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Poison, Pregnancy and Protestants: Gossip and Scandal at the Early Modern French Court

McIlvenna, Una (2015) Poison, Pregnancy and Protestants: Gossip and Scandal at the Early Modern French Court. In: Kerr, Heather and Walker, Claire, eds. Fama and her Sisters: Gossip and Rumour in Early Modern Europe. Brepols, pp. 137-160. ISBN 978-2-503-54184-6. (doi:10.1484/m.eer-eb.4.00083) (KAR id:54908)

Abstract

This chapter examines the scandalous case of Isabelle de Limeuil, a lady-in-waiting to the sixteenth century French queen mother Catherine de Medici, whose notorious affair with the Protestant Louis de Bourbon, prince of Condé, illegitimate pregnancy, public birth and subsequent imprisonment for attempted poisoning was the stuff of gossip at courts across Europe. Given the multiplicity of scandalous factors in this case, and the historical contingency of many of those factors, the story of Isabelle de Limeuil provides an illuminating study of how gossip and rumour could be expressed and controlled at the early modern court.

Item Type: Book section
DOI/Identification number: 10.1484/m.eer-eb.4.00083
Subjects: D History General and Old World > DC France
H Social Sciences > HQ The family. Marriage. Women > HQ1236 Women and the state. Women's rights. Women's political activity
H Social Sciences > HQ The family. Marriage. Women > HQ21 Sexual behavior and attitudes
Divisions: Divisions > Division of Arts and Humanities > School of English
Depositing User: Una McIlvenna
Date Deposited: 12 Apr 2016 19:25 UTC
Last Modified: 09 Mar 2023 11:34 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/54908 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

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