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From “She-Wolf” to “Badass”: Remembering Isabella of France in Modern Culture

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Memorialising Premodern Monarchs

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Abstract

Isabella of France (queen of England, 1308–1327) is best known by the sobriquet “She-Wolf of France.” It finds its way into the titles of works of fiction and popular histories about Isabella, as well as online articles and blog posts. “She-Wolf” carries misogynist overtones, with its implications of a violent and transgressive queen. It had been both reclaimed and challenged in contemporary media, as seen in its use by websites promoting strong female role models from history. Isabella’s image has been reframed from “she-wolf” to “badass,” a symbol of female power in a male-dominated world. Yet these contemporary reassessments of Isabella fail to replace the “she-wolf” image with one that avoids gender stereotyping and reflects the reality of medieval queenship.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Thomas Gray, “The Bard: A Pindaric Ode,” The Poetry Foundation, accessed 14 June 2018, https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44298/the-bard-a-pindaric-ode.

  2. 2.

    Maurice Druon, La Louve de France (Paris: Del Luca, 1959); Alison Weir, Isabella: She-Wolf of France, Queen of England (London: Jonathan Cape, 2005); Hilda Johnstone, “Isabella, the She-Wolf of France,” History 21 (1936): 208–218; Helen Castor, She-Wolves: The Women Who Ruled England Before Elizabeth (New York: Harper, 2011).

  3. 3.

    Sophia Menache, “Isabelle of France, queen of England—A Reconsideration,” Journal of Medieval History 10 (1984): 120.

  4. 4.

    Shakespeare, III Henry VI, 1.4.551; Johnstone, “Isabella, the She-Wolf of France,” 208.

  5. 5.

    Shakespeare, III Henry VI, 1.4.553–554.

  6. 6.

    Menache, “Isabelle of France,” 121 n.6.

  7. 7.

    Carla Lord, “Queen Isabella at the Court of France,” in Fourteenth Century England, II, ed. Chris Given-Wilson (Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 2002), 45 n.2.

  8. 8.

    See M. S. Fitzgerald, The Kings of Europe, Past and Present, and their Families (London: Longmans, Green, 1870), 161; Harriet Parr, The Life and Death of Jeanne d’Arc, called The Maid, 2 vols. (London: Smith, Elder, 1866) 1:52; Anonymous, Joan of Arc, or, The Study of a Noble Life (Edinburgh: William P. Nimmo, 1871), 22.

  9. 9.

    See Elizabeth Casteen, From She-Wolf to Martyr: The Reign and Disputed Reputation of Johanna I of Naples (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2015).

  10. 10.

    Casteen, From She-Wolf to Martyr, 1, 14.

  11. 11.

    Bertolt Brecht, Edward II. A Chronicle Play, trans. Eric Bentley (New York: Grove Press, 1966), 46.

  12. 12.

    Johnstone, “Isabella, the She-Wolf of France,” 208.

  13. 13.

    Johnstone, “Isabella, the She-Wolf of France,” 212.

  14. 14.

    Johnstone, “Isabella, the She-Wolf of France,” 209.

  15. 15.

    Menache, “Isabelle of France,” 107.

  16. 16.

    Menache, “Isabelle of France,” 112.

  17. 17.

    Menache, “Isabelle of France,” 114–115.

  18. 18.

    Castor, She-Wolves.

  19. 19.

    Castor, She-Wolves, 31.

  20. 20.

    Castor, She-Wolves, 5–24. The television series moves into the Tudor period, with the last of three episodes devoted to Jane Gray, Mary I, and Elizabeth I. She-Wolves, episode 3, “Jane, Mary and Elizabeth,” directed by Lucy Swingler/presented by Helen Castor, aired 21 March 2012, on BBC 4, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JxmRco4P0bk&t=8s.

  21. 21.

    Castor, She-Wolves, 31–32.

  22. 22.

    Castor, She-Wolves, 30.

  23. 23.

    Heather J. Tanner, Laura L. Gathagan and Lois L. Huneycutt, “Introduction,” in Medieval Elite Women and the Exercise of Power, 1100–1400. Moving beyond the Exceptionalist Debate, ed. Heather J. Tanner (London: Palgrave, 2019), 1–3.

  24. 24.

    Castor, She-Wolves, 283.

  25. 25.

    Castor, She-Wolves, 284.

  26. 26.

    Castor, She-Wolves, 294. The tendency to reflect on the good looks of medieval figures whose appearance is unknown to us is a common feature of popular history. See Michael R. Evans, Inventing Eleanor: The Medieval and Post-Medieval Image of Eleanor of Aquitaine (London: Bloomsbury, 2014), 62, 149–150 on such speculation about another medieval queen of England.

  27. 27.

    Castor, She-Wolves, 319–320.

  28. 28.

