Scandal and reputation at the court of Catherine de Medici / Una McIlvenna.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

McIlvenna, Una, author.

Series:

Women and gender in the early modern world

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Catherine de Médicis, Queen, consort of Henry II, King of France, 1519-1589--In literature.

Catherine de Médicis.

Catherine de Médicis, Queen, consort of Henry II, King of France, 1519-1589.

French literature--16th century--History and criticism.

French literature.

Scandals in literature.

Courts and courtiers in literature.

Women in literature.

Sex discrimination--France--History--16th century.

Sex discrimination.

Women's rights--France--History--16th century.

Women's rights.

Reputation--France--History--16th century.

Reputation.

Literature.

History.

France.

Genre:

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

History.

Physical Description:

viii, 224 pages ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Abingdon, Oxon : Routledge, 2016.

Summary:

Scandal and Reputation at the Court of Catherine de Medici explores Catherine de Medici's 'flying squadron', the legendary ladies-in-waiting of the sixteenth-century French queen mother who were alleged to have been ordered to seduce politically influential men for their mistress's own Machiavellian purposes. Branded a 'cabal of cuckoldry' by a contemporary critic, these women were involved in scandals that have encouraged a perception, which continues in much academic literature, of the late Valois court as debauched and corrupt. Rather than trying to establish the guilt or innocence of the accused, Una McIlvenna here focuses on representations of the scandals in popular culture and print, and on the collective portrayal of the women in the libelous and often pornographic literature that circulated information about the court. She traces the origins of this material to the all-male intellectual elite of the parlementaires: lawyers and magistrates who expressed their disapproval of Catherine's political and religious decisions through misogynist pamphlets and verse that targeted the women of her entourage. Scandal and Reputation at the Court of Catherine de Medici reveals accusations of poisoning and incest to be literary tropes within a tradition of female defamation dating to classical times that encouraged a collective and universalizing notion of women as sexually voracious, duplicitous and, ultimately, dangerous. In its focus on manuscript and early print culture, and on the transition from a world of orality to one dominated by literacy and textuality, this study has relevance for scholars of literary history, particularly those interested in pamphlet and libel culture. Book jacket.

Contents:

Introduction: Catherine de Medici and the myth of the "flying squadron"

Court life and its critics: the rise in satirical literature

The dissemination of scandal: news culture in early modern France

Venomous rumours: the scandal of Isabelle de Limeuil

Word of honour: Françoise de Rohan versus the Duke of Nemours

The triumph of the matriarch: Anne d'Este, Duchess of Guise, Duchess of Nemours

Conclusion: a re-assessment of scandal.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781472428219

1472428218

OCLC:

932116012