Berenguela of Castile (1180-1246) and Political Women in the High Middle Ages / The New Middle Ages (PDF)

MIRIAM SHADIS holds an appointment as Research Scholar at Ohio University, where she also teaches in History and has taught in Women's Studies.

'Shadis' Berenguela of Castile is a valuable and significant contribution to our understanding of the role and place of royal women in politics (or, as she puts it, "female rulership"), of their significant political and cultural roles in medieval society, and of their ability to act as co-rulers or as queens on their own. Although most medievalists working on the kingdom of Castile know of Berenguela's unique role as queen and as mother of Ferdinand III, there are no modern studies of her reign and life until Shadis' book. As such, Berenguela of Castile is a pioneer work, dealing with a topic hitherto misunderstood or ignored by recent scholarship." - The Medieval Review

'Berenguela of Castile is a major addition to studies of queenship and of Iberia especially. Not only does it bring scholarly attention to an individual monarch who has been often overlooked, it also interrogates the place of women - wives and especially mothers - within the jointly ruled monarchy of western Iberia.' - American Academy of Research Historians of Medieval Spain

'Shadis has built an outstanding piece of political history and history of the genre which greatly enriches our historical knowledge and helps lay the groundwork for further and necessary approaches to the relationship between power, politics, and women in the medieval past.' - Hispania

'Under Shadis's deft analysis, a whole new view of Berenguela emerges; one who was not the victim of political events, but rather the architect of them.' - Medieval Feminist Forum

'This book is thus more than just the biography of one medieval queen; it is an invitation to scholars of medieval queenship to situate their own subjects within a new analytical framework: one that is actively engaged with what it meant to be a female lord in particular without ignoring other important factors that at times transcended gender.' - Marie A. Kelleher, California State University, American Historical