Description: This work explores the ways in which a range of women, as consorts, regents, mistresses, factional power players, attendants at court, or as objects of courtly patronage, wielded power in order to advance individual, familial and factional agendas at the early sixteenth-century French court.
Brief description: Susan Broomhall is Professor of Early Modern History at The University of Western Australia. She was a Foundation Chief Investigator in the Australian Research Council (ARC) Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions, and holds an ARC Future Fellowship within the Centre, researching the letters of Catherine de Médicis.
Review Quotes: "This collection of thirteen essays, edited by Susan Broomhall, is a noteworthy contribution to new work on monarchy that looks beyond the king and his coterie of male advisers. The essays study multiple sites and forms of power to better understand how gender affected the deployment of power, authority, agency, and influence." - Theresa M. Earenfight, Renaissance Quarterly, Volume 73, Issue 3, Fall 2020 "This collection of thirteen essays, enhanced by a substantial introduction, deftly assembled and edited by Susan Broomhall, investigates aspects of female power within the context of the French Renaissance court. (...) This collection amply demonstrates that women, although often unacknowledged, were there in force, creating the culture of the French court." - Sheila ffolliott, H-France Review Vol. 20 (January 2020), No. 6