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Isabel I's reign in Castile responds to the ostensible needs expressed throughout the fifteenth-century for moral and political regeneration. Isabel is seen in many works as a just and wise monarch, as a redeemer of her people, and as a divine sovereign. This book reviews changes in the gendered construction of Isabelline sovereignty from the theoretical perspective of the speculum principum dedicated to her. It offers a Bourdieuian approach to the more literary specula texts used to legitimize and uphold Isabel's power.
List of contents
1 Acknowledgments 2 Prologue: Tanto monta, monta tanto: Political and Literary Affinities in the Quest for Sovereignty Chapter 3 1. A Mirror for the Princess?: Advice Books and the Debate on Women Chapter 4 2. Politics and Gender in the Fight for Castile Chapter 5 3. Legitimizing the Queen: Isabel the Catholic and the Poncella de Francia Chapter 6 4. The Transparent Mirror: The Application for Justice in the Diálogo del prudente rey y el sabio aldeano Chapter 7 5. The Fractured Portrait, a Cracked Mirror of Ideals 8 Notes 9 Works Cited 10 Index
About the author
Cristina Guardiola-Griffiths is assistant professor at the University of Delaware.
