Abstract
When the queen’s household was created in late medieval England, it was never intended to be a distinctly separate unit from the king’s household. Nor did its creation marginalize the queen from the main mechanisms of government as some scholars have argued.1 The fourteenth-century queen’s household could operate as an independent unit, but paradoxically it was also integrated into the king’s household. In its independent state it enabled the queen to create her own power base through the development of an affinity with her household at the center, giving her the means to extend her patronage more widely. However, the queen’s household maintained links to the king’s, and these remaining institutional ties ensured that fourteenth-century queens were not separated from government. Consequently, its development enabled these queens to remain important influences on the political scene. The complex status of the queen’s household made her one of the most powerful magnates and the most powerful noblewoman, and it also established her as an integral part of the crown.
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Notes
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© 2012 Lisa Benz St. John
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St. John, L.B. (2012). A Royal Institution: The Queen’s Household and Estates. In: Three Medieval Queens. Queenship and Power. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137094322_4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137094322_4
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