French Queen Research Articles

‘Un étrange moyen de séduction’: Anne de Graville's Chaldean Histories and her role in literary culture at the French court in the early sixteenth century

AbstractThis article considers a little‐known manuscript – the Chaldean Histories – that was offered to Anne de Graville, author, bibliophile, and lady‐in‐waiting to Claude of France, by her husband Pierre de Balsac around 1507–10. The manuscript contains a partial translation into French of Annius of Viterbo's Antiquities, first published in Rome in 1498 and purporting to be ancient texts relating the history of the world around the time of the Flood. Although previous scholars have noted the close reliance on the Antiquities by Jean Lemaire des Belges in his Illustrations de Gaule et singularités de Troyes (1511–13), the translation offered to Anne is unknown. Here I argue that Anne's personalized manuscript and translation predates Lemaire des Belges’ work, indicating that she and Pierre were early players in an emerging courtly interest in translated works relating to antiquity. In addition, I suggest that the choice of text and the manuscript's frontispiece by a leading court artist showing Anne receiving the book meant that it was designed to appeal to, and likely shaped, Anne's interests in literature and translation which are later evident in her own library and writings for the French queen, Claude.

The Role of Le Balet Comique in Forging the Stuart Masque: Part 2 Continuation

Following the discussion in Part 1 (Dance Research 32.2 2014, 185–207) of the use made by the Jacobean court of Le Balet Comique ( McGowan 1982 ) to frame innovation in the masque, this article will explore two further examples of the continuing use of the text. The overt adoption of features of Le Balet Comique for Tempe Restored (1632, Aurelian Townshend and Inigo Jones) brought French practice into play once more for the Caroline masque. Following in his father's footsteps, Charles 1 was able to bring to the masque his personal skill as a dancer and the participation of his young and beautiful French queen Henrietta Maria. From the re-launch of the court masque in 1631, until the break-up of the Whitehall court in 1640, both retrospective and innovative practices were pursued. Although this was a new reign, a strong element of continuity prevailed in the court personnel serving the masque. Acting as artistic director, Inigo Jones was now firmly in control of masque concepts, pursuing a design process of imaginative imitation based on Renaissance practice. In collaboration with individuals among the music and dance artists, Jones had been intimately involved in adapting features of the ballet in devising The Masque of Queens of 1609. 1 That Le Balet Comique formed the basis for Tempe Restored is made very plain in the published text. The influence of the 1581 ballet on A Masque presented at Ludlow Castle 1634 (known as Comus) by John Milton can only be discerned by analysing the performance conditions of a work that is now published as a poem. Once again the Circe persona takes the stage, this time in masculine form as Comus. I argue here that the link between the two is the personnel of Tempe Restored. An analysis of the original performance of Comus draws on understanding of elite dance practice of the day leading to new insights into this innovative masque.

Cultural Exchange in Seventeenth-Century France and England by Gesa Stedman (review)

Reviewed by: Cultural Exchange in Seventeenth-Century France and England by Gesa Stedman Tracey Wedge Stedman, Gesa, Cultural Exchange in Seventeenth-Century France and England, Farnham, Ashgate, 2013; hardback; pp. 306; 22 b/w illustrations; R.R.P. £70.00; ISBN 9780754669388. Gesa Stedman’s most recent monograph does not attempt to discuss the influence of English culture on the French population; rather it focuses predominantly on the impact of French culture in England. The introductory chapter considers ideas of cultural exchange with reference to existing academic theories. This provides useful definitions that clearly set out where Stedman’s theories sit within current scholarship. Through the examination of a broad range of factors that constitute cultural exchange, Stedman offers examples of actual exchanges to underscore his thinking. These exchanges are discussed using well-documented instances, the first of which was the arrival of Henrietta Maria in England. The impact on English mores of French cultural practices prior to the Restoration is considered at length in the second chapter, which centres on the French queen consort. The following chapter discusses aspects of cultural exchange that were visible in the fashionable garden and park design, music and dance, food and drink, shopping, and the book trade. Here we see French culture in England highlighted through the engagement of elite society in wider French cultural practices. Also addressed is the impact of Charles II’s relationship with his French mistresses on the perception of French culture by the English. Fashion provides the exemplar for the demonstration of exchange in Chapter 4, supported by the transmission of French cultural practices through drama. Certainly, the examples cited illustrate Stedman’s points well, as do the images included within the book. The many sources Stedman uses demonstrate the rich material available when considering cultural exchange and the vast nature of the topic. The final chapter re-examines Stedman’s arguments. Those with an interest in material culture and transmission of design will draw something from this book. The ongoing debate of the cultural exchange between France and England certainly has plenty to offer. While Stedman’s examination of the impact of royalty and the elite on the transmission and [End Page 234] adoption of French cultural practices by the English is thorough and engaging it is only part of the picture of an exchange that happened on many other levels. Tracey Wedge Invercargill, New Zealand Copyright © 2014 Tracey Wedge

