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A review by aegagrus
The Queen and the Mistress: The Women of Edward III by Gemma Hollman
3.75
Gemma Hollman provides a smart, sympathetic look at both Queen Philippa of Hainault and Alice Perrers. Hollman presents Philippa's marriage to and royal partnership with Edward III as remarkably stable for most of their lives, while also effectively illustrating the regular see-sawing between triumphs (military victories, marriages, births) and tragedies (military defeats, childhood mortality) that carried across their long reign. Hollman also does a good job explaining the ways in which Philippa was called upon to intervene with Edward in an appropriately Queenly, feminine way, ritually appealing for clemency and mercy to be given to those convicted of wrongdoings, especially women and vulnerable people. Through Philippa's exercise of this function, we gain a broader understanding of the idealized notion of Queenhood and feminine influence in 14th-century England.
Turning to Edward's later affair with Alice Perrers, Hollman's work is at its most forensic, piecing together the story of Perrers' rise from an obscure mercantile background to immense wealth and influence by relying on records of petitions, legal judgements, and land transactions. Importantly, Hollman takes great lengths to be charitable and generous to both women (and, indeed, to Edward). While she does deny that each might have used their position for personal enrichment, especially Alice, she is also careful to foreground the existence of real care and affection between each of these women and Edward. Unfortunately, her evidence for this is always going to be sketchier, given the largely hostile attitude of contemporary chroniclers towards Alice (both due to their misogyny and to their political agenda against her mercantile clique and in favor of the landed nobility), as well as the fact that "hard evidence" (e.g. business transactions and legal judgements) is much easier to come by. While some of this material is speculative, Hollman's allowance for genuinely loving relationships is an important corrective to overly functionalist historical narratives. Her evident tenderness towards these long-deceased women is also key to our investment in the story she is telling.
Hollman concludes by drawing a comparison between the socially unacceptable way in which Alice obtained wealth and power and the socially-prescribed ways in which Philippa did so, modeling the ideal of a "good Queen". Her point is sound, but she does not spend much time developing a broader theory behind it or teasing out its implications. Instead, The Queen and the Mistress is most valuable as an example of how to do pre-modern history in a compassionate and generous-spirited way, which may require accepting a degree of speculation and uncertainty in the service of bringing a fuller humanity to the lives of her subjects.
Turning to Edward's later affair with Alice Perrers, Hollman's work is at its most forensic, piecing together the story of Perrers' rise from an obscure mercantile background to immense wealth and influence by relying on records of petitions, legal judgements, and land transactions. Importantly, Hollman takes great lengths to be charitable and generous to both women (and, indeed, to Edward). While she does deny that each might have used their position for personal enrichment, especially Alice, she is also careful to foreground the existence of real care and affection between each of these women and Edward. Unfortunately, her evidence for this is always going to be sketchier, given the largely hostile attitude of contemporary chroniclers towards Alice (both due to their misogyny and to their political agenda against her mercantile clique and in favor of the landed nobility), as well as the fact that "hard evidence" (e.g. business transactions and legal judgements) is much easier to come by. While some of this material is speculative, Hollman's allowance for genuinely loving relationships is an important corrective to overly functionalist historical narratives. Her evident tenderness towards these long-deceased women is also key to our investment in the story she is telling.
Hollman concludes by drawing a comparison between the socially unacceptable way in which Alice obtained wealth and power and the socially-prescribed ways in which Philippa did so, modeling the ideal of a "good Queen". Her point is sound, but she does not spend much time developing a broader theory behind it or teasing out its implications. Instead, The Queen and the Mistress is most valuable as an example of how to do pre-modern history in a compassionate and generous-spirited way, which may require accepting a degree of speculation and uncertainty in the service of bringing a fuller humanity to the lives of her subjects.