Becoming a Queen in Early Modern Europe

Queens of Poland are conspicuously absent from the study of European queenshipan absence which, together with early modern Poland's marginal place in the historiography, results in a picture of European royal culture that can only be lopsided and incomplete. Katarzyna Kosior cuts through persistent stereotypes of an East-West dichotomy and a culturally isolated early modern Poland to offer a groundbreaking comparative study of royal ceremony in Poland and France. The ceremonies of becoming a Jagiellonian or Valois queen, analysed in their larger European context, illuminate the connections that bound together monarchical Europe. These ceremonies are a gateway to a fuller understanding of European royal culture, demonstrating that it is impossible to make claims about European queenship without considering eastern Europe.

Offers the first study to compare early modern Polish and French ceremonies accompanying Jagiellonian and Valois royal weddings, coronations and childbirth Explores the dynamic between the pan-European royal culture, French and Polish political cultures, and the practicalities of staging royal ceremonies Establishes Poland's place in the tapestry of early modern European monarchy, challenging the central place of western Europe in the historiography

Auteur
Katarzyna Kosior is a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at Northumbria University, UK.

Contenu

1. Introduction: East and West.- 2. Royal Weddings: Protocol, Identity and Emotion.- 3. Coronation: Consort to Royal Power.- 4. Political Culture and the Rhetoric of Queenship.- 5. Conception, Childbirth, and Motherhood: Performing a Royal Family.- 6. Conclusion.