Roles of the Medieval Queen - Assignment Example

Roles of the Medieval Queen This paper elaborates the medieval period in the west between the fall of the Roman Empire end (476 AD) and approximately (1500 AD). During this time, the queens played different roles. As a consort, the queen was a wife to the king during his reign. She had feminine powers over the palace because she shared the king’s social status and rank as a woman. The queen consort might become a dowager queen after the death of the king. The dowager played her roles as a retired queen. However, a queen became a Regent when she ruled over a kingdom on behalf of an absent king, either husband or minor child, for a temporary period. Her success depended on the relationship between the king and the fact that the kingdom’s advisers chose her to take charge of the throne. As a Regent, the queen ruled by her rights. She exercised power over the territory by inheriting it from the parents, usually as an heiress with no brothers. As a daughter of the king, she qualified to inherit and rule by her birthright. Regent Queens participated in the feudal assemblies of the kings together with some of the vassals (Shahar 146). In addition, they also made judgments in their area of governance and discussed both economic and political issues. Various conditions certified a medieval queen role during the period the fall of the Roman Empire end (476 AD) and approximately (1500 AD). The specific conditions included being a king’s wife, the position of a retired queen and as an heiress with specific birthrights. Additionally the one would ascend to the position of medieval ruler given the relationship with the king and his advisers. A queen or empress consort was a wife to a reigning emperor or king. A queen consort shared the king’s social status and rank, which allowed her to exercise feminine powers over servants in the palace. She supervised the servants to ensure that they performed their chores (Shahar 151). The consort queen also had a role in a dowry to the king and, acting as his helpmate. A consort queen would also play a part in the church by raising money to build them. A consort queen also motivated church reforms and gave moral support to people in the kingdom. However, the roles of a queen consort in the kingdom were limited because she did not usually share king’s full Regent military and political powers (Lecture notes). A Queen Regent was a monarch who ruled a kingdom in her rights. She was not a wife to the king. The Queen Regent acquired and exercised sovereign powers over the Kingdoms she inherited from the previous king (lecture notes). She ordered the military, got into negotiations and partook agreements with other kingdoms as she deemed fit. The Queen also took charge of the throne through primogeniture. As the firstborn daughter without brothers in the royal family, she had rights to inherit the kingdom from her parents. For instance, Queen Melisende born in the 1105 acquired the kingdom of Jerusalem from her father, King Baldwin II, during her early 20s. The queen died in the year 1161 at the age of sixty years after serving on behalf of her father. Regent Queens could also inherit public offices served as fiefs in later medieval history. The Regent Queens obtained fiefs by getting the ruling power over areas of the society. It was, therefore, the role of the Regent Queen to exercise such powers within the kingdom, even though this contradicted customary laws. Regent Queens inherited their kingdoms in cases where there was no male child. For instance, Queen Urraca inherited the Kingdom of Leon Castile after the death of her brother, Sancho. Regent Queens also issued charters to cities during their reign and determined legal procedures and method of elections of municipal magistrates. The Queens also made judgments within their areas of jurisdiction. Additionally the queens discussed matters of political interest to the various kingdoms (Shahar 146). A queen as a Regent took charge of the throne for a temporary period, due to either absence or death of the king; who most often was either the son or husband of the Regent Queen. For instance, Queen Blanche of Castile ruled the kingdom of France from 1226 to 1234 after the death of her husband King Louis VIII and also later when Louis IX went on Crusade. This case is an example of how a Regent Queen would succeed office. In other instances where the king would embark on the journey of a long duration, the Queen would hold office during this time. During such occasions, the king left the Regent Queen in charge of the throne until he returned to the kingdom. The Regent Queen controlled all political, social, and economic activities of the Kingdom for a temporary period. Shulamith Shahar states that “medieval noblemen were absent from home frequently and for protracted periods, and during their absences their wives fulfilled most of their tasks, from managing a large fief to organizing manorial affairs and supervising the peasants who cultivated their lands” (149). Eleanor of Aquitaine was a Regent Queen in England. Her role involved managing all the seniority affairs during her son’s absence. In England and France, Regent Queens sometimes ruled for years because their husbands went on crusades but stepped down upon their return to the kingdoms. Additionally, vice-regal roles of the Regent Queens would include powers to rule over territories or participation in feudal assemblies. The Regent Queen also inherited fiefs as a symbol of executing royal duties. Passing in a governance matter was also a noteworthy responsibility for the Queens (Shahar 150). . A Regent Queen also took charge of the throne in cases where a king died and left a young heir in charge of the throne (Shahar 148). In such cases, someone would be chosen by the kingdom advisers to take care of the throne until the time that the heir would be of age. The queens were eligible caretakers of the thrones and would play the kings role to ensure that the kingdom ran in the right manner. In such cases, the medieval queens were referred to as Regent Queens (Lecture notes). A queen dowager was a status or title held by the king’s widow. The kingdom gave her royal honors for being the retired Queen. However, her success for queenship was the fact that she had been the wife of the king before his death. She also held a title from a deceased husband who was the king. A medieval queen would fail to exercise her power over the kingdom due to limits set by the kingship requirements. For instance, a queen consort was usually shared the king’s Regent military and political powers. The growing political life kept women out of power. Men saw women as passive where they would quickly give mercy and spare people. The gender-biased in queen ship appointment proves such deductions. Women could not serve in as kings advisers under any circumstances. Other cases of biased in the appointment of the queens included disqualification in situations of the lack of sound mind (Shahar 128). Women were, therefore, weak to exercise sovereignty over the kingdom as queens. In addition, the failure of a queen to provide an heir for marriage would jeopardize her queen ship in the kingdom. Most kings expected the queen to provide an heir and to be childless brought crisis in the royal family leading to the king divorcing the wife. Evidence of such reasoning is that Fertile Medieval Queens had to meet a particular condition of bearing up to six children (Shahar 139). In conclusion, medieval queens played several roles as consort, dowager, Regent, and Regent in the kingdom. However, there were conditions that determined the extent to which the medieval queens played these roles. As consort, the medieval queen held feminine powers over the palace. As a Regent, the queen would lead the feudal assemblies and her vassals because she was the ruler. She ruled by her birthright. A medieval queen who served as a Regent would administer the state in the absence of the monarch and held the Regent position temporarily as a royal house member. Her appointment by the kingdom’s advisers approved her success in the role as a Regent Queen. As a dowager, the queen received the status of the deceased king as a ruling queen. Women faced challenges during the medieval period due to gender bias perceptions from the men. As such, women roles of the queens were regulated to a large extent. However, medieval queens were important in history despite regulated conditions for queenship (Shahar 152) A queen consort or a queen dowager provided moral support to the public and influenced church reforms. A Queen Regent maintained the throne in absence of a king and being Regent Queen made it possible for a royal family to maintain its sovereignty over the kingdom across generations. Work Cited Shahar, Shulamith. The Fourth Estate: A History of Women in the Middle Ages. London: Routledge, 2003. Read More