Date

Title

Online response assignment

Readings

Aug. 23

Introduction

Aug. 25

Women in medieval history

Choose term paper topics

Go to the online form here, and rank your top five term-paper topics.  Feel free to look up these women on Wikipedia, to get a sense of who they were - keeping in mind that Wikipedia is not an authoritative source!

Christine de Pizan, intro to City of Ladies, selections.  PDF in Canvas files

Aug. 30

Women in medieval history II

Term paper topics and book reports assigned

Required reading response:  How is Earenfight's approach different from and the same as Christine's?

Earenfight Intro, pp. 1-30

Sept. 1

Lecture and in-class exercise

The "Fall of Rome," 300-700

Earenfight ch. 1:  "Theme and Variations:  Roman, barbarian and Christian societies in the fashioning of medieval queenship, c. 300-700"

Sept. 6

NO CLASS - Labor Day

Sept. 8

Discussion:  reading primary sources

Required reading response:  Read the primary sources, and answer the following questions:

- What kind of a source are each of these?

- What "historical" information do they provide? 

- How do you evaluate them? 

- What more do you want to know about the author and the circumstances?

Bible:  Read the Book of Esther, and selections about Queen Jezebel (1 Kings 21).

Sozomen, Ecclesiastical History, Book 9 chs. 1-3, about Pulcheria

Procopius on Amalasuntha and Theodora

Amalasuntha and Theodahad, letters announcing their joint rule

Sept. 13

Discussion:  Reading modern scholarship

Required reading response:  Read the article and pay attention to the footnotes.  Identify:

- a thesis / argument - do you find it convincing?

- the number of articles cited in the footnotes

- primary sources referred to by the author

James, Liz.  "Goddess, Whore, Wife, or Slave?  Will the Real Byzantine Empress Please Stand up?"  In Anne J. Duggan, ed., Queens and Queenship in Medieval Europe (Woodbridge:  Boydell, 1997), pp. 123-139.  PDF in Canvas Files

Sept. 15

Discussion:  reading popular fiction

Required reading response:  Compare this novel to the primary sources and the James article.  How much do you think is "made up" by the author?

Stella Duffy, The Purple Shroud:  a Novel of Empress Theodora (2012), chs. 1 and 3.  PDF in Canvas files

Sept. 20

Lecture and in-class exercise

"Barbarian" queens

Paul the Deacon, History of the Lombards, about Rosamunda and Theudelinda

Sept. 22

Discussion:  reading material culture

Reading response:  If all we have is an object, how much of what we can say about it is speculative?  Is this particular object illuminated by the Vita of Saint Balthild?

Deliyannis, Deborah M., Hendrik Dey and Paolo Squatriti.  "The Tunic of Balthild (Chasuble of Chelles)," in Fifty Early Medieval Things:  Materials of Culture in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages (Ithaca, NY:  Cornell University Press, 2019), pp. 128-131.  PDF in Canvas files

Vita Domnae Balthildis (The Life of Lady Balthild, Queen of the Franks).  Translated by P. Fouracre/R. Gerberding, in Late Merovingian France: History and Hagiography 640–720 (Manchester, 1996).  PDF in Canvas files

Sept. 27

Discussion:  Beauty

Reading response:  what is de Jong's topic, and what is her thesis?  Identify the places in the article where these are made.

     What are the various meanings that "beauty" can have in the story of a queen?

de Jong, Mayke.  "Queens and beauty in the early medieval west: Balthild, Theodelinda, Judith."  in Cristina La Rocca, ed., Agire da donna: Modelli e pratiche di rappresentazione (secoli VI-X) ; Atti del convegno (Padova, 18-19 febbraio 2005) (Turnhout:  Brepols, 2007),  pp. 235-248.  PDF in Canvas files

Sept. 29

Paper on Fall of Rome queens due in class

Discussion of papers

Oct. 4

Lecture and in-class exercise

The Mediterranean, 700-1100

Earenfight ch. 2:  "Legitimizing the king's wife and bed-companion, c. 700-1100"

Oct. 6

Discussion:  Motherhood

Short paper on will be returned with comments

Reading response:  Whittow attempts to explain how a woman who murdered her son could rule as sole empress.  Do you find his explanation convincing?  Explain why or why not.

Whittow, Mark.  "Motherhood and Power in Early Medieval Europe, West and East: The Strange Case of the Empress Eirene."  In Motherhood, Religion, and Society in Medieval Europe, 400-1400: Essays Presented to Henrietta Leyser, ed. by Conrad Leyser and Lesley Smith (Farnham:  Ashgate, 2011), pp. 55-84.  PDF in Canvas files

Oct. 11

Lecture and in-class exercise

Charlemagne, England, Vikings, etc.

Oct. 13

Discussion:  Self-presentation

Reading response:  What kinds of things does this text tell us about Emma?  What would you like to know further?

Encomium of Queen Emma

Oct. 18

Lecture and in-class exercise

Rewrite of paper on Fall of Rome queens due

Twelfth-century renaissance, art, cult of the Virgin

Earenfight ch. 3:  "'The link of conjugal troth' : queenship as family practice, c. 1100-1350"

Oct. 20

Discussion:  Modern attitudes

Reading/viewing response:  This film was made in 1968.  Do you feel that the presentations of issues of queenship relate to the things we have been discussing in class, or to concerns from 1968?

Watch The Lion in Winter (1968) (note:  2 hrs 14 min)

Oct. 25

Lecture and in-class exercise

The Crusades

Oct. 27

Discussion:  Patronage

Reading response:  Can a queen spend money just like a man?  What does it mean to spend money as a ruler?

Gaudette, Helen A. "The spending power of a crusader queen:  Melisende of Jerusalem."  In Theresa Earenfight, ed., Women and Wealth in Late Medieval Europe (New York:  Palgrave Macmillan, 2010), pp. 135-148.  PDF in Canvas files

Nov. 1

Lecture and in-class exercise

The Black Death and its aftermath

Earenfight ch. 4:  "Queenship in a crisis of monarchy, c. 1350-1500"

Nov. 3

Discussion:  Scandal

Reading response:    What can we even make of these three different accounts of Joanna of Naples?  What do the authors want us to believe, and what do you believe?

Boccaccio, Famous Women, trans. Virginia Brown (Harvard University Press, 2001), pp. 230-32.  PDF in Canvas Files

Casteen, Elizabeth.  "Sex and Politics in Naples: The Regnant Queenship of Johanna I."  Journal of the Historical Society 11.2 (2011):  183-210.  PDF in Canvas Files

https://longreads.com/2018/07/03/queens-of-infamy-joanna-of-naples/

Nov. 8

Lecture and in-class exercise

Annotated bibliography due

The Hundred Years' War and the War of the Roses

Nov. 10

Discussion:  Ceremonial

Reading response:  Ceremonies involving queens display their roles.  What does Laynesmith claim about the roles of queens at the end of the Middle Ages?

Laynesmith, Joanna.  "Fertility Rite or Authority Ritual? The Queen’s Coronation in England 1445-87."  In Tim Thornton, ed., Social Attitudes and Political Structures in the Fifteenth Century (Stroud:  The History Press, 2001), pp. 52-68.  PDF in Canvas Files

Nov. 15

Lecture and in-class exercise

The End of the Middle Ages

Nov. 17

Debates

- which queen did you like the best?

- is there such a thing as a "medieval" queen?

THANKSGIVING

Nov. 29

Presentations

Dec. 1

Presentations

Dec. 6

Presentations

Dec. 8

Presentations

Dec. 13

TERM PAPER DUE IN CANVAS at 2:35p.m., Mon., December 13