Queens in the Cult of the French Renaissance Monarchy

This critical study traces the continuity of ideas regarding gender and moral authority in late-medieval and Reformation France. Its central concern is to interpret changing attitudes toward social and political relationships that once supported the public authority of successive queens, foremost Catherine and Marie de Medici, who presided over the French Polity, including elite institutions of the royal court and law courts. While modern scholars write vigorously about the character of French public law, arguing that jurists intentionally forged a cannon of law that excluded women from the lawful jurisdiction of government, this study reveals considerable evidence of the topoi of devotion to the queens of France by those who suffered through the political and religious contests of their age.