The Age of Abbesses and Queens: Gender and Political Culture in Early Medieval Europe

The author integrates the concept of gender into medieval political history. Through an analysis of narrative sources from the fifth century to the eight century, he examines how a specific female cultural political culture was formed and the problems it caused for suchmale chroniclers as Gregory of Tours and Paul the Deacon. He also discusses how the challenges of powerful political women were often resolved in narrative through the us of stereotypes which include the evil stepmother, Cinderella saints, etc.