Feminae: Medieval Women and Gender Index
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Record Number:
8196
Author(s)/Creator(s):
Stafford , Pauline.
Contributor(s):
Title:
Cherchez la femme. Queens, Queens' Lands, and Nunneries: Missing Links in the Foundation of Reading Abbey
Source:
History: The Journal of the Historical Association 85, 277 (January 2000): Pages 4 - 27. Reprinted in Gender, Family and the Legitimation of Power: England from the Ninth to Early Twelfth Century. By Pauline Stafford. Ashgate Variorum, 2006. Article XII.
Description:
Article Type:
Journal Article
Subject
(See Also)
:
Church and State
Henry I, King of England
Kings
Land Tenure
Lay Piety
Monasticism
Patronage, Ecclesiastical
Penance
Queens
Reading, Berkshire, England- Abbey, a Male Cluniac House
Award Note:
Geographic Area:
British Isles
Century:
10-11
Primary Evidence:
Illustrations:
Table:
Abstract:
In 1121 Henry I founded Reading abbey, an event closely connected in time to his second marriage. This article links the lands used to endow Reading with those of late Saxon queens and of female communities themselves linked to queens. It explores lay control of such communities and the circumstances in which such control came to be defined as unacceptable, and thus in which monastic reform advanced. The events of 1120-21, after the tragic death of Henry's only legitimate son, are seen as constituting just such a circumstance. The foundation of Reading abbey, as a male Cluniac house, used former queens' lands and freed the lands of older religious communities. It was simultaneously an act of penance, a celebration of queenship and legitimate dynastic continuity, and an offering for the purification and fertility of the king's new marriage. [Reproduced by permission of Blackwell Publishers].
Related Resources:
Author's Affiliation:
University of Liverpool
Conference Info:
- , -
Year of Publication:
2000.
Language:
English
ISSN/ISBN:
00182648