Legitimizing the Queen (eBook)

Propaganda and Ideology in the Reign of Isabel I of Castile

Cristina Guardiola-Griffiths (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2010
190 Seiten
Bucknell University Press (Verlag)
978-1-61148-019-1 (ISBN)

Infos

Isabel I's reign in Castile responds to the ostensible needs expressed throughout the fifteenth-century for moral and political regeneration. Isabel is seen in many works as a just and wise monarch, as a redeemer of her people, and as a divine sovereign. This book reviews changes in the gendered construction of Isabelline sovereignty from the theoretical perspective of the speculum principum dedicated to her. It offers a Bourdieuian approach to the more literary specula texts used to legitimize and uphold Isabel's power.

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Legitimizing the Queen deals with a genre particular to the Middle Ages: the specula principum (mirror of prince). Its importance as an object of study may be understood in light of the political instability that wracked the Castilian fifteenth century. The many works written for and dedicated to Isabel I of Castile depict her kingdom as a shipwrecked boat, a wayward realm, and a land of bankrupt people. These works suggest the kingdom's need for redemption through the strong leadership of the Catholic monarchs. These largely propagandistic works were designed to garner power, and once maintained, further Isabel's agenda. This book frames the concept of sovereignty from the theoretical perspective of the speculum principum dedicated to her. It offers a Bourdieuian approach to the more literary specula texts used to legitimize and uphold Isabel's power. This book reveals propagandistic qualities promoting the ideology necessary to legitimize and support Isabel's claims to the throne. Written primarily between 1468 and 1493, these works are literary artifacts that mark the rise to power of a female sovereign. The study discusses the various strategies of legitimation employed by these propagandists whose works circulated within noble and royal courts, and presumably extended into Castile as justification for her sovereign claim to the throne. By analyzing fifteenth century texts from within a modern critical framework, this book reexamines Isabel's position as queen and contributes to the understanding of her shared sovereignty in a period political and social evolution.

Autor

Cristina Guardiola-Griffiths is an assistant professor at the University of Delaware, where she specializes in fifteenth-century Castilian literature.

Inhalt

1 Acknowledgments2 Prologue: Tanto monta, monta tanto: Political and Literary Affinities in the Quest for SovereigntyChapter 3 1. A Mirror for the Princess?: Advice Books and the Debate on WomenChapter 4 2. Politics and Gender in the Fight for CastileChapter 5 3. Legitimizing the Queen: Isabel the Catholic and the Poncella de FranciaChapter 6 4. The Transparent Mirror: The Application for Justice in the Diálogo del prudente rey y el sabio aldeanoChapter 7 5. The Fractured Portrait, a Cracked Mirror of Ideals8 Notes9 Works Cited10 Index

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 10.12.2010
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Geschichte / Politik ► Mittelalter
• Themenwelt: Geschichte ► Allgemeine Geschichte ► Mittelalter
• ISBN-10: 1-61148-019-1 / 1611480191
• ISBN-13: 978-1-61148-019-1 / 9781611480191