Series Editors: Carole Levin and Charles Beem

Transcription

1 QUEENSHIP AND POWER Series Editors: Carole Levin and Charles Beem This series brings together monographs and edited volumes from scholars specializing in gender analysis, women s studies, literary interpretation, and cultural, political, constitutional, and diplomatic history. It aims to broaden our understanding of the strategies that queens both consorts and regnants, as well as female regents pursued in order to wield political power within the structures of male-dominant societies. In addition to works describing European queenship, it also includes books on queenship as it appeared in other parts of the world, such as East Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Islamic civilization. Editorial Board Linda Darling, University of Arizona (Ottoman Empire) Theresa Earenfight, Seattle University (Spain) Dorothy Ko, Barnard College (China) Nancy Kollman, Stanford University (Russia) John Thornton, Boston University (Africa and the Atlantic World) John Watkins (France and Italy) Published by Palgrave Macmillan The Lioness Roared: The Problems of Female Rule in English History By Charles Beem Elizabeth of York By Arlene Naylor Okerlund Learned Queen: The Imperial Image of Elizabeth I By Linda Shenk High and Mighty Queens of Early Modern England: Realities and Representations Edited by Carole Levin, Debra Barrett-Graves, and Jo Eldridge Carney The Monstrous Regiment of Women: Female Rulers in Early Modern Europe By Sharon L. Jansen The Face of Queenship: Early Modern Representations of Elizabeth I By Anna Riehl Elizabeth I: The Voice of a Monarch By Ilona Bell Tudor Queenship: The Reigns of Mary and Elizabeth By Anna Whitelock and Alice Hunt The Death of Elizabeth I: Remembering and Reconstructing the Virgin Queen By Catherine Loomis

2 Queenship and Voice in Medieval Northern Europe By William Layher The Foreign Relations of Elizabeth I Edited by Charles Beem The French Queen s Letters: Mary Tudor Brandon and the Politics of Marriage in Sixteenth-Century Europe By Erin A. Sadlack Wicked Women of Tudor England: Queens, Aristocrats, Commoners By Retha M. Warnicke A Monarchy of Letters: Royal Correspondence and English Diplomacy in the Reign of Elizabeth I By Rayne Allinson Mary I: Gender, Power, and Ceremony in the Reign of England s First Queen By Sarah Duncan Three Medieval Queens: Queenship and the Crown in Fourteenth-Century England By Lisa Benz St. John The Last Plantagenet Consorts: Gender, Genre, and Historiography, By Kavita Mudan Finn Fairy Tale Queens: Representations of Early Modern Queenship (forthcoming) By Jo Eldridge Carney Renaissance Queens of France (forthcoming) By Glenn Richardson

3 T HREE MEDIEVAL QUEENS Q UEENSHIP AND THE CROWN IN FOURTEENTH-CENTURY ENGLAND Lisa B e n z St. John

4 THREE MEDIEVAL QUEENS Copyright Lisa Benz St. John, Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition All rights reserved. First published in 2012 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN in the United States a division of St. Martin s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world, this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number , of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave and Macmillan are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN ISBN (ebook) DOI / Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available from the Library of Congress. A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library. Design by Newgen Imaging Systems (P) Ltd., Chennai, India. First edition: June 2012

5 C ONTENTS Ack n o wled g m e n t s List of Abbreviations vii ix 1 Modern Studies of Queenship 1 2 Re con st r uc t i n g Me d ie v a l E x p e c t at ion s 19 3 The Queen as Intercessor: Power and Influence 33 4 A Royal Institution: The Queen s Household and Estates 65 5 Motherhood, Matriarchy, and the Royal Family 95 6 Administrator of the Realm C onc lu sion s 165 A pp end i x I: Nu m b er of I nter ces sion a r y Ac ts 17 1 Notes 175 Bibliography 227 Index 2 47

6 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I first and foremost thank Mark Ormrod, who has gone above and beyond the expectations for, and duties of, a PhD supervisor. Without his support, encouragement, and flexibility, this book would never have been written. I would like to thank my editors, Charles Beem and Carole Levin, for recognizing the potential in a PhD dissertation. I pay particular regard to Helen Maurer, who first introduced me to queenship studies as an undergraduate. I would also like to express my gratitude to Jeffrey Hamilton and Douglas Biggs, I owe special thanks for their frequent advice, encouragement, and continued interest in my work. I have been fortunate to work in an intellectual community at the University of York, where I was able to draw upon a variety of scholarly expertise during the research and writing of this book. These scholars include, but are not limited to Jocelyn Wogan-Browne, Philippa Hoskin, and Christine Phillips, who helped with French and Latin translations and transcriptions; and Sarah Rees Jones, Jocelyn Wogan-Browne, Simon Harris, Grace Woutersz, Robert Kinsey, Barbara Gribling, Catherine Casson, and Bronach Kane for offering primary source references, and for reading drafts of the PhD thesis, which formed the backbone of this current work. I would also like to thank Mark Ormrod, Jeffrey Hamilton, and Graham St. John for reading full drafts of this book, I take full responsibility for any errors of fact or interpretation that remain within. Further afield, I would like to acknowledge the help offered by the staff at the National Archives, London, the members of the Fourteenth Century Political Society, and the Society of the White Hart. Lastly, I thank my parents for always encouraging me to find a fulfilling goal and to have the strength to accomplish it; my extended family and friends for their support, especially Donna Benz and Robert Robillard; and Graham, for his unshakable belief in my abilities.

