The Queen and the Mistress
The Queen and the Mistress

Author: Gemma Hollman

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2023-04-04

Total Pages: 191

ISBN-13: 1639363602

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The riveting story of two women whose divergent personalities and positions impacted the court of Edward III, one of medieval England's greatest kings. There were two women in Edward III's life: Philippa of Hainault, his wife of forty years and bearer of twelve children, and his mistress, Alice Perrers, the twenty-year-old who took the king's fancy as his ageing wife grew sick. After Philippa's death Alice began to dominate court, amassing a fortune and persuading the elderly Edward to promote her friends and punish her enemies. In The Queen and the Mistress, Gemma Hollman brings the story of these two women to life and contrasts the "perfect" medieval queen—the pious, unpolitical, steady Philippa—with the impertinent youth—the wily, charismatic, manipulative Alice. One died a royal, adored, while the full force of the English court united against Alice, wresting both money and power from her and leaving her with nothing but a mission to try to reclaim all that was lost. Both women had wealth and power but used vitally different methods to dispense it. In The Queen and the Mistress, Hollman brings to the fore their differences and similarities in a unique look at women and power in the Middle Ages.

Self-representation of Medieval Religious Communities
Self-representation of Medieval Religious Communities

Author: Anne Müller

Publisher: LIT Verlag Münster

Published: 2009

Total Pages: 428

ISBN-13: 382581758X

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This book explores the medieval monastery as symbolic space (locus symbolicus) and looks at forms of self-representation in medieval monastic life. Papers focus on both the transitory nature of organised religious life, which is based on symbols, and the separate identities religious communities developed by using their own specific forms of ritual and symbolisation. Case studies treat the British Isles and the broader European context. Among the key issues explored here are rituals in internal organisation, the symbolic use of space, architecture and art, symbolism in social interactions, and symbolic constructions of the past.