Queens, Consorts, Concubines: Gregory of Tours and Women of the Merovingian Elite

Erscheinungsjahr 2015
ISBN: 978-90-04-29089-1
Verlag: Brill

Buch, Englisch, Band 381, 204 Seiten, Format (B × H): 164 mm x 243 mm, Gewicht: 439 g

Reihe: Mnemosyne, Supplements / Mnemosyne, Supplements, Late Antique Literature

Gregory of Tours hoped to inspire the believers in sixth-century Gaul with examples of righteous and wicked deeds and their consequences. Critiquing his own society, Gregory contrasted vengeful queens, rebellious nuns, and conniving witches with pious widows, humble abbesses, and tearful saints. By examining his thematic treatment of topics including widowhood, marriage, sanctity, authority, and political agency, Queens, Consorts, Concubines reassesses the material shaped by such concerns, including e.g. Gregory’s accounts of Brunhild, Fredegund, Radegund, and other important elite women, Merovingian political policies (marital alliances, ecclesiastical intrigue, even assassinations), and seemingly unrelated topics such as Hermenegild’s rebellion and the career of Empress Sophia. The result: a new interpretation of an important witness to the transformations of Late Antiquity.

Autoren/Hrsg.

T Dailey, E.

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Mentalitäts- und Sozialgeschichte
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziale Gruppen/Soziale Themen Gender Studies, Geschlechtersoziologie
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Europäische Geschichte

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Contents

Acknowledgements
Abbreviations
Chart 1: The Merovingian Royal House I: The Family of Clovis
Chart 2: The Merovingian Royal House II: The Family of Chlothar I
Introduction

1 Widowhood

2 Holiness, Femininity, and Authority

3 Scandal in Poitiers

4 Brides and Social Status

5 Merovingian Marital Practice

6 Brunhild and Fredegund, I: Moral Opposites or Kindred Spirits?

7 Brunhild and Fredegund, II: Queens, Politics, and the Writing of History

Conclusion

Bibliography
Index

Über Autor(innen)

E.T. Dailey, Ph.D. (University of Leeds, 2011) has published studies on the transformations of the post-Roman world in several journals including Early Medieval Europe and the Journal of Late Antiquity.