Researchers
We are delighted to be collaborating with a large, international team of scholars and postgraduate students on our project--read more about our project team and participants below.
The project team has been in discussions for an extended period about the lacuna in the field regarding the economic activity and agency of royal women. We have brought together not only our own work on this topic but invited colleagues across the UK, Europe, North America and Australia to share their research in this area. By bringing together this large group, who work on royal women in different periods across premodern Europe, we aim to develop a deeper understanding of the financial aspects of the role of queens and the wives of territorial rulers.
Core Research Group
Elena Woodacre
Dr. Elena (Ellie) Woodacre is Reader in Early Modern European History at the University of Winchester. She is a specialist in queenship and royal studies and has published extensively in this area. Elena is the organizer of the ‘Kings & Queens’ conference series, founder of the Royal Studies Network (www.royalstudiesnetwork.org), Editor-in-Chief of the Royal Studies Journal (www.rsj.winchester.ac.uk) and the editor of the Gender and Power in the Premodern World series (ARC Humanities Press) and the Lives of Royal Women series (Routledge).
Charlotte Backerra
Dr Charlotte Backerra is Assistant Professor of Early Modern History at the University of Göttingen, Germany. Her main research interests are royal studies, dynastic history, gender history,
history of diplomacy, and international relations. She has published widely, including a monograph on Anglo-Austrian relations in the 18th century (in German). Together with Cathleen Sarti, she is the editor of AUP’s book series 'Studies in Monarchy & Money. Royal Economic, Business, and Financial Histories'.
Amalie Fößel
Prof. Amalie Fößel is a Full Professor and Chair for Medieval History at the University of Duisburg-Essen. Her research is focused on different aspects of political, religious and cultural history of Medieval Europe and especially on queenship and female nobility, on gender history, heresy and religious movements. She is a co-editor of the book series Orbis Mediaevalis and also of the annual journal Historisches Jahrbuch (HJb). Recently she has edited an open-access anthology on Violence, War and Gender in the Middle Ages (Berlin, Bern, Bruxelles, New York, Oxford, Warszawa, Wien 2020).
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Katia Wright
Dr. Katia Wright is Assistant Curator (Archives) at the AGC Museum, in Winchester. Her doctoral thesis, completed in June 2022, focused on the lands and landownership of England's fourteenth century queens. She has collaboratively worked on a number of projects including a special issue of the Royal Studies Journal, and chapters regarding the sources of queens' lands and a comparative study of the lands of two Iberian queens of England. She has also authored a chapter discussing medieval English queenly dower (forthcoming). Her research interests include queenship, gender studies, landownership and estate management, and the evolution of dower customs.
Ana Maria S. A. Rodrigues
Prof. Ana Maria S. A. Rodrigues is Full Professor at the University of Lisbon and a researcher at its Centre for History. In the last two decades she has extensively written on Portuguese medieval queenship, from the queens’ estates and revenue to jurisdictional and political powers to religious and artistic patronage. She is currently working on royal women’s wardrobes and treasures. She has published the biographies of Queens Leonor of Aragon and Isabel of Coimbra and co-edited books on Royal Marriages, Dynastic Change, and Religious Practices and Everyday Life.
Cathleen Sarti
Dr. Cathleen Sarti is a departmental lecturer at the University of Oxford and a lecturer at Balliol College. She teaches early modern European history and history of war. Her doctoral thesis (Mainz 2017) was on Deposing Monarchs in Northern Europe, 1500-1700 (Routledge). She has also edited a book with ARC Humanities Press on Women and Economic Power in Premodern Royal Courts (2020). She is also, together with Charlotte Backerra, a series editor for the new book series with AUP Studies in Monarchy & Money. Royal Economic, Business, and Financial Histories.
Lledó Ruiz Domingo
Dr. Lledó Ruiz Domingo is researcher of Late Medieval Aragonese queenship at the University of Valencia. Her wider interests focus on political activity of Aragonese consort as co-rulers and partners with their royal husbands, especially during their periods as Lieutenant, using all the King’s powers and authority. She has also focused her analysis on the Queens’ economic resources during the Late Middle Ages as seen in her prize-winning monograph, El Tresor de la Reina : recursos i gestió econòmica de les reines consorts a la Corona d'Aragó (segles XIV-XV)
