Special Feature: RSJ Special Issue on Iberian Household's (IN SPANISH!)

08/11/23 • 35 min

This very special episode features Diana Pelaz Flores, guest editor of the current Royal Studies Journal special issue 'The Iberian Queen's Households: Dynamics, Social Strategies and Royal Power' (Vol 10.1, June 2023). Diana is the 'host' of this episode, in conversation with Lledó Ruiz Domingo and Paula Del Val Vales, who both contributed articles to this issue. We are delighted to have this episode in Spanish--a first for the Royal Studies Podcast!
Please note: We are aware that there are some minor issues with the audio which could not be completely addressed in the mastering of the episode. We apologise for the less than ideal audio but we hope you will still enjoy listening to this feature.
Information about our guests:
Diana Pelaz Flores is Senior Lecturer in the Medieval History at the University of Santiago de Compostela. She was the main researcher of the project “Court feminine spaces: Curial areas, territorial relations and political practices”, granted by the Spanish Government, integrated within the MUNARQAS coordinated project, under the direction by Angela Munoz Fernandez. Her research examined the history of women and power, in particular the Queens consort of the Crown of Castile during the Late Middle Ages. She has several publications, including Rituales Líquidos. El significado del agua en el ceremonial de la Corte de Castilla (ss. XIV-XV) (Murcia: Universidad de Murcia, 2017), La Casa de la Reina en la Corona de Castilla (1418-1496) (Valladolid: Universidad de Valladolid, 2017), Poder y representación de la reina en la Corona de Castilla (1418-1496) (Ávila: Junta de Castilla y León, 2017), and Reinas Consortes. Las reinas de Castilla en la Edad Media (siglos XI-XV) (Madrid: Sílex, 2017)).
Dr. Lledó Ruiz Domingo is postdoctoral researcher of Late Medieval Iberian Queenship at the University of Lisbon (Portugal) and University of Valencia (Spain). Her wider interests focus on political activity of Aragonese consort as co-rulers and partners with their royal husbands, especially during their periods as Lieutenant, using all the King’s powers and authority. She has also focused her analysis on the Queens’ economic resources during the Late Middle Ages. In this sense, she has published a monography “El tresor de la Reina” about the patrimony, income and expenditure of the Aragonese Queens.
Paula Del Val Vales is a third year PhD student and Associate Lecturer at the University of Lincoln, where she develops her thesis ‘The Queen's Household in the Thirteenth Century: A Comparative Anglo-Iberian Study’. Paula is a Postgraduate Fellow Abroad as her PhD is funded by the La Caixa Foundation, and a member of the research group MUNARQAS. Paula has been on placement at the British Library, within the digitisation project 'Medieval and Renaissance Women', focused on digitising more than 300 documents related to medieval and renaissance women (1100-1600). Through her research she aims to explore the queens’ establishments, resources, revenues, personnel and networks. She is also working on the first ever critical edition of the household and wardrobe accounts of Eleanor of Provence.

Previous Episode

Interview with Adriana Concin: Winner of the 2023 RSJ PGR/ECR Article Prize

This episode features an interview with the winner of the Royal Studies Journal 2023 Postgraduate/Early Career Scholar Article Prize. In this interview we'll be discussing her prizewinning article and the disastrous Medici/Habsburg marriage that inspired it!
Guest Bio: Adriana Concin is the Assistant Curator of Paintings and Drawings at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. She completed her doctoral studies at the Courtauld Institute of Art in London in 2021 with a dissertation focused on the 1565 wedding of Francesco I de’ Medici and the Habsburg Archduchess Johanna of Austria and its wider cultural implications. She has been the recipient of several fellowships, including the Eva Schler fellowship at the Medici Archive Project in Florence and the Studia Rudolphina fellowship in Prague at the Institute of Art History of the Czech Academy of Sciences. Adriana has also held the Ayesha Bulchandani graduate internship at the Frick Collection in New York. Her research interests lie in sixteenth-century collecting, cultural exchanges between Tuscany and the Holy Roman Empire, and female patronage networks. In addition to her prize winning article, she has also published on the frescoes of Habsburg cityscapes in the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence (Burlington Magazine, 2019).

Find out more about Adriana and her research here:

Adriana's website on Habsburg Women
Academia.edu page
Codart profile
Prize winning article: Sadly this article, published in Studia Rudolphina is not available digitally but you can follow this link to find out more about how to access it--in the 2020/21 issue.

Next Episode

Exhibition Feature: Crown to Couture

This episode features an interview with Polly Putnam and Holly Marsden, two of the team responsible for Historic Royal Palaces' innovative 'Crown to Couture' exhibition which is running until 29 October 2023. To find out more about the exhibition, follow this link and most importantly, have a listen to this episode to hear more about the inspiration behind it and the similarities between the royal court and celebrities on the red carpet!
Guest Bios:
Polly Putnam is a collections curator at Historic Royal Palaces. She is responsible for the management, research, display and interpretation of collections and displays post 1650 at Hampton Court Palace. She has a particular responsibility for Kew Palace. She has been the curator for numerous projects including the Chocolate Kitchens at Hampton Court and the restoration of the Great Pagoda in Kew Gardens. At Kensington palace, she curated Victoria Woman and Crown which is explored Victoria’s self-fashioning and the intersection of her public role and personal life. She