Forum: Pauline Stafford's Queens, Concubines, and Dowagers Thirty-Five Years On

Authors

Valerie L. Garver, Northern Illinois UniversityFollow
Penelope Nash, University of SydneyFollow
Elena (Ellie) C. Woodacre, University of WinchesterFollow
Janet L. Nelson, King's College LondonFollow
Charlotte Cartwright, Christopher Newport UniversityFollow
Theresa Earenfight, Seattle UniversityFollow
Phyllis Jestice, College of CharlestonFollow
Simon MacLean, University of St. AndrewsFollow
Lucy K. PickFollow
Dana Polanichka, Wheaton CollegeFollow
Katherine Weikert, University of WinchesterFollow
Megan Welton, University of UtrechtFollow

Abstract

This forum grew from a realization that virtually all medievalists who work on medieval women, family, or gender, or on early medieval history, admire the scholarship of Pauline Stafford, particularly her seminal book Queens, Concubines, and Dowagers: The King’s Wife in the Early Middle Ages (QCD), published in 1983 by the University of Georgia Press and reprinted with a new preface in 1998 by Leicester University Press. Over the years, all three editors have talked excitedly with colleagues, sharing stories of how we first read the book or the influence it has had upon our own work. Pauline’s scholarship has spurred many to become medievalists, to study women, queens, and their families, and indeed to see women as a part of the fabric of the medieval world, not as a separate or lesser subject. To younger generations of medievalists, QCD was already a classic and often served as the benchmark against which to measure one’s own scholarly contributions. For these reasons, as the thirty-fifth anniversary of the publication of QCD approached, the editors of Medieval Prosopography uniformly agreed that the journal wished to commemorate the publication of such a distinctly prosopographical book and to honor its influential author. These remembrances of Pauline and her scholarship were first presented in 2018 at the Fifty-Third International Congress on Medieval Studies in Kalamazoo, Michigan and at the International Medieval Congress in Leeds, United Kingdom to large audiences. The excitement of those present, their accounts of their own memories of the book, and the questions that Pauline’s body of scholarship continues to raise further testified to the enduring legacy of QCD. The contributors below revised their presentations for this publication in honor of Pauline Stafford and her extraordinary contributions to medieval history. We dedicate this publication to her in gratitude.

This forum includes the following contributions:

• "Pauline Stafford—A Heroic Journey," by Janet L. Nelson, King's College London
• "The Influence and Importance of Pauline Stafford’s Queens, Concubines, and Dowagers," by Charlotte Cartwright, Christopher Newport University
• "Reflections on Pauline Stafford’s Book, Queens, Concubines, and Dowagers," by Theresa Earenfight, Seattle University
• "The Lessons of a Serious History," by Valerie L. Garver, Northern Illinois University
• "Pauline Stafford and the (Other) Empresses: Inspirational Figures, Then and Now," by Phyllis G. Jestice, College of Charleston
• "Pauline Stafford, Queens, Concubines, and Dowagers," by Simon MacLean, University of St. Andrews
• "Here’s to the First Edition!," by Penelope Nash, University of Sydney
• "Arguing With Pauline Stafford," by Lucy K. Pick, Independent Scholar
• "An Expelled Princess, a Slandered Empress, and an Abandoned Wife," by Dana M. Polanichka, Wheaton College (MA)
• "In Which a Research Student Meets One of her Heroes," by Katherine Weikert, University of Winchester
• "Pauline Stafford’s Queens, Concubines, and Dowagers Thirty-five Years Later," by Megan Welton, University of Utrecht
• "(Continuing) Inspiration from Stafford’s Innovative Approach to Queenship," by Elena Woodacre, University of Winchester

Recommended Citation

Garver, Valerie L.; Nash, Penelope; Woodacre, Elena (Ellie) C.; Nelson, Janet L.; Cartwright, Charlotte; Earenfight, Theresa; Jestice, Phyllis; MacLean, Simon; Pick, Lucy K.; Polanichka, Dana; Weikert, Katherine; and Welton, Megan (2020) "Forum: Pauline Stafford's Queens, Concubines, and Dowagers Thirty-Five Years On," Medieval People: Vol. 35: Iss. 1, Article 3.
Available at: https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/medpros/vol35/iss1/3