Abstract
King Magnus Eriksson of Sweden has had the reputation of being a sodomite since his reign, when St. Bridget of Sweden called for rebellion against him in a manifesto claiming he was unfit to rule because he had had sexual intercourse with men. His queen, Blanche of Namur, was also depicted negatively in contemporary and later propaganda, with attempts to take action on her own described as “improper and suspicious.” These two elements were clearly linked to each other in propaganda: if sexual intercourse was supposed to symbolize the proper gender order of the Middle Ages, with the man active and in charge, Magnus’s stubborn refusal to have sex with Blanche is to blame for her becoming independent and unruly. This chapter explores the role and rhetoric of sexuality in late medieval propaganda directed at queens consort.
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Bagerius, H., Ekholst, C. (2016). The Unruly Queen: Blanche of Namur and Dysfunctional Rulership in Medieval Sweden. In: Rohr, Z., Benz, L. (eds) Queenship, Gender, and Reputation in the Medieval and Early Modern West, 1060-1600. Queenship and Power. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31283-5_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31283-5_5
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Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-31282-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-31283-5
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