The Wars of the Roses and the implications they had on kingship have been studied at length by scholars. But these wars also had implications on queens and queenship since queens shared the king’s central role at court and in government.... more
The Wars of the Roses and the implications they had on kingship have been studied at length by scholars. But these wars also had implications on queens and queenship since queens shared the king’s central role at court and in government. Questions of legitimacy were at the heart of the Wars of the Roses, so queens were necessarily involved as the person who would produce an heir and, for some, as they participated actively to the politics. Many questions drove my research. How did a woman become queen? What role was she expected have? Where did she drew her power from? How did she exercise it? To focus my study of the queens to the Wars of the Roses allowed me to bring out the regular aspects of queenship that had been practised for a long time, but also to study the power that queens could have and how they exercised it in times of political troubles. Moreover, the four queens I studied come from four different backgrounds and accessed the throne under different circumstances.
