Honors Program Theses
Award/Availability
Open Access Honors Program Thesis
First Advisor
Jay Lees
Keywords
Matilda, Empress, consort of Henry V, Holy Roman Emperor, 1102-1167; Margaret, of Anjou, Queen, consort of Henry VI, King of England, 1430-1482; Empresses--Rome--History; Queens--Great Britain--History;
Abstract
In reading the descriptions of the Empress Matilda and Queen Margaret of Anjou by their contemporaries, it is clear that their male counterparts were threatened by their attempts to participate in the politics and governance of England. It is also clear that male rulers believed that these two women's use of power was a usurpation of the traditional gender hierarchy. Therefore, male chroniclers, living contemporaneously with either the Empress Matilda of Queen Margaret, created descriptions of them that reflected the propaganda promulgated against them during their lifetimes. This propaganda imposed a strict dichotomization of gender roles in order to prevent women from gaining and holding leadership in the public sphere.
Year of Submission
2011
Department
Department of History
University Honors Designation
A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the designation University Honors
Date Original
2011
Object Description
66 p.
Copyright
© 2011 Elizabeth Anne Wiedenheft
Language
EN
File Format
application/pdf
Recommended Citation
Wiedenheft, Elizabeth Anne, ""With a Woman's Bitterness": Early Propaganda Against Female Rulers in Medieval Chronicles in the Twelfth and Fifteenth Centuries" (2011). Honors Program Theses. 60.
https://scholarworks.uni.edu/hpt/60
