Re: I have a question... -- Medieval History Fall 2002

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Date Posted: 19:55:13 09/09/02 Mon
Author: Matthew Cason
Subject: Re: I have a question...
In reply to: Daniel Hoffman 's message, "Re: I have a question..." on 19:01:04 09/09/02 Mon

Thanks, Dr. Hoffman. I'll be sure to check that out.

That other Medieval woman I was going to mention earlier, but my browser at work went haywire before I could:

Isabella Capet, wife of Edward II of England, stylized 'The She-Wolf of France' and 'The Far-More-Objectionable-Term of England'

In my estimation, one of the most overlooked personages of the late Middle Ages, her only contemporary 'media' depiction, that I've ever witnessed, was in Braveheart, wherein they had the gall to suggest that Edward III was the illegitimate son of William Wallace ... but we won't go there. ;)

The sister of the King of France, an indomitable woman as hard-hearted and brutally ambitious as any man, Isabella was perhaps more accurately portrayed in the movie as being the one who wore the pants in the Plantagenet family after the death of Edward I. Her husband something of a timid and reclusive sort, though, I think, not as given to predelictions of 'alternative lifestyle' as Braveheart suggested, Isabella nonetheless WAS the real power in England for over a decade. In fact, she and her lover, Lord Mortimer, actually murdered the king, and she reigned as regent until her son, Edward III, came of age. Even then, the young prince had to fight to gain his inheritance. In her tenure, though Isabella made some poor decisions, most of which can be attributed to her hot-headed and brash paramour, she nonetheless set the political stage for the Hundred Years' War which would break out under her son, and perhaps even more than any of the male Plantagenets, paved the way for the rise and fall of English fortunes on the Continent. A truly remarkable woman, and one which I think was greatly tarnished by contemporary sources who weren't exactly complimentary to her, both for her French heritage (something which never went over well in England), and for the regicide which she committed. Perhaps most remarkable, though, is that she not only wrested control of the kingdom from her husband, but held onto it, a feat which few men in far more secure positions of power could have ever achieved.

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