For this week's Can't Wait Wednesday hosted by Tressa at the book blog, Wishful Endings, I'm featuring, The Formidable Women Who Shaped Medieval Europe: Power and Patronage at the Burgundian Court, by Susan Abernethy. This book is all about the Burgundian women of Europe who shaped politics through their connections with the rulers of the Valois dynasty in Burgundy.
Before you think this is boring and worth skipping (I would have too at one time), consider that these women were instrumental in and all around Europe in the 14th-16th Centuries and involved in politics that carried to the players in the Wars of the Roses, the Tudor dynasty and on. I would not ever have thought I'd be interested in what happened in Burgundy or France but over time have seen how the history there was the beginning of these other more well known stories of Edward IV and Henry Tudor.
I'm sure to learn a lot from this very unique book. I have a really hard time finding anything about the time period from 1400's-1600's France and Burgundy. I'm excited to see what new things I can learn. Trying to get it on NetGalley as an ARC. Fingers crossed!
History/Medieval History
October 31, 2025
Book description courtesy of NetGalley
The formation of the Burgundian Empire by the four Valois Dukes of Burgundy would not have happened without the formidable royal and aristocratic women in their lives. These women, the wives, daughters, nieces, granddaughters and great-granddaughters, were vigorously engaged in the administration of the Burgundian empire, acting as governors and regents, making appointments, securing and making strategic marriages, raising taxes, negotiating treaties, engaging in cultural, religious and political patronage, giving birth to heirs and aiding in the military endeavours of their husbands. The history of these women involves numerous countries in Europe, including England, Scotland, France, Brittany, the Low Countries, Italy, Spain, the Holy Roman Empire, and many others.
Some of these women lived in luxurious comfort, and others were bullied and badgered into turning over some or all of their patrimony, allowing these all-powerful men to build an influential and powerful new state comprised of a numerous and varied collection of territories in Western Europe that existed from the late fourteenth century until the early sixteenth century.
We will meet women who were the daughters of kings, emperors, dukes and counts and even a queen regnant and a saint. The Valois dukes fully entrusted their wives with ruling in their stead while away fighting military and political wars. They used a deliberate policy of making marriages for their daughters and other female relatives into the many houses of Europe for political and territorial gains. In the end, the last Valois duke, Charles the Bold, put in motion a marriage for his daughter Mary, which would eventually bring about the end of the mighty Burgundian state, allowing it to be ruled by the House of Habsburg and absorbed into the Holy Roman Empire.
