Through detailed study of these women the author demonstrates the integral place of royal queens in the rule of the English kingdom and in the process of unification by which England was made.

Known in 'The Anglo-Saxon Chronicles' simply as 'the Lady', Emma was a wife, mother and widow as well as a queen. Standing at the meeting point of the three cultures of the early Middle Ages - Saxon, Viking and Norman - Emma and her queenship provide a captivating picture of a still-misperceived age.

In England in Europe, Elizabeth Tyler focuses on two histories: the Encomium Emmae Reginae, written for Emma the wife of the Æthelred II and Cnut, and The Life of King Edward, written for Edith the wife of Edward the Confessor. Tyler offers a bold literary and historical analysis of both texts and reveals how the two queens actively engaged in the patronage of history-writing and poetry to exercise their royal authority. Tyler’s innovative combination of attention to intertextuality and regard for social networks emphasizes the role of women at the centre of Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-Norman court literature. In doing so, she argues that both Emma and Edith’s negotiation of conquests and factionalism created powerful models of queenly patronage that were subsequently adopted by individuals such as Queen Margaret of Scotland, Countess Adela of Blois, Queen Edith/Matilda, and Queen Adeliza. England in Europe sheds new lighton the connections between English, French, and Flemish history-writing and poetry and illustrates the key role Anglo-Saxon literary culture played in European literature long after 1066.

What have a deaf nun, the mother of the first baby born to Europeans in North America, and a condemned heretic to do with one another? They are among the virtuous virgins, marvelous maidens, and fierce feminists of the Middle Ages who trail-blazed paths for women today. Without those first courageous souls who worked in fields dominated by men, women might not have the presence they currently do in professions such as education, the law, and literature. Focusing on women from Western Europe between c. 300 and 1500 CE in the medieval period and richly carpeted with detail, A Medieval Woman’s Companion offers a wealth of information about real medieval women who are now considered vital for understanding the Middle Ages in a full and nuanced way. Short biographies of 20 medieval women illustrate how they have anticipated and shaped current concerns, including access to education; creative emotional outlets such as art, theater, romantic fiction, and music; marriage and marital rights; fertility, pregnancy, childbirth, contraception and gynecology; sex trafficking and sexual violence; the balance of work and family; faith; and disability. Their legacy abides until today in attitudes to contemporary women that have their roots in the medieval period. The final chapter suggests how 20th and 21st century feminist and gender theories can be applied to and complicated by medieval women's lives and writings. Doubly marginalized due to gender and the remoteness of the time period, medieval women’s accomplishments are acknowledged and presented in a way that readers can appreciate and find inspiring. Ideal for high school and college classroom use in courses ranging from history and literature to women's and gender studies, an accompanying website with educational links, images, downloadable curriculum guide, and interactive blog will be made available at the time of publication.

The first-ever biography of the most powerful woman of tenth-century England.

A stunning history of power, love and greed in 11th-century England - the remarkable story of Queen Emma and the Vikings 'Harriet O'Brien recreates this intriguing and complex world with skill and imagination' Daily Telegraph 'O'Brien's story is a dramatic one, and her Queen Emma a commanding, shrewd and manipulative figure ... genuinely powerful' Guardian Emma was one of England's most remarkable queens: a formidable woman who made her mark on a Europe beset by Vikings. By birth a Norman, she married and outlived two kings of England and witnessed the coronations of two of her sons: Harthcnut the Viking and Edward the Confessor. She became an unscrupulous political player and was diversely regarded as a generous Christian patron, the admired co-regent of the nation, and a ruthlessly Machiavellian mother. She was, above all, a survivor: her life was punctuated by dramatic falls, all of which she overcame. Her story is one of power, politics, love, greed and scandal in an England caught between the Dark Ages and the Norman invasion of 1066.

In The Monstrous Regiment of Women , Sharon Jansen explores the case for and against female rule by examining the arguments made by theorists from Sir John Fortescue (1461) through Bishop Bossuet (1680) interweaving their arguments with references to the most well-known early modern queens. The 'story' of early modern European political history looks very different if, instead of focusing on kings and their sons, we see successive generations of powerful women and the shifting political alliances of the period from a very different, and revealing, perspective.