These twenty-one chapters by scholars in various fields provide a fresh context for understanding Eleanor of Aquitaine's multi-faceted career and reputation. Her fame (and infamy) still fascinates us. She is a pivotal figure in the history of the twelfth century because of her lordly inheritance as well as the eminence--and political and diplomatic scope--of her marital rank as queen, first of France and then of England. Some essays in this collection reassess the often fragmentary historical information about her life, while others investigate her reputation in later literary and historical contexts.

Eleanor's patrilineal descent, from a lineage already prestigious enough to have produced an empress in the eleventh century, gave her the lordship of Aquitaine. But marriage re-emphasized her sex which, in the medieval scheme of gender-power relations relegated her to the position of Lady in relation to her Lordly husbands. In this collection, essays provide a context for Eleanor's life and further an evolving understanding of Eleanor's multifaceted career. A valuable collection on the greatest heiress of the medieval period.

The image, status and function of queens and empresses, regnant and consort, in kingdoms stretching from England to Jerusalem in the European middle ages. Did queens exercise real or counterfeit power? Did the promotion of the cult of the Virgin enhance or restrict their sphere of action? Is it time to revise the early feminist view of women as victims? Important papers on Emma of England, Margaret of Scotland, coronation and burial ritual, Byzantine empresses and Scandinavian queens, among others, clearly indicate that a reassessment of the role of women in the world of medieval dynastic politics is under way. Contributors: JANOS BAK, GEORGE CONKLIN, PAUL CROSSLEY, VOLKER HONEMANN, STEINAR IMSEN, LIZ JAMES, KURT-ULRICH JASCHKE, SARAH LAMBERT, JANET L. NELSON, JOHN C. PARSONS, KAREN PRATT, DION SMYTHE, PAULINE STAFFORD, MARY STROLL, VALERIE WALL, ELIZABETH WARD, DIANA WEBB.

`An indispensable series for anyone who wishes to keep abreast of recent work in the field'. WELSH HISTORY REVIEW Volume VI of Thirteenth Century England sees a new impetus behind this biennial series. The conference which generates the studies - a generous thirteen in this volume - has now moved to Durham, where Professor MICHAEL PRESTWICH is Pro-Vice Chancellor and Professor ROBIN FRAME and Dr RICHARD BRITNELL are members of the History Department. It is the publishers' hope that, like Anglo-Norman Studies, the series will now be recognised as one which any library with a serious interest in medieval history will need to possess. This latest volume in the series takes a broad chronological approach, covering a wide range of topics over a period extending from the late twelfth to the early fourteenth century, the so-called `long thirteenth century'. Embracing different aspects of the economic, social and political history of the period, subjects include naval warfare under Richard I; England's relations with Wales and Scotland; the purchasing practices of great households, and the management of the Winchester estates; the expulsion of Jews in 1290; and the construction and political message of the Vita Edwardi Secundi. Two articles concern women, one looking at the role of queens in granting pardons, the other at the fate of widows in the aftermath of rebellion. Contributors: JOHN GILLINGHAM, BARBARA HARVEY, MARK PAGE, PETER COSS,JENS ROEHRKASTEN, ROBERT C. STACEY, SUSAN CRANE, J.J. CRUMP, FIONA WATSON, JOHN PARSONS, PAULA DOBROWOLSKI, CHRIS GIVEN-WILSON, WENDY CHILDS