This book examines the power held by the French medieval queens during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries and their larger roles within the kingdom at a time when women were excluded from succession to the throne. Well before Catherine and Marie de¿ Medici, the last medieval French queens played an essential role in the monarchy, not only because they bore the weight of their dynasty¿s destiny but also because they embodied royal majesty alongside their husbands. Since women were excluded from the French crown in 1316, they were only deemed as ¿queen consorts.¿ Far from being confined solely to the private sphere, however, these queens participated