    Weir, Isabella: She-Wolf of France; published in the U.S.A. as Queen Isabella. Treachery, Adultery, and Murder in Medieval England (New York: Ballantine, 2005). My references are to the U.S. edition.

  29. 29.

    Weir, Queen Isabella, vii, xvii–xxi.

  30. 30.

    Weir, Queen Isabella, xviii–xxi.

  31. 31.

    Weir, Queen Isabella, 63–64; Kathryn Warner, Isabella of France: The Rebel Queen (Stroud: Amberley, 2016), chapter 7; chapter 3, n. 28. Kindle edition.

  32. 32.

    Weir, Queen Isabella, 149; Warner, Isabella of France, chapter 7, n. 80.

  33. 33.

    Weir, Queen Isabella, 196; Warner, Isabella of France, chapter 1, n. 5.

  34. 34.

    Elizabeth Norton, She Wolves: The Notorious Queens of England (Stroud: The History Press, 2008). Kindle edition.

  35. 35.

    Norton, She Wolves, 6.

  36. 36.

    Norton, She Wolves, 138–155.

  37. 37.

    Norton, She Wolves, 138.

  38. 38.

    Norton, She Wolves, 155.

  39. 39.

    Maurice Druon, The She-Wolf, trans. Humphrey Hare (London: Harper, 2014), 343.

  40. 40.

    Druon, The She-Wolf, 45, 51, 185, 345.

  41. 41.

    Sarah Hanley, “Imagining the Last Capetians,” Fiction and Film for French Historians: A Cultural Bulletin, accessed 3 July 2015, http://h-france.net/fffh/classics/imagining-the-last-capetians-maurice-druon-the-accursed-kings/.

  42. 42.

    Cited in Hervé de Boisbaudry and Philippe Verdin, Maurice Druon: le partisan (Paris: Éditions du Cerf, 2014), chapter 3, Kindle edition.

  43. 43.

    Druon, The She Wolf, 129–221.

  44. 44.

    Laetitia Noel (@LaetitiaNoel), “#Vendredilecture avec La Louve de France de Maurice Druon,” Twitter, 6 October 2017, https://twitter.com/laetitianoel/status/916228450557587458.

  45. 45.

    Marie Gloris, Thierry Gloris and Jaime Calderón, Isabelle, la Louve de France, 2 vols. (Paris: Delcourt, 2012, 2014).

  46. 46.

    “Les reines de sang—Isabelle, la Louve de France,” Bedetheque, accessed 16 June 2018, https://www.bedetheque.com/BD-Reines-de-sang-Isabelle-la-Louve-de-France-INT-TT-Isabelle-La-Louve-de-France-219004.html.

  47. 47.

    “Les reines de sang—Isabelle, la Louve de France.”

  48. 48.

    “Les reines de sang—Isabelle, la Louve de France.”

  49. 49.

    Kathryn Warner, “So You Want to Write a Novel About Edward II And Isabella…?” Edward II (blog), 31 March 2010, accessed 1 February 2020, http://edwardthesecond.blogspot.com/2010/03/so-you-want-to-write-novel-about-edward.html.

  50. 50.

    Jason Porath, Rejected Princesses: Tales of History’s Boldest Heroines, Hellions, and Heretics (New York: Dey Street Books, 2016).

  51. 51.

    Jason Porath, “Isabella of France (c.1295–1358): The She-Wolf of France,” Rejected Princesses, accessed 17 June 2018, http://www.rejectedprincesses.com/princesses/isabella-of-france.

  52. 52.

    Author, “Annales Paulini, 1307–1340,” in Chronicles of the Reigns of Edward I and Edward II, ed. William Stubbs, 2 vols. (London: His Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1882–1883), 1: 262; Kathryn Warner, “Edward II, Piers Gaveston and Isabella’s Jewels That Weren’t,” Edward II (blog), 18 July 2014, accessed 1 February 2020, http://edwardthesecond.blogspot.com/2014/07/edward-ii-piers-gaveston-and-isabellas.html.

  53. 53.

    Jason Porath, “Isabella of France.”

  54. 54.

    Jason Porath, “Isabella of France.”

  55. 55.

    Elizabeth Kerri Mahon, “Isabella of France; She-Wolf of England,” Scandalous Women (blog), 31 July 2012, accessed 1 February 2020, http://scandalouswoman.blogspot.com/2012/07/isabella-of-france-she-wolf-of-england.html.

  56. 56.

    Mahon, “Isabella of France; She-Wolf of England.”

  57. 57.

    Castor, She-Wolves, 231–321.

  58. 58.

    “Maggie, the ‘Iron Lady’.” The Sunday Times 7963 (25 January 1976), 3.

  59. 59.

