Interview with Kings & Queens 13 Host: Professor Kathleen Wilson-Chevalier

In this episode, we interview Professor Kathleen Wilson-Chevalier, the host of the upcoming Kings & Queens 13 conference in May 2024 at The American University of Paris. In this interview, Kathleen tells us all about the inspiration behind the theme "Gift-giving and Communication Networks". We also discuss the conference's commemoration of the 500th anniversary of the death of Queen Claude de France (1499-1524) and why this important but all too often sidelined queen deserves far greater attention.

Find out more about the plans for Kings & Queens 13 on the conference webpage--the call for papers is currently open with a deadline of 31 October 2023. 

Nota bene from our guest:

• Louise de Savoie was mother of the king, never queen nor queen mother.
• Louis XII and Anne of Brittany supported Guillaume Briçonnet and Jacques Lefèvre d’Etaples in their reform of Saint-Germain-des-Prés in 1513.
• Claude’s daughter Madeleine de France became queen of Scotland when she was sixteen and died there the year of her marriage (1537). Jacques Lefèvre d’Etaples wrote a Vocabulaire du Psaultier to teach Latin to Madeleine and her brother Charles, which he published in 1529.
• Claude’s last child, Marguerite de France, became duchess of Savoy in 1559. Jean Héritier (Michel de l'Hôpital) credits Renée de France and her niece Marguerite de France with the erection of the tomb of the former chancellor at Champmotteux after his death in 1573.

Professor Wilson-Chevalier's Work on Claude de France:

“Claude de France and the Spaces of Agency of a Marginalized Queen”, in Women and Power at the French Court, 1483-1563. Ed. Susan Broomhall. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2018, pp. 139-172.

“From Dissent to Heresy. Queen Claude of France and Her Entourage: Images of Religious Complaint and Evangelical Reform”, in Representing Heresy in Early Modern France. Ed. Lidia Radi and Gabriella Scarlatta Eschrich. Toronto: Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies, 2017, pp. 93-129.

"Claude de France. La vertu de la littérature et l’imaginaire d’une princesse vertueuse”, Valeur des lettres à la Renaissance. Débats et reflécions sur la vertu de la littérature, Paris, Classiques Garnier, 2016, pp. 43-81.

"Quelle “trinité royale” ? Reine, roi, régente et sœur de roi : Claude de France, François Ier, Louise de Savoie et Marguerite de Navarre", in La dame de cœur . Le patronage religieux des reines et des princesses XIIIe-XVIIe siècle. Ed. Murielle Gaude-Ferragu and Cécile Vincent-Cassy, Presses Universitaires de Rennes, 2016, pp. 123-136

“Claude de France: Justice, Power & the Queen as Advocate for Her People”, in Textual and Visual Representations of Power & Justice in Medieval France. Manuscripts and Early Printed Books. Ed. Rosalind Brown-Grant, Anne D. Hedeman, and Bernard Ribémont. Ashgate, 2015, pp. 241-272.

“Claude de France:  In Her Mother’s Likeness, A Queen with Symbolic Clout?”, in The Cultural and Political Legacy of Anne de Bretagne. Negotiating Convention in Books and Documents. Ed Cynthia Brown. Cambridge (U.K.): Boydell and Brewer, 2010, pp. 123-144.

Edited books:

Femmes à la cour de France Charges et fonctions (XVe-XIXe siècle). Ed. with Caroline zum Kolk. Villeneuve d’Ascq : Presses Universitaires du Septentrion, 2018.

Patronnes et mécènes en France à la Renaissance. Ed., with the collaboration of Eugénie Pascal. Saint-Étienne : Publications de l’Université de Saint-Étienne (with the participation of The American University of Paris), 2007.

Royaume de fémynie : Pouvoirs, contraintes, espaces de liberté des femmes, de la Renaissance à la Fronde. Ed. with Eliane Viennot. Paris : Honoré Champion, 1999.<