The French Queen's Letters: Mary Tudor Brandon and the Politics of Marriage in Sixteenth‐Century Europe. By Erin A.Sadlack. Pp.xi, 266, NY, Palgrave Macmillan, 2011, $71.24.

The French Queen's Letters: Mary Tudor Brandon and the Politics of Marriage in Sixteenth‐Century Europe. By Erin A.Sadlack. Pp.xi, 266, NY, Palgrave Macmillan, 2011, $71.24.

The French Queen’s Letters: Mary Tudor Brandon and the Politics of Marriage in Sixteenth-Century Europe. Erin A. Sadlack.

<i>The French Queen’s Letters: Mary Tudor Brandon and the Politics of Marriage in Sixteenth-Century Europe</i>. Erin A. Sadlack.

Erin A. Sadlack. The French Queen’s Letters: Mary Tudor Brandon and the Politics of Marriage in Sixteenth-Century Europe. Queenship and Power. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011. Pp. 278. $80.00 (cloth).

Erin A. Sadlack. The French Queen’s Letters: Mary Tudor Brandon and the Politics of Marriage in Sixteenth-Century Europe. Queenship and Power. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011. Pp. 278. $80.00 (cloth). - Volume 51 Issue 3

Lettere di Francesco Maria II della Rovere ultimo Duca di Urbino

A hasty analysis of Francesco Maria II della Rovere’s correspondence, published in 1632, allows retrieving some interesting information on books, reflected also in his personal library. A group of letters sent to Henry IV of France, Isaac Casaubon, the French Queen Maria de’ Medici, and to Jean Bochar de Champigny, French ambassador in Venice, testify his satisfaction for the edition of the Histories of Polybius, made on a manuscript preserved in his library, presumably the codex Urb. gr. 102, borrowed by the French ambassador Philippe de La Canaye sieur de Fresnes. A praise deserves also the Accademia della Crusca for the edition of the dictionary in 1612, a copy of which was sent to the duke. Three further letters show Francesco’ esteem for Antonio Querenghi’s poems, and his works are included in the ducal library. Noteworthy is also the letter addressed to the secretary and preceptor Paolo Beni, who shared with Francesco Maria the affection for Tasso and his works. A letter to the Reggitori of Bologna confirms the Duke’s regard for Ulisse Aldrovandi, whose books are also present in the ducal collection; and finally two letters to the jesuit Giulio Mazzarini confirm the acquisition of his works in the library.

:The French Queen's Letters: Mary Tudor Brandon and the Politics of Marriage in Sixteenth-Century Europe

:<i>The French Queen's Letters: Mary Tudor Brandon and the Politics of Marriage in Sixteenth-Century Europe</i>

Erin A. Sadlack. The French Queen's Letters: Mary Tudor Brandon and the Politics of Marriage in Sixteenth-Century Europe. Queenship and Power. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011. xi +266 pp. $80. ISBN: 978–0–230–62030–8.

Erin A. Sadlack. The French Queen's Letters: Mary Tudor Brandon and the Politics of Marriage in Sixteenth-Century Europe. Queenship and Power. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011. xi +266 pp. $80. ISBN: 978–0–230–62030–8. - Volume 65 Issue 1

