| Perilous Performances: Gender and Regency in Early Modern France Contributor(s): Crawford, Katherine (Author) |
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ISBN: 067401541X ISBN-13: 9780674015418 Publisher: Harvard University Press OUR PRICE: $93.06 Product Type: Hardcover - Other Formats Published: November 2004 Annotation: In a book addressing those interested in the transformation of monarchy into the modern state and in intersections of gender and political power, Katherine Crawford examines the roles of female regents in early modern France. The reigns of child kings loosened the normative structure in which adult males headed the body politic, setting the stage for innovative claims to authority made on gendered terms. When assuming the regency, Catherine de Medicis presented herself as dutiful mother, devoted widow, and benign peacemaker, masking her political power. In subsequent regencies, Marie de Medicis and Anne of Austria developed strategies that naturalized a regendering of political structures. They succeeded so thoroughly that Philippe d'Orleans found that this rhetoric at first supported but ultimately undermined his authority. Regencies demonstrated that power did not necessarily work from the places, bodies, or genders in which it was presumed to reside. While broadening the terms of monarchy, regencies involving complex negotiations among child kings, queen mothers, and royal uncles made clear that the state continued regardless of the king--a point not lost on the Revolutionaries or irrelevant to the fate of Marie-Antoinette. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - History | Europe - France - Political Science | Civics & Citizenship - History | Modern - 17th Century |
| Dewey: 320.444 |
| LCCN: 2004052386 |
| Series: Harvard Historical Studies |
| Physical Information: 1" H x 6.48" W x 9.7" (1.31 lbs) 310 pages |
| Themes: - Cultural Region - French - Chronological Period - 17th Century |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: In a book addressing those interested in the transformation of monarchy into the modern state and in intersections of gender and political power, Katherine Crawford examines the roles of female regents in early modern France. The reigns of child kings loosened the normative structure in which adult males headed the body politic, setting the stage for innovative claims to authority made on gendered terms. When assuming the regency, Catherine de M dicis presented herself as dutiful mother, devoted widow, and benign peacemaker, masking her political power. In subsequent regencies, Marie de M dicis and Anne of Austria developed strategies that naturalized a regendering of political structures. They succeeded so thoroughly that Philippe d'Orleans found that this rhetoric at first supported but ultimately undermined his authority. Regencies demonstrated that power did not necessarily work from the places, bodies, or genders in which it was presumed to reside. While broadening the terms of monarchy, regencies involving complex negotiations among child kings, queen mothers, and royal uncles made clear that the state continued regardless of the king--a point not lost on the Revolutionaries or irrelevant to the fate of Marie-Antoinette. |
Contributor Bio(s): Crawford, Katherine: - Katherine Crawford is Assistant Professor of History at Vanderbilt University. |