by Dr. Cathleen Sarti (Balliol College, Oxford) Workshop Three: Affinities and Administration This workshop on Affinities & Administration of Royal Women in Premodern Europe closed a workshop series conducted virtually during the pandemic. Going online enabled us to keep the conversation on resources and revenues of royal women, started in a core team around 2018, going, and – even more important – to include much more and much more widely spread scholars than usual. In this third workshop, scholars from England, Germany, Spain, Sweden, and Australia were able to share their research. The audience also joined from their homes all over Europe, Australia, or North America. In the first two workshops on lands and resources the importance of administration and networks for royal women – be they empresses, queens, electresses, duchesses, or princesses – were discussed. This third workshop now put the spotlight on “queen adjacent”-actors, as Nicola Clark (Chichester, UK), one of the presenters, called them. Monarchical rule, despite the name, was a joint effort, and royal women were often particularly good in making use of formal and informal connections. Royal female households, consisting of administrative personnel, ladies-in-waiting, household staff, and family members. Discussing cases from various European realms […]

by Dr. Charlotte Backerra (Göttingen) Workshop Two: Resources The workshop on ‘Resources’ was the second of three virtual workshops of the international project Examining the Resources and Revenues of Royal Women in Premodern Europe. In this project, we are focused on the economic means and agency of royal women, such as empresses, queens, and other sovereign rulers or consorts, from different medieval and early modern countries such as Bohemia, England, France, Holy Roman Empire, Poland, Portugal, or Spain. The workshops, held in 2021 and early 2022, connected researchers from all over the world who presented sources and case studies relevant to the specific topics of each workshop. For the second workshop from 8-9 September 2021, the general themes were dower, dowry, and accounts. Generally, the resources of a premodern woman and especially consort were based on marriage contracts and inheritance certificates. In most marriage contracts, dower, dowry, widerlage, morgive, and pin money were specified. Sources on financial inheritance are testaments and inventories, which allow us to trace inheritances given to a woman, for example by her mother, father, brothers and sisters, or members of the wider family. Resources consisted of lands, monetary income, and material possessions. In terms of lands, the […]

by Dr. Katia Wright (AGC Museum, Winchester) Workshop One: Lands On 19 and 20 May 2021, scholars gathered together online from across the globe to attend a workshop regarding the question of royal women’s lands. This was the first of a series of workshops organised by the Examining the Resources and Revenues of Royal Women in Premodern Europe project, which analyses the economic revenues and agency of royal women across Europe. These workshops, which culminated in a conference in September 2022, marked phase one of the project, and were designed to highlight key areas of ongoing research and to raise questions regarding royal women’s finances and resources. This initial workshop focused on lands and landownership as nearly all royal women from queens to duchesses, empresses to princesses, had access to some form of landed income across their lifetimes. The papers presented at the workshop covered a wide range of areas and time periods across premodern Europe and highlighted key issues to be addressed in the following workshops and important questions for the project to answer. ‘Lands’ covers a vast subject surrounding queenly resources, which overlaps with the majority of royal women’s finances across premodern Europe. All women received income from […]

by the Past & Present editorial team Prof. Alice Rio (King’s College, London) has moved from the position of Publications Editor to become co-editor of the journal with Prof. Matthew Hilton (Queen Mary College, London). Our thanks to Prof. Alex Walsham (Emmanuel College, Cambridge) for her service to the Society as co-editor. Prof. Walsham will be continuing her service to the journal as a member of the editoral board.