Queens of France

In France the ban on female sovereignty was formally enacted and enforced by law. Yet it was here that the basic concepts of male domination were first challenged in the early fifteenth century, by Christine de Pizan’s Book of the City of Ladies and later on by Joan of Arc’s glowing success in leading the French army against the English. By the early sixteenth century, women paved the way to autonomous rule, first by Anne of France, daughter of Louis XI, who in the absence of male heirs was appointed regent for her minor brother. Her achievement was continued, to great acclaim, by her student, Louise of Savoy, mother of King Francis I, who led the country during his imprisonment crisis and had a major influence on shaping the government. Female rule reached its zenith in France with Catherine de Medici, who governed the realm for most of the 1560s and 1570s. As in our other story arcs, the political power of women was curtailed in the first half of the seventeenth century, with Catherine’s distant relative, Marie de Medici, who made an unsuccessful grab for power and was banished from the court.