Contents

Introduction: Extracting Elite Women’s Stories from Medieval and

Early Modern French Narrative Sources 1

1 The Affaire de la Tour de Nesle in Contemporary Chronicles:

History or Persecution Texts? 9

2 Isabeau of Bavaria and Christine de Pizan: Creating Political

Authority 33

3 Misogynistic Throwaways: The Case of Isabeau of Bavaria 49

4 Caught in the Middle: Valentina Visconti and Accusations of

Witchcraft 67

5 Revisiting Isabeau of Bavaria’s Jewels 79

6 Agnes Sorel and Antoinette de Maignelais: A Star

and a Footnote 93

7 Unpacking Brantome’s Particularitez 111

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8 “Issuing from the Great Flame of This Joy”: Louise of Savoy,

Marguerite of Navarre and Emotional Intimacy 129

9 Catfight or Political Rivalry? The Duchess of Etampes and

Diane de Poitiers 147

10 Eleanor of Austria: The Foreign Queen 167

11 “Vous pranderay pour ma seulle mestres”: Anne Boleyn’s

Marriage Strategy? 187

Index 233