Agnès Sorel and the French Monarchy

History, Gallantry, and National Identity

Inbunden, Engelska, 2022

Av Tracy Adams, University of Auckland) Adams, Tracy (Professor in European Languages and Literatures

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Agnès Sorel (1428–1450), beautiful favourite of Charles VII of France and first in the long genealogy of French royal mistresses, was mysteriously poisoned in the prime of life. Agnès, part of a network of royal “favourites,” is equally interesting for her political activity. And yet, no scholarly study in English of her exists. This study brings her story to an English-speaking audience, examining her in her historical context, that is, the factional struggle for power waged against Charles VII by the dauphin Louis and the king’s final routing of the English. It then traces Agnès’s afterlife, exploring her roles as founding mother of the tradition of the French royal mistress and foil for the less popular holders of the “office”; as erotic fantasy figure for nineteenth-century historians “re-inventing” the Middle Ages; and, most recently, as poignant victim for fans of the true crime genre.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum2022-07-31
Mått152 x 229 x 8 mm
Vikt417 g
FormatInbunden
SpråkEngelska
SerieGender and Power in the Premodern World
Antal sidor164
FörlagArc Humanities Press
ISBN9781641893527

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Tracy Adams is Professor in European Languages and Literatures at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. She is the author of Violent Passions: Managing Love in the Old French Verse Romance (2005), The Life and Afterlife of Isabeau of Bavaria (2010), Christine de Pizan and the Fight for France (2014), and co-author with Christine Adams of The Creation of the French Royal Mistress: From Agnès Sorel to Madame Du Barry (2020).

Introduction: Why a New Study of Agnès Sorel?Part One: What We Know About Agnès Sorel and How We Know ItChapter One: Who Was Agnès Sorel?Chapter Two: The Primary SourcesChapter Three: The First Royal Mistress in Historical ContextPart Two: The Spectacular Afterlife of Agnès SorelChapter Four: Communicative Memory: The Melun Diptych and the Saviour NarrativeChapter Five: Cultural Memory: Agnès as CelebrityChapter Six: Agnès la GallanteChapter Seven: History, Gallantry, and National IdentityConclusion: Agnès as Modern Celebrity

Tracy Adams’s newest publication is succinct yet dense and informative. In her trademark style, she challenges the historical record. The monograph’s titular subject is Agnès Sorel, the fifteenth-century beauty celebrated as the first famous royal mistress in France, but the subtitle conveys the ingenuity of Adams’s study. With an interdisciplinary scope, she surveys art, literature, historical records, and even forensic evidence to track Agnès’s biography and fame. Most provocatively, Adams teases out the personal interpretations and underlying motivations influencing chroniclers, artists, authors, and historians who write about Agnès Sorel. It is ultimately a book about how those who create history are themselves influenced by the contexts in which they live and record.