Henrietta Maria: Piety, Politics and Patronage, ed. Erin Griffey

Erin Griffey's contributors reconsider the practices of Caroline queenship in the three realms of the book's title: religious faith, political and national affiliation, and artistic and cultural patronage. The editor concludes (and it would be hard to disagree) that religious faith was the determining factor behind the interconnected cultural and political activities of Henrietta Maria, Charles I's French Catholic consort, and the collection explores her political and dynastic affiliations, her patronage of theatre, craftsmen, artists and musicians, her self-representation and her religious practice. Building on the work of scholars such as Erica Veevers, Sophie Tomlinson, Karen Britland and Melinda Gough, this collection brings together historians, art historians, and scholars of drama, literature and music in an engaging blend of established and emerging scholars. As a French queen of England, Henrietta Maria's patronage and politics are obvious subjects for investigation from a transnational, European angle. This collection takes such an approach very seriously, with productive results. At the outset of his chapter exploring the Queen's domestic and international religious, familial and courtly alliances, Malcolm Smuts immediately sets the young Henrietta Maria's marriage and her factional negotiations against the context of the Thirty Years War. Essays by Jessica Bell on Marian imagery in the self-representation of Marie de Medici and Henrietta Maria, and by Griffey on the depiction of religious jewellery in the Queen's portraiture, unpick a maternal, religious and politicised thread of influence. Sarah Poynting identifies the writer Walter Montague as a pivotal international intermediary, moving between courts and scripting a theatrical production for his queen. Karen Britland examines the Queen's theatrical patronage and spectatorship, positioning Whitehall productions of Fletcher's Faithful Shepherdess and Shakespeare's Richard III in the early 1630s against what she calls ‘a reformatory project’ which presented ‘a new moral standard both for dramatic productions and courtly behaviour’ (p. 64) which emerged from the households of both the King and Queen. Equally though, Britland argues, Henrietta Maria's keen sense of the political nature of such patronage is demonstrated by the support she offered the itinerant French playing company led to London by the actor Floridor in 1634–5 and the Queen's rejection in the same season of a travelling Spanish troupe. The collection concludes with Jonathan P. Wainwright's argument that ‘the most up-to-date Italian music by contemporaries of Monteverdi was performed at the queen's devotions’ (p. 199) at her chapel in Somerset House. In this way, the collection brings to light the European influences of this counter-reformation English queen.

Epistolary Negotiations: Mary the French Queen and the Politics of Letter-Writing

Epistolary Negotiations: Mary the French Queen and the Politics of Letter-Writing

Not All Swelling Is Edema in Eclampsia: A Rare and Life-threatening Potential Complication of Eclamptic Seizures

A 24-yr-old, 65-kg, 152-cm primigravida woman with severe pre-eclampsia and a history of asthma was admitted at 38 weeks’ gestationfor magnesium administration and oxytocin induction of labor. Herlaboratory studies and physical examination were within normal limitsexcept for proteinuria, hypertension, and moderate generalized edemawithout obvious facial edema at admission. Because of her preeclamp-sia, an epidural catheter was easily inserted early before onset of activelabor or pain. Three hours later, the patient had a witnessed tonic–clonic eclamptic seizure, which subsided shortly after administrationof 4 mg intravenous lorazepam and assisted mask ventilation. Becauseof recurring fetal heart rate deceleration, an urgent cesarean deliverywas planned. However, the patient was combatively uncooperativedespite a bilateral T4 anesthetic level achieved epidurally while heroxygen saturation remained 100% and blood pressure was 140/85mmHg. The patient was noted to have a Mallampati class I airway withmoderate generalized edema and mild facial edema. Rapid sequencegeneral anesthesia induction was performed with successful atrau-matic intubation on the first attempt, followed by verification of bilat-eral symmetrical breath sounds. Maintenance of anesthetic consisted ofvolume-controlled mechanical ventilation, 50% oxygen, 50% nitrousoxide, 1–2% sevoflurane, midazolam, and opioid without the need foradditional neuromuscular blocker other than succinylcholine at induc-tion. Intraoperative blood pressure and heart rate were maintainedwithin 20% of preoperative values while oxygen saturation was main-tained at 99–100%, end-tidal carbon dioxide between 30–35 mmHg,and airway pressures less than 25 cm H

&lt;i&gt;Del monte sale quien el monte quema&lt;/i&gt; (review)

