, Queenship and Voice in Medieval Northern Europe offers a fresh, bold examination of the forces at work in it. - Stephen Mitchell, Professor of Scandinavian and Folklore, Harvard University

Arguing that voice is the marker of lordship, William Layher brings a sophisticated command of the history, languages, and literatures of medieval Scandinavia and literally gives voice to three medievall“G