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Legitimizing the Queen
Propaganda and Ideology in the Reign of Isabel I of Castile
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Publisher:
2010
Summary
Legitimizing the Queen deals with a genre particular to the Middle Ages: the specula principum (mirror of prince). Its importance as an object of study may be understood in light of the political instability that wracked the Castilian fifteenth century. The many works written for and dedicated to Isabel I of Castile depict her kingdom as a shipwrecked boat, a wayward realm, and a land of bankrupt people. These works suggest the kingdom's need for redemption through the strong leadership of the Catholic monarchs. These largely propagandistic works were designed to garner power, and once maintained, further Isabel's agenda. This book frames the concept of sovereignty from the theoretical perspective of the speculum principum dedicated to her. It offers a Bourdieuian approach to the more literary specula texts used to legitimize and uphold Isabel's power. This book reveals propagandistic qualities promoting the ideology necessary to legitimize and support Isabel's claims to the throne. Written primarily between 1468 and 1493, these works are literary artifacts that mark the rise to power of a female sovereign. The study discusses the various strategies of legitimation employed by these propagandists whose works circulated within noble and royal courts, and presumably extended into Castile as justification for her sovereign claim to the throne. By analyzing fifteenth century texts from within a modern critical framework, this book reexamines Isabel's position as queen and contributes to the understanding of her shared sovereignty in a period political and social evolution.
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Bibliographic data
Copyright year
2010
ISBN-Print
978-1-61148-018-4
ISBN-Online
978-1-61148-019-1
Publisher
Lexington, Lanham
Language
English
Pages
190
Product type
Book Titles
Table of contents
ChapterPages
Contents No access
Acknowledgments No access
Prologue: Tanto monta, monta tanto: Political and Literary Affinitiesin the Quest for Sovereignty No access
1. A Mirror for the Princess?: Advice Books and the Debate on Women No access Pages 23 - 44
2. Politics and Gender in the Fight for Castile No access Pages 45 - 68
3. Legitimizing the Queen: Isabel the Catholic and the Poncella de Francia No access Pages 69 - 94
4. The Transparent Mirror: The Application for Justice in the Diálogo del prudente rey y el sabio aldeano No access Pages 95 - 124
5. The Fractured Portrait, a Cracked Mirror of Ideals No access Pages 125 - 136