7 A BBREVIATIONS Annales Stubbs, William ed. Annales Londonienses. Londonienses Chronicles of the Reigns of Edward I and Edward II. Vol. 1. Rolls Series 76. New York: Kraus Reprint, Annales Paulini Stubbs, William ed. Annales Paulini. Chronicles of the Reigns of Edward I and Edward II. Vol. 1. Rolls Series 76. New York: Kraus Reprint, Anonimalle Childs, Wendy R and John Taylor, eds. The Anonimalle Chronicle, : From the Brotherton Collection MS 29. York: Yorkshire Archaeological Society le B a ker le B a ker, G e of f r e y. Chronicon Galfredi Le Baker De Swynebroke. Edited by E. M. Thompson. Oxford: Oxford University Press, Br id l i n g ton Chronicle Stubbs, William ed. Gesta Edwardi de Carnarvan Auctore Canonico Bridlingtoniensi. Chronicles of the Reigns of Edward I and Edward II. Vol. 2. Rolls Series 76. New York: Kraus Reprint, BL M S Brut Chronicle C C R Br it i s h L ibr a r y M a nu s c r ipt. Brie, Friedrich W. D. ed. The Brut, or The Chronicles of England. Early English Text Society, Original Series 136. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner, Calendar of Close Rolls, Edward II Richard II, 24 vols. London, Her Majesty s Stationary Office C C W Calendar of Chancery Warrants London, Her Majesty s Stationary Office, 1927.

8 x Abbreviations C C h R Calendar of Charter Rolls, Henry III Henry VIII, 6 vols. London, Her Majesty s Stationary Office C F R Calendar of Fine Rolls, Edward II Richard II, 10 vols. London, Her Majesty s Stationary Office, Chroniques Aungier, George James ed. Chroniques de London. de London, Camden Society, Old Series 28. London: Offices of the Royal Historical Society, C PL Bl i s s, W. H. et a l., e d s. Calendar Entries in the Papal Registers Relating to Great Britain and Ireland: Papal Letters, London: Her Majesty s Stationary Office, C PR Calendar of Patent Rolls, Henry III-Henry VI, 49 vols. London, Her Majesty s Stationary Office C PM R T hom a s, A. H. a nd P. E. Jones, e d s. Calendar of Plea and Memoranda Rolls of the City of London, , 6 vols. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, EETS, OS Early English Text Society, Original Series. EETS, ES Early English Text Society, Extra Series. E GW The English Government at Work. E H R F lores Fo eder a Froi s s a r t Gervase Cont English Historical Review. Re a d i n g, Rob er t of, Flores Historiarum. Edited by Henry Richards Luard. 2 vols. Rolls Series 95. New York: Kraus Reprint, Ry mer, T hom a s. Foedera, 4 vols. Edited by Adam Clarke, Frederick Holbrook, and John Caley. London: George Eyre and Andrew Strahan, Froi s s a r t, Je a n. Oeuvres de Froissart. 24 vols. Edited by Kervyn de Lettenhove.Brussels, Stubbs, William ed. The Contintuation of the Chronicle of Gervase of Canterbury to In The Historical Works of Gervase of Canterbury. Vol. 2. Rolls Series 73. New York: Kraus Reprint, 1965,

9 Abbreviations xi HBC Powicke, F. Maurice and E. B. Fryde, eds. Handbook of British Chronology. London: Royal Historical Society, Historiae Raine, James ed. Historiae Dunelmensis Scriptores D u nel men si s Tres, Gaufridus Coldingham, Robertus de Graystaynes, et Willielmus de Chambre. Surtees Society 9. London: J. B. Nichols and Son, J M H Journal of Medieval History. J RU L Joh n Ry l a nd s Un i ver sit y L ibr a r y. K n i g hton K n i g hton, Hen r y Chronicon Henrici Knighton. 2 vols. Edited by J. R. Lumby. Rolls Series 92. New York: Kraus Reprint, Lanercost Stevenson, Joseph ed. Chronicon de Lanercost. Edinburgh, Edinburgh Printing Co., Langtoft Langtoft, Pierre de. The Chronicle of Pierre de Langtoft in French verse, from the Earliest Period to the Death of King Edward, Edited by T. Wright. Rolls Series 47. New York: Kraus Reprint, Mu r i mut h Mu r i mut h, Ad a m Adae Murimuth Continuatio Chronicarum [with] Robertus de Avesbury de Gestis Mirabilius Regis Edwardi Tertii. Edited by Edward Maunde Thompson. Rolls Series 93. New York: Kraus Reprint, ODNB Matthew, H. C. G. and Brian Harrison, eds. The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. 61 vols. Oxford: Oxford University Press, Peerage Cokayne, George E. and Vicary Gibbs, eds. The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom: Extant, Extinct or Dormant. 14 vols. Stroud: Sutton Publishing, Pol yc h ron icon H i g d en, R a nu lph. Polychronicon Ranulphi Higden Monachi Cestrensis. Edited by C. Babington and J. R. Lumby. Rolls Series 41. New York: Kraus Reprint, PROM E Pa rl i a ment Rol l s of Me d ie v a l E n g l a nd. Robert of Gestis Mirabilius Regis Edwardi Tertii. Edited by Avesbu r y E d w a rd M a u nd e T homps on, Rol l s S er ies

10 xii Abbreviations Scalachronica TNA Trokelow e Gray, Thomas. Scalachronica. Edited and translated by Andy King. Woodbridge: Boydell and Brewer, The National Archives, London. Trokelow e, Joh a n n i s d e. Johannis de Trokelowe et Henrici de Blaneford Chronica Et Annales. Edited by H. T. Riley. Rolls Series 28. New York: Kraus Reprint, VC H Vic tor i a C ou nt y H i stor y. Vita Childs Wendy R., trans., ed. Vita Edwardi Secundi. Oxford: Oxford University Press, WA M West m i n ster A bb e y Mu n i ments.