Empress Frederick of Germany (1841-1901) is known first and foremost as the liberal consort of Emperor Frederick, who died after a reign of only 99 days in 1888. A vast majority of her biographers ...believe that she converted her husband into a supporter of British-style liberalism, and that his premature death effectively ended prospects for liberal development in Germany. Yet historians have consistently overlooked her work to advance women's causes, which left a far more tangible legacy than her involvement in politics. The essay discusses reasons why she embraced women's causes and attempts to reassess her legacy. It also invites a critique of how political and social historians have viewed her accomplishments.
Zhao Feiyan (45-1 BCE), the second empress appointed by Emperor
Cheng of the Han dynasty (207 BCE-220 CE), was born in slavery and
trained in the performing arts, a background that made her
...appointment as empress highly controversial. Subsequent persecution
by her political enemies eventually led to her being forced to
commit suicide. After her death, her reputation was marred by
accusations of vicious scheming, murder of other consorts and their
offspring, and relentless promiscuity, punctuated by bouts of
extravagant shopping.
This first book-length study of Zhao Feiyan and her literary
legacy includes a complete translation of The Scandalous Tale
of Zhao Feiyan (Zhao Feiyan waizhuan), a Tang dynasty (618-907
CE) erotic novella that describes in great detail the decadent
lifestyle enjoyed by imperial favorites in the harem of Emperor
Cheng. This landmark text was crucial for establishing writings
about palace women as the accepted forum for discussing sexual
matters, including fetishism, obsession, jealousy, incompatibility
in marriage, and so on. Using historical documentation, Olivia
Milburn reconstructs the evolution of Zhao Feiyan's story and
illuminates the broader context of palace life for women and the
novella's social influence.
This essay presents some excerpts from the letters sent by Queen Maria Carolina to her daughter Maria Teresa, Empress of Austria, and now kept at the Haus-, Hof- und Staatsarchiv in Vienna, with ...special reference to the comments on music and theatre performances held in Naples. The Queen's attitude towards theatrical life and practitioners reflects her inner feelings about the tragic events at the time of the Revolution and the first Restoration. Theatre serves as a metaphor, and a mirror to dramatic social changes (and even decadence).Keywords: Theatre, Music, 18th century, Archives, Letters.
When Philip IV of Spain died in 1665, his heir, Carlos II, was three years old. In addition to this looming dynastic crisis, decades of enormous military commitments had left Spain a virtually ...bankrupt state with vulnerable frontiers and a depleted army. In Silvia Z. Mitchell’s revisionist account, Queen, Mother, and Stateswoman , Queen Regent Mariana of Austria emerges as a towering figure at court and on the international stage, while her key collaborators—the secretaries, ministers, and diplomats who have previously been ignored or undervalued—take their rightful place in history.
Mitchell provides a nuanced account of Mariana of Austria’s ten-year regency (1665–75) of the global Spanish Empire and examines her subsequent role as queen mother. Drawing from previously unmined primary sources, including Council of State deliberations, diplomatic correspondence, Mariana’s and Carlos’s letters, royal household papers, manuscripts, and legal documents, Mitchell describes how, over the course of her regency, Mariana led the monarchy out of danger and helped redefine the military and diplomatic blocs of Europe in Spain’s favor. She follows Mariana’s exile from court and recounts how the dowager queen used her extensive connections and diplomatic experience to move the negotiations for her son’s marriage forward, effectively exploiting the process to regain her position.
A new narrative of the Spanish Habsburg monarchy in the later seventeenth century, this volume advances our knowledge of women’s legitimate political entitlement in the early modern period. It will be welcomed by scholars and students of queenship, women’s studies, and early modern Spain.
The thesis explores the question which sociopolitical functions the images of empress Elisabeth of Austria aka ,Sissi' in media fulfils and where its value lies within the national and historical ...myth systems. By analyzing films throughout a century it is stressed that a fixed set of narratives concerning the biography of the empress is constantly being reproduced and applicated into new thematical contexts. Von Elisabeth zu Sissi - Schicksalsjahre einer Filmfigur. Wie die österreichische Kaiserin zum Medienstar wurde und welchen Funktionen die Figur unterliegt. Die systematische Analyse politischer Mythologie um Elisabeth von Österreich aus medienkulturwissenschaftlicher Perspektive zeigt die ,mythische Logik' hinter den medialen Repräsentationen der populären ,Sissi' auf. Über einen Zeitraum von einem Jahrhundert werden die intertextuellen Muster beschrieben, die immer wieder auf die gleichen narrativen Bausteine zurückgreifen und je nach zeithistorischem Kontext und Genre jeweils neuen Interpretationen unterworfen werden. Neben Ernst Marischkas Sissi-Trilogie stehen ebenso Stummfilme und Hollywood-Produktionen im Zentrum der Analyse. Ein Ausblick skizziert die Entwicklungen in den Darstellungen der Kaiserin seit den 1970er Jahren sowie die Verknüpfungen zu weiteren ,mythischen Figuren'.
