This book argues that the impressive range of belongings that can be connected to Duchess Matilda Plantagenet—textiles, illuminated manuscripts, coins, chronicles, charters, and literary texts—allows us to perceive elite women’s performance of power, even when they are largely absent from the official documentary record. It is especially through the visual record of material culture that we can hear female voices, allowing us to forge an alternative way toward rethinking assumptions about power for sparsely-documented elite women.
Contents
Introduction: Material Culture and Performance of Power
Chapter 1: Staging the Bride and her Treasure
Chapter 2: Small Items Making Big Impressions
Chapter 3: Devotion and Dynasty on Parchment
Chapter 4: Trappings Vested with Power
Chapter 5, Epilogue: Materializing Power and its Afterlife
Selected Bibliography
Index
