Echoes of correspondence: appropriations and diffusion of letters from queens in Portuguese medieval chronicles

Abstract

The article investigates the mentions, omissions, appropriations, transcriptions, and paraphrases of letters written or supposedly written by the Iberian queens Leonor Teles (ca.1347-1386), Catherine of Castile (1373-1418) Felipa of Lancaster (1360-1415), and Leonor de Aragão (ca.1402- 1445) in the Portuguese chronicles of Fernão Lopes (ca.1380-1459), Gomes Eanes de Zurara (1410-1474) and Rui de Pina (1440-1522). In line with studies that have raised new questions about the epistolary of medieval women and those that investigate the role that medieval queens played in the affairs of their kingdoms, the work seeks to understand the choices made by chroniclers, as well as identify evidence of the relationships between gender in the exercise of the queens’ power in these “echoes” of their letters that reached modernity.