    “Margaret Thatcher, Speech to Finchley Conservatives (admits to being an “Iron Lady”),” Margaret Thatcher Foundation, accessed 1 February 2020, https://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/102947. This was Thatcher’s first use of the term “iron lady,” but not the first occasion when it was used about her in Britain.

  60. 60.

    Tatiana Shilóvska, “Russia Pays Tribute to the ‘Iron Lady,’” Russia Beyond, 13 October 2013, accessed 1 February 2020, https://www.rbth.com/business/2015/10/13/russians_pay_tribute_to_the_iron_lady_50035.html

  61. 61.

    “Margaret Thatcher, Speech to Finchley Conservatives.”

  62. 62.

    I discuss this more fully in my article Michael R. Evans, “Queering Isabella: The ‘She-Wolf of France’ in Film and Television,” in Premodern Rulers and Postmodern Viewers, eds. Janice North, Karl C. Alvestad, and Elena Woodacre (Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2018), 263–282.

  63. 63.

    Local Government Act 1988 (England and Wales) s 28, accessed 1 February 2020, http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1988/9/section/28/1991-02-01. In a speech against Section 28 in 1988, the actor Ian McKellen compared supporters of the law to “the sort of person who tried to stop me acting in Edward 2 at the Edinburgh Festival in 1969” a reference to “the late Councillor John Kidd [who] took offence to this show of male affection, particularly as it took place on a stage erected within the Assembly Hall of the Church of Scotland.” Ian McKellen, “Section 28,” Ian McKellen Official Home Page, accessed 1 February 2020, https://www.mckellen.com/writings/activism/8807section28.htm; McKellen, “Edward II,” Ian McKellen Official Home Page, accessed 1 February 2020, https://www.mckellen.com/stage/edward/index.htm.

  64. 64.

    Evans, “Queering Isabella,” 270.

  65. 65.

    Thompson, “Isabella of France.” Badass of the Week (blog), 14 May 2009, accessed 1 February 2020, http://www.badassoftheweek.com/isabella.html.

  66. 66.

    Thompson, “Isabella of France.”

  67. 67.

    Thompson, “Isabella of France.”

  68. 68.

    Menache, “Isabelle of France,” 109.

  69. 69.

    Jacobo della Quercia, “5 Real Princesses Too Badass for Disney Movies,” Cracked, 20 October 2011, accessed 1 February 2020, https://www.cracked.com/article_19478_5-real-princesses-too-badass-disney-movies.html.

  70. 70.

    Della Quercia, “5 Real Princesses Too Badass for Disney Movies.”

  71. 71.

    “10 Most Badass Princesses in History,” Beyond Science, 9 October 2017, accessed 1 February 2020, https://www.beyondsciencetv.com/2017/10/09/10-most-badass-princesses-in-history/.

  72. 72.

    “10 Most Badass Princesses.”

  73. 73.

    Megan Garber, “How ‘Badass’ Became a Feminist Word,” The Atlantic, 22 November 2015, accessed 1 February 2020, https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2015/11/how-badass-became-feminist/417096/.

  74. 74.

    Karrin Vasby Anderson, “Introduction,” in Women, Feminism, and Pop Politics: From “Bitch” to “Badass” and Beyond, ed. Karrin Vasby Anderson (New York: Peter Lang, 2018), 4.

  75. 75.

    Anderson, Women, Feminism, and Pop Politics, v, 2.

  76. 76.

    Hannah Watson, “Stop describing powerful women as ‘badass’; it’s just patronizing,” PR Week, 7 March 2019, accessed 1 February 2020, https://www.prweek.com/article/1578229/stop-describing-powerful-women-badass-its-just-patronising.

  77. 77.

    Emma Brockes, “My heart sinks every time I hear women called ‘gutsy’ or ‘badass’,” The Guardian, 16 November 2019, accessed 1 February 2020, https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/nov/16/badass-gutsy-women-hillary-clinton-outspoken-achievers.

  78. 78.

    Thompson, “Isabella of France.”

  79. 79.

    Weir, Queen Isabella, xxi.

  80. 80.

    Warner, Isabella of France, 500–1.

  81. 81.

    Victoria Thompson, 18 June 2018, comment on “Guy Halsall—Historian,” Facebook, accessed 1 February 2020, https://www.facebook.com/groups/1830618560601180/?multi_permalinks=1966207683708933&comment_id=1966351527027882&notif_id=1529341969946451&notif_t=feedback_reaction_generic. Thompson writes and publishes as Victoria Whitworth.

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  1. Delta College, University Center, MI, USA

    Michael R. Evans

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    Gabrielle Storey

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Evans, M.R. (2022). From “She-Wolf” to “Badass”: Remembering Isabella of France in Modern Culture. In: Storey, G. (eds) Memorialising Premodern Monarchs. Queenship and Power. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-84130-0_13

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