Reviewed by: Del monte sale quien el monte quema Don W. Cruickshank Lope de Vega , Del monte sale quien el monte quema. Edited by Ana María Porteiro Chouciño. Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela. 2007. 320 pp. ISBN 978-8-497509-00-8 Del monte sale quien el monte quema is one of Lope's late plays, with an autograph manuscript dated in Madrid on 20 October 1627. As such, it provided one of the benchmarks for Morley and Bruerton's Chronology. Since the manuscript is readily available in the Biblioteca Nacional, it has, of course, been edited before: by Cotarelo (1916) and Juliá Martínez (1934), while there is a palaeographical edition by Le Fort Peña (Buenos Aires, 1939). A new edition is not going to change the Morley and Bruerton percentages of different metres, but in the last 70 years scholars have become increasingly aware that evidence from orthoepy, and the varying use of diaeresis and synaeresis or of hiatus and synalepha, can be as useful as metrical evidence in determining authorship: and the most reliable evidence for the practice of authors is provided by original manuscripts. Another factor which makes a new edition worthwhile is the neglect of the play: it apparently remained unprinted until 1916 and has been largely ignored by critics. In addition, as the list of variants shows (pp. 305–10), the previous editors were not always accurate: they tended to 'correct', consciously or otherwise, precisely those oddities which are now of interest. There are apparently only 44 surviving manuscripts which are wholly or partly in Lope's hand. Original manuscripts often provide other information besides the text of the play. This one has licences and a list of actors' names (the list is not autograph): one of the few actors to have both Christian name and surname is the notorious María de Heredia, who also figures in the reparto (this time, in the author's hand) of another autograph text, Calderón's La desdicha de la voz (1639). The editor argues cogently from what we know of the career of Ms Heredia and the other actors who can be plausibly identified that their names should be associated with the licence granted in October 1636 in Granada: these are not the actors who premiered the play. Since Del monte sale has been so little studied, critics are not even agreed on how to categorize it. Simply describing a play as a 'comedia palatina' would not be helpful, but the editor examines what this means: the social category of the characters, and the temporal and spatial distancing. The setting is, in fact, France, and both the setting and the closing lines ('Aquí acaba / Del monte sale, que dio / tan ilustre reina a Francia') were no doubt seen as a compliment to Isabel, Philip IV's French queen. The editor also examines themes (love, honour, jealousy, 'menosprecio de corte y alabanza de aldea'), the individual characters, the dramatic action and the style; there are extensive textual notes, as well as a list of the variant readings found in the other surviving manuscript (BNE, MS 16786, of the nineteenth century) and the printed editions. The editor suggests, no doubt rightly, that the play was not a huge success in its day: it never appeared in a parte, and if it was ever printed as a suelta, no such editions [End Page 111] have survived. It is a useful source of information, though, about a period when Lope was writing fewer plays, and the editor is to be congratulated on making it available to scholars in a reliable edition. Don W. Cruickshank University College, Dublin Copyright © 2010 Liverpool University Press

Translatio/n, empire, and the worlding of medieval literature: the travels of Kalila wa Dimna*

Around the turn of the fourteenth century, the French queen, Joan of Navarre, commissioned an otherwise unknown physician named Raymond de Beziers to execute a Latin translation of an eastern tale ...

Encyclopedia of women in the Renaissance: Italy, France, and England

This work is a revealing combination of biographies and topical essays that describe the outstanding and often-overlooked contributions of women to the science, politics, and culture of the Renaissance. Encyclopedia of Women in the Renaissance: Italy, France, and England is the first first comprehensive reference devoted exclusively to the contributions of women to European culture in the period between 1350 and 1700. Focusing principally on early modern women in England, France, and Italy, it offers over 135 biographies of the extraordinary women of those times. Encyclopedia of Women in the Renaissance provides vivid portraits of well known women such as Catherine of Siena, Joan of Arc, Mary Queen of Scots, and Christine de Pizan. Also included are less familiar but equally important women like Elena Lucrezia Cornaro, the first woman in Europe to earn a doctorate; the renowned Renaissance painter Artemisia Gentileschi; and the acclaimed author of medical textbooks and midwife to a French queen, Louise Boursier. Based on the latest research and enhanced with thematic essays, this groundbreaking work casts our understanding of women's lives and roles in Renaissance history and culture in a provocative new light. Over 135 biographical entries covering the extraordinary women who made significant contributions to the art, science, culture, religion, and philosophy of the Renaissance Over 100 expert contributors, drawn from a range of scholarly disciplines An extensive bibliography pointing readers to the best sources for further reading in print and on the Web An extensive index that makes it easy to follow thematic threads across the portrayals of different women

“One victim from the last despair”: Mary Robinson's Marie Antoinette

This article examines Mary Robinson's response to Marie Antoinette in three texts which exhibit a deviation from the otherwise consistent defense of the French Revolution that appears in her writings. Robinson knew and admired the French Queen, and it is both personal experience and memory that define her attitude to the events in France between the years 1791 and 1793, when her concern with other, more abstract political issues is subordinated to her sympathy for, and identification with, the Queen's story. In acknowledging this foregrounded (but, for the most part, forgotten) commentary, the author hopes to recuperate these works as sites of cultural significance as well as to represent their unique place within Robinson's political writing.

Vittoria Colonna and the Virgin Mary

Various works by Vittoria Colonna display a notable interest in the Virgin Mary as a potentially powerful and positive female role model. Colonna's gift manuscript for the French queen, Marguerite de Navarre, contains a large number of sonnets exploring Mary's role, and this interest is backed up by the correspondence between the two women, which focuses on the need for female role models in society. In addition, various of Colonna's published letters and prose works develop further Mary's potential as an assertive figure in a Reformation context. The Marian model is shown to be applicable to the lives of both Colonna and Navarre, in their own careful fashioning of an acceptable public persona.

The Seymour Sisters: Elegizing Female Attachment

History has forgotten the Seymour sisters. Although they were important as potential marriage partners, used by their father to broker alliances, they also created a stir among the members of La Pleiade with their publication of 104 Latin distichs paying tribute to the recently deceased Marguerite de Navarre. The sophisticated word plays and allusions of their Hecatodistichon (1550) show a close familiarity with the writing of the Protestant-sympathizing French queen and a perceptive awareness of the coupling of spiritual and secular ambitions. This essay offers the first English translation of their work after situating it in a reconstructed context.

De Lance en Quenouille. La place de la reine dans l'État moderne (14e-17esiècles)

La reine de France existe-t-elle ? Pour saugrenue que paraisse la question, la réponse n'en est pas moins incertaine lorsqu'on se penche sur l'historiographie de ces deux derniers siècles. Les historiens du ou de la politique n'accordent à la reine qu'un regard distrait, la reléguant à une existence domestique à laquelle les nombreuses biographies sur les reines de France n'hésitent pas à la réduire.Le traitement appliqué jusqu'ici à la loi salique n'est pas étranger à cette situation. Si, depuis Paul Viollet, d'excellents travaux ont montré le processus d'élaboration de cette « loi » et les modalités de l'exclusion des femmes du trône en fonction des impératifs politiques provoqués par la guerre de Cent Ans, aucune analyse n'a envisagé la signification de ce texte à l'égard des femmes. Ainsi, les études récentes, très précises, de Colette Beaune et de Jacques Krynen ont porté sur la construction juridique de la loi salique à partir de la réflexion politique des 14eet 15esiècles, afin de montrer la part qu'eut cette loi dans la formation d'un État monarchique qui puise ses formes modernes dans les deux derniers siècles du Moyen Age. En ce sens, c'est la genèse de ce texte plus que son contenu qui fait l'objet de l'analyse et, dans la perspective d'un renforcement du pouvoir royal, la focalisation qui s'exerce alors sur la personne du roi conduit spontanément à la mise à l'écart de celle qui n'a pas droit au trône. Le fait, dominant toute l'historiographie de la loi salique, qu'aucune réflexion sur la nature de l'exclusion des femmes n'ait été envisagée, laisse la voie ouverte aux interprétations les plus restrictives concernant la place de ces dernières dans la politique.

Les filles d'Aliénor d'Aquitaine : étude comparative

Two daughters were born of the union between Eleanor, duchess of Aquitaine and her first husband, Louis VII, King of France. Eight children, of which five sons and three daughters, were born of her second union with Henry Plantegenet, King of England and Duke of Normandy. The présent paper is an attempt to compare the lives and destinies of the five princesses : Mary, Countess of Champagne ; Aelis, Countess of Blois ; Matilda, Duchess of Saxony ; Eleanor, Queen of Castille ; Joan, Queen of Sicily and future Countess of Toulouse. None of them lived as long as their mother, but it was the wife of Alphonso VIII who best recalled the old French queen, as much for her fecondity as her longevity. Mary of Champagne, like her mother, afforded protection to artists and poets. The tragic destiny of the youngest princess, however, evoques quite singularly the unsettled and often disconcerting life of Eleanor of Aquitaine.