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Kings throughout medieval and early modern Europe had extraconjugal sexual partners. Only in France, however, did the royal mistress become a quasi-institutionalized political position. This study explores the emergence and development of the position of French royal mistress through detailed portraits of nine of its most significant incumbents: Agnès Sorel, Anne de Pisseleu d'Heilly, Diane de Poitiers, Gabrielle d'Estrées, Françoise Louise de La Baume Le Blanc, Françoise Athénaïs de Rochechouart de Mortemart, Françoise d'Aubigné, Jeanne-Antoinette Poisson, and Jeanne Bécu.Beginning in the fifteenth century, key structures converged to create a space at court for the royal mistress. The first was an idea of gender already in place: that while women were legally inferior to men, they were men's equals in competence. Because of their legal subordinacy, queens were considered to be the safest regents for their husbands, and, subsequently, the royal mistress was the surest counterpoint to the royal favorite. Second, the Renaissance was a period during which people began to experience space as theatrical. This shift to a theatrical world opened up new ways of imagining political guile, which came to be positively associated with the royal mistress. Still, the role had to be activated by an intelligent, charismatic woman associated with a king who sought women as advisors. The fascinating particulars of each case are covered in the chapters of this book.Thoroughly researched and compellingly narrated, this important study explains why the tradition of a politically powerful royal mistress materialized at the French court, but nowhere else in Europe. It will appeal to anyone interested in the history of the French monarchy, women and royalty, and gender studies.

Ancien régime. --- Court society. --- Early modern French court. --- Kings and queens. --- Royal mistresses.

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"Empress Elisabeth of Austria, wife of Habsburg Emperor Francis Joseph I, was celebrated as the most beautiful woman in Europe. Glamorous painted portraits by Franz Xaver Winterhalter and widely collected photographs spread news of her beauty, and the twentieth-century German-language film trilogy Sissi cemented this legacy. Despite the enduring fascination with the empress, art historians have never considered Elisabeth's role in producing her public portraiture. With resources ranging from the paintings of Gustav Klimt and Elisabeth's private collection of celebrity photography to twenty-first century collages and films by T. J. Wilcox, The celebrity monarch positions Elisabeth herself as the primary engineer of her public image and argues for the widespread influence of her construction on both modern art and the emerging phenomenon of celebrity."--Back cover.

Celebrities in art. --- Celebrities --- Females --- Portrait photography. --- ART / General. --- Elisabeth, --- monarchy, kings and queens, kings, queens, Empress Elizabeth, Empress Elisabeth, Austrian royalty, portraiture, royal portraits, art history, art historians, royalty, sovereignty, Gustav Klimt, paintings, the Louvre, paintbrushes, acrylic paint, oil paint, gouache, easels. --- Photography --- Portraiture --- Sex --- Portraits --- Erzsébet, --- Elizabeth, --- Sissi, --- Elisabetta Amelia Eugenia, --- Celebrities.. --- Celebrity culture --- Celebs --- Cult of celebrity --- Famous people --- Famous persons --- Illustrious people --- Well-known people --- Persons --- Fan clubs