When Women Ruled the World: Making the Renaissance in Europe

When Women Ruled the World: Making the Renaissance in Europe
Author :
Publisher : Liveright Publishing
Total Pages : 320
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9781631497971
ISBN-13 : 1631497979
Rating : 4/5 (71 Downloads)

Book Synopsis When Women Ruled the World: Making the Renaissance in Europe by : Maureen Quilligan

Download or read book When Women Ruled the World: Making the Renaissance in Europe written by Maureen Quilligan and published by Liveright Publishing. This book was released on 2021-10-12 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this game-changing revisionist history, a leading scholar of the Renaissance shows how four powerful women redefined the culture of European monarchy in the glorious sixteenth century. The sixteenth century in Europe was a time of chronic destabilization in which institutions of traditional authority were challenged and religious wars seemed unending. Yet it also witnessed the remarkable flowering of a pacifist culture, cultivated by a cohort of extraordinary women rulers—most notably, Mary Tudor; Elizabeth I; Mary, Queen of Scots; and Catherine de’ Medici—whose lives were intertwined not only by blood and marriage, but by a shared recognition that their premier places in the world of just a few dozen European monarchs required them to bond together, as women, against the forces seeking to destroy them, if not the foundations of monarchy itself. Recasting the complex relationships among these four queens, Maureen Quilligan, a leading scholar of the Renaissance, rewrites centuries of historical analysis that sought to depict their governments as riven by personal jealousies and petty revenges. Instead, When Women Ruled the World shows how these regents carefully engendered a culture of mutual respect, focusing on the gift-giving by which they aimed to ensure ties of friendship and alliance. As Quilligan demonstrates, gifts were no mere signals of affection, but inalienable possessions, often handed down through generations, that served as agents in the creation of a steep social hierarchy that allowed women to assume political authority beyond the confines of their gender. “With brilliant panache” (Amanda Foreman), Quilligan reveals how eleven-year-old Elizabeth I’s gift of a handmade book to her stepmother, Katherine Parr, helped facilitate peace within the tumultuous Tudor dynasty, and how Catherine de’ Medici’s gift of the Valois tapestries to her granddaughter, the soon-to-be Grand Duchess of Tuscany, both solidified and enhanced the Medici family’s prestige. Quilligan even uncovers a book of poetry given to Elizabeth I by Catherine de’ Medici as a warning against the concerted attack launched by her closest counselor, William Cecil, on the divine right of kings—an attack that ultimately resulted in the execution of her sister, Mary, Queen of Scots. Beyond gifts, When Women Ruled the World delves into the connections the regents created among themselves, connections that historians have long considered beneath notice. “Like fellow soldiers in a sororal troop,” Quilligan writes, these women protected and aided each other. Aware of the leveling patriarchal power of the Reformation, they consolidated forces, governing as “sisters” within a royal family that exercised power by virtue of inherited right—the very right that Protestantism rejected as a basis for rule. Vibrantly chronicling the artistic creativity and political ingenuity that flourished in the pockets of peace created by these four queens, Quilligan’s lavishly illustrated work offers a new perspective on the glorious sixteenth century and, crucially, the women who helped create it.

When Women Ruled the World

When Women Ruled the World
Author :
Publisher : National Geographic Society
Total Pages : 420
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9781426219771
ISBN-13 : 1426219776
Rating : 4/5 (71 Downloads)

Book Synopsis When Women Ruled the World by : Kara Cooney

Download or read book When Women Ruled the World written by Kara Cooney and published by National Geographic Society. This book was released on 2018 with total page 420 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Explores the lives of six remarkable female pharaohs, from Hatshe psut to Cleopatra--women who ruled with real power ... What was so special about ancient Egypt that provided women this kind of access to the highest political office? What was it about these women that allowed them to transcend patriarchal obstacles? What did Egypt gain from its liberal reliance on female leadership, and could today's world learn from its example?"--

Game of Queens

Game of Queens
Author :
Publisher : Basic Books
Total Pages : 394
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9780465096794
ISBN-13 : 0465096794
Rating : 4/5 (94 Downloads)

Book Synopsis Game of Queens by : Sarah Gristwood

Download or read book Game of Queens written by Sarah Gristwood and published by Basic Books. This book was released on 2016-11-29 with total page 394 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Sarah Gristwood has written a masterpiece that effortlessly and enthrallingly interweaves the amazing stories of women who ruled in Europe during the Renaissance period." -- Alison Weir Sixteenth-century Europe saw an explosion of female rule. From Isabella of Castile, and her granddaughter Mary Tudor, to Catherine de Medici, Anne Boleyn, and Elizabeth Tudor, these women wielded enormous power over their territories, shaping the course of European history for over a century. Across boundaries and generations, these royal women were mothers and daughters, mentors and protées, allies and enemies. For the first time, Europe saw a sisterhood of queens who would not be equaled until modern times. A fascinating group biography and a thrilling political epic, Game of Queens explores the lives of some of the most beloved (and reviled) queens in history.

Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History

Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History
Author :
Publisher : Vintage
Total Pages : 322
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9780307472779
ISBN-13 : 0307472779
Rating : 4/5 (79 Downloads)

Book Synopsis Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History by : Laurel Thatcher Ulrich

Download or read book Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History written by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2008-09-23 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From admired historian—and coiner of one of feminism's most popular slogans—Laurel Thatcher Ulrich comes an exploration of what it means for women to make history. In 1976, in an obscure scholarly article, Ulrich wrote, "Well behaved women seldom make history." Today these words appear on t-shirts, mugs, bumper stickers, greeting cards, and all sorts of Web sites and blogs. Ulrich explains how that happened and what it means by looking back at women of the past who challenged the way history was written. She ranges from the fifteenth-century writer Christine de Pizan, who wrote The Book of the City of Ladies, to the twentieth century’s Virginia Woolf, author of A Room of One's Own. Ulrich updates their attempts to reimagine female possibilities and looks at the women who didn't try to make history but did. And she concludes by showing how the 1970s activists who created "second-wave feminism" also created a renaissance in the study of history.

Dressing Up

Dressing Up
Author :
Publisher : OUP Oxford
Total Pages : 0
Release :
ISBN-10 : 0199645183
ISBN-13 : 9780199645183
Rating : 4/5 (83 Downloads)

Book Synopsis Dressing Up by : Ulinka Rublack

Download or read book Dressing Up written by Ulinka Rublack and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2011-11-10 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Uses an astonishing array of sources to imagine the Renaissance afresh by considering people´s appearances: what they wore, how this made them move, what images they created, and how all this made people feel about themselves.

Da Vinci's Tiger

Da Vinci's Tiger
Author :
Publisher : HarperCollins
Total Pages : 177
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9780062231710
ISBN-13 : 0062231715
Rating : 4/5 (10 Downloads)

Book Synopsis Da Vinci's Tiger by : L. M. Elliott

Download or read book Da Vinci's Tiger written by L. M. Elliott and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2015-11-10 with total page 177 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For fans of rich and vivid historical novels like Girl with a Pearl Earring and Code Name Verity, Laura Malone Elliott delivers the stunning tale of real-life Renaissance woman Ginevra de' Benci, the inspiration for one of Leonardo da Vinci's earliest masterpieces. The young and beautiful daughter of a wealthy family, Ginevra longs to share her poetry and participate in the artistic ferment of Renaissance Florence but is trapped in an arranged marriage in a society dictated by men. The arrival of the charismatic Venetian ambassador, Bernardo Bembo, introduces Ginevra to a dazzling circle of patrons, artists, and philosophers. Bembo chooses Ginevra as his Platonic muse and commissions a portrait of her by a young Leonardo da Vinci. Posing for the brilliant painter inspires an intimate connection between them, one Ginevra only begins to understand. In a rich and vivid world of exquisite art with a dangerous underbelly of deadly political feuds, Ginevra faces many challenges to discover her voice and artistic companionship—and to find love.

The Cardinal's Hat

The Cardinal's Hat
Author :
Publisher : ABRAMS
Total Pages : 191
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9781468303858
ISBN-13 : 1468303856
Rating : 4/5 (58 Downloads)

Book Synopsis The Cardinal's Hat by : Mary Hollingsworth

Download or read book The Cardinal's Hat written by Mary Hollingsworth and published by ABRAMS. This book was released on 2006-05-02 with total page 191 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A riveting portrait of the day-to-day life of a wealthy, worldly Renaissance prince” as he pursues power and influence in the Catholic church (USA Today). The second son of Alfonso d’Este and Lucretia Borgia, the Duke and Duchess of Ferrara, Ippolito d’Este was made the archbishop of Milan at the age of nine. But from the time of his father’s death in 1534, he set his ambitions on acquiring the powerful and coveted cardinal’s hat. But one did not become a sixteenth century prince of the church through piety and good works. Ippolito had a taste for gambling and women. He enjoyed hunting in the Loir valley and pursued his ambition with money, schmoozing, and the dark arts of politics. Working with Ippolito’s letters and ledgers, recently uncovered in an archive in Modena, Italy, Mary Hollingsworth has pieced together a fascinating and undeniably titillating tale of this Renaissance cardinal and his road to power and wealth in sixteenth century Europe. The ledgers document every aspect of Ippolito’s comings, goings, purchases, and debts. Out of these finely detailed records, Hollingsworth brings to life not only Ippolito, but his world. “In this brilliant piece of historical detective work and narrative reconstruction . . . the most unlikely bits and pieces—a scrap of velvet, a stray barrel of wine—can be made to tell stories that resonate far beyond the neat columns of a well-kept account book.” —The Guardian