Roles of the Medieval Queen - Assignment Example

Lindsey Dryden History 1590 8 May Huneycutt Roles of the Medieval Queen This paper considers the duration of the medieval period in the west between the fall of the Roman Empire end (476 AD) and approximately (1500 AD). During this period, the queen played different roles. As a consort, the queen was a wife to the king during his reigns. She had feminine powers over the palace because she shared the king’s social status and rank as a wife. 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 with the king and the fact that the kingdom’s advisers chose her to take charge of the throne. As a regnant, the queen ruled by her rights. She exercised power over the kingdom 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. Regnant 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. There were conditions that determined the success or failure of a queen. The queen was success due to support from followers and church, sharing the king’s social status and rank, and support from parents in the royal family, while her failure was due to limits set by the king, growing political life, being weak, and failure to provide an heir. 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 role in church by raising money to build them. A consort queen also motivated church reforms and also gave moral support to people in the kingdom. However, the powers of a queen consort over the kingdom were limited by the king because she did not usually share king’s regnant military and political powers (Lecture notes). A queen regnant was a monarch who ruled a kingdom in her own right. She was not a wife to the king. A queen regnant possessed and exercised sovereign powers over the kingdoms she inherited from the previous king (lecture notes). She ordered the military, got into negotiations, and entered into agreements with other kingdoms as she deemed fit. A regnant queen took charge of the throne through primogeniture. As the firstborn daughter with no brothers in the royal family, it was the right of the regnant queen to inherit the kingdom from her parents. For instance, Queen Melisende acquired the kingdom of Jerusalem from her father, King Baldwin II, because she was the oldest of the four daughters. She was born in 1105 and died in 1160. Regnant queens could also inherit public office because later in the medieval history offices were considered fiefs. The regnant queens inherited fiefs by getting the ruling power over the areas of society. It was, therefore, the role of the regnant queen to exercise such powers in the kingdom, even though this contradicted custom because women were not allowed to hold fiefs. According to Shahar a “woman who inherited a fief that entailed ruling powers, exercised those powers, and in so doing violated the rulings of the canonists and lay legislators, which denied women such rights” (128). A regnant queen inherited fiefs because with time, the right to inherit them became hereditary and fiefs were considered patrimonies. Regnant 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 (Lecture notes). Regnant queens also participated in the financial management of their areas of governance. Regnant queens also issued charters to cities during their reign and determined legal procedures and method of elections of municipal magistrates. It was also a role of the regnant queens to intervene internal disputes by issuing judgments. In addition, they would set up cultural centers and register their private treasures. 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 to the regent queen. For instance, queen Blanche of Castile rule the kingdom of France from 1226 to 1234 after the death of her husband king Louis VIII and also later when Louis IX, her son, went on Crusade (Lecture notes). The regent undertook the throne either when the king left it to her or upon being appointed by the kingdom’s advisers to take control until the king returned to the kingdom. Some regent queens succeeded in administering the kingdom because they received support from followers and the church. For instance, after the death of Louis VIII, the Roman Catholic Church supported queen Blanche of Castile to win battles against enemies. All chapters of dioceses led by the papal legate, Frangipani and Pope Gregory IX, would tithe to queen Blanche in support of her crusade in southern France. In addition, she gained strengthened support and respect from her followers in the kingdom, upon successfully leading troops to battle against rebels in the lle de France (Lecture notes). 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. In addition, some of the regent queens would participate in maintaining peace in the kingdom when the king was absent. For instance, at lle de France, queen Blanche led her troops to fight against the rebels to maintain peace in the kingdom. 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. For instance, Empress Theophanu became a dowager after the death of her husband, King Otto II, in 983 AD. The queen was born in 956 and died on 991. The growing political life kept women out of power. Men considered women as weak because they were people of avarice, low intelligence, light- mindedness and wiliness (Shahar 12). These weakness would not allow them to hold sovereignty positions in the kingdom were, therefore, weak to exercise sovereignty over the kingdom as queens. In addition, the failure of queen to provide an heir through marriage would jeopardize her queenship in the kingdom. Most king expected the queen to provide an heir and being childless brought crisis in the royal family leading to the king divorcing the wife (Lecture notes). In conclusion, medieval queens played several roles as consort, dowager, regent, and regnant 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. Her success in these roles was the fact that she shared the king’s social status and rank. As a regnant, the queen would lead the feudal assemblies and vassals of the king because she was the ruler. She ruled by her birthrights as the daughter to the king. A medieval queen that 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 support from followers and the church determined her success in the role as a regent queen. As a dowager, the queen received the honor and respect for being a retired queen. Men considered women as weak because they were people of avarice, low intelligence, light- mindedness and people of wiliness. These kind of characteristics would not allow them to hold sovereignty positions in the kingdom. However, medieval queens were important in history and power. 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 regnant 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