[Book review] Wellman, Kathleen - Queens and Mistresses of Renaissance France. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2013. Pp. 433

Abstract

In queens, general, but the that study approach, of royal as Kathleen mistresses is Wellman's undertaken book separately demonstrates, from has that the of inconvenience of separating the part from the whole, ignoring the relationships established by the individuals concerned. It thus makes perfect sense to study queens and mistresses jointly, especially in France, where the status of the latter seems to have been so important as to make their influence almost indistinguishable in tenns of power. The author has analysed these women in the Renaissance, understood as a broad period, ranging from 1444-whcn Charles VII designated his first mistressed.