Women, Power, and Religious Patronage in the Middle Ages (New Middle Ages)

As sisters and successive countesses of Flanders and Hainaut in the thirteenth century, Jeanne and Marguerite actively shaped the political landscape of northern Europe, and compiled an impressive record of monastic patronage. By examining a significant corpus of secular and monastic charters, this study provides a more complex understanding of the role of religious patronage in medieval society, and illuminates concerns specific to powerful women. It simultaneously illustrates the use of patronage to further their political agendas, offering a glimpse of the experience of female rulers in a period when their actions were often constrained and obscured by gender bias.