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WHEN WOMEN RULED THE WORLD

Maureen Quilligan

Making the Renaissance in Europe

A leading Renaissance scholar shows in this revisionist history how four powerful women redefined the culture of European monarchy in the glorious sixteenth century.

The sixteenth century in Europe was a time of chronic destabilization in which institutions of traditional authority were challenged and religious wars seemed unending. Yet it also witnessed the remarkable flowering of a pacifist culture, cultivated by a cohort of extraordinary women rulers - most notably, Mary Tudor; Elizabeth I; Mary, Queen of Scots; and Catherine de' Medici - whose lives were intertwined not only by blood and marriage, but by a shared recognition that their premier places in the world of just a few dozen European monarchs required them to bond together, as women, against the forces seeking to destroy them, if not the foundations of monarchy itself. Recasting the complex relationships among these four queens, Maureen Quilligan, a leading scholar of the Renaissance, rewrites centuries of historical analysis that sought to depict their governments as riven by personal jealousies and petty revenges. Instead, When Women Ruled the World shows how these regents carefully engendered a culture of mutual respect, focusing on the gift-giving by which they aimed to ensure ties of friendship and alliance. Beyond gifts, When Women Ruled the World delves into the connections the regents created among themselves, connections that historians have long considered beneath notice. "Like fellow soldiers in a sororal troop," Quilligan writes, these women protected and aided each other. Aware of the leveling patriarchal power of the Reformation, they consolidated forces, governing as "sisters" within a royal family that exercised power by virtue of inherited right - the very right that Protestantism rejected as a basis for rule. Vibrantly chronicling the artistic creativity and political ingenuity that flourished in the pockets of peace created by these four queens, Quilligan's lavishly illustrated work offers a new perspective on the glorious sixteenth century and, crucially, the women who helped create it. Maureen Quilligan is R. Florence Brinkley Professor of English Emerita at Duke University. The author of books about medieval and Renaissance literature, she was also coeditor of the groundbreaking essay collection Rewriting the Renaissance: The Discourses of Sexual Difference in Early Modern Europe.

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Book Published 2021-10-12 by Liveright

Comments

When Women Ruled the World is a rare delight, offering a vivid and intimate account - a page-turner! - revealing the lives, loves, betrayals, and murders that linked Mary Tudor; Mary, Queen of Scots; Elizabeth I; and Catherine de' Medici... Drawing upon a wealth of royal archives, Maureen Quilligan tells a story more fascinating than fiction.

The author pays particular attention to the way each woman navigated the prejudice against women in power... The choice to highlight connections rather than conflicts is intriguing, and Quilligan's arguments are thought-provoking... An interesting look at the lives and relationships of four of the Renaissance's most powerful women.

Quilligan's ability to regard the denizens of this harsh, cruel century with compassion is as remarkable as the clarity with which she pierces through the complexity of the political and religious turmoil they confronted without flinching. When Women Ruled the World reads as quickly as a novel, but its probing questions and keen analysis will stay with readers long afterward. Read more...

When Women Ruled the World is more than just biography, it's a survival guide for the modern woman. Once you realize what these queens went through to stay in power, you'll never again doubt that women can achieve anything. Behind every great woman, as Maureen Quilligan shows... is her own sheer persistence.

An imaginative retelling of the lives of the queens who in the later sixteenth century ruled France, England, and Scotland. Through their gifts of embroidery, jewels, and poetry, Maureen Quilligan brings to life the gestures of sisterhood between women too often assumed simply to be rivals.

In this lively and engaging book, Maureen Quilligan invites us to reflect upon four sixteenth-century women rulers.... This ambitious study takes a deeply creative turn by focusing on the gifts exchanged between these women - objects that knit them together through gestures of generosity and affection. While copious illustrations permit us to see the precious books, embroideries, and jewels in question, Quilligan's vivid analyses enable us to read them. We grasp how effectively the gifting of royal 'things' could foster important - and even improbable - Renaissance alliances.

Refuting traditional narratives of 'personal jealousy and rancor' between Catherine de' Medici, Elizabeth I, Mary Tudor, and Mary, Queen of Scots, Quilligan argues that these four queens recognized that they needed to band together to protect against the 'looming patriarchal power of the Reformation'... Quilligan lucidly explains the era's complex familial, religious, and political dynamics, and draws incisive character sketches. Renaissance buffs will treasure this sparkling revisionist history.

[An] extraordinary narrative that sweeps away centuries of historical bias... Anyone with an interest in Renaissance culture will want to read this revelatory book, not least for its relevance to the present.

When Women Ruled the World makes us see power-brokering in sixteenth-century Europe entirely anew. Written with wit and verve, this book... forces us to confront our willingness to accept cartoonish and simplistic accounts of female power, a problem that remains with us today.

...I began this book worried that its thesis would prove a case of wishful thinking or overstatement. I ended with a deep appreciation of a thought-provoking and delicately woven work of meticulous scholarship and obvious obsession... Those readers interested in this period would do well to add to their knowledge with this thrilling work, and they will be left with many things to think about. "When Women Ruled the World" has that excellent quality of a very good book: It poses a lot more questions than it can possibly answer. Read more...

Brazil: Grupo Autentica ; Estonian: Rahva Raamat

Maureen Quilligan carefully documents - and beautifully illustrates - the fascinating careers of four sixteenth-century European queens. She highlights their strategic gift-giving and professions of mutual affection, as well as their suspicions and rivalries, competition and collaboration.

With meticulous attention to the letters and gifts they exchanged, Quilligan argues that [Mary Tudor, Elizabeth I, Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots, and Catherine de' Medici] nurtured a culture of mutual respect... A useful addition to the literature on European royalty... An authoritative and sympathetic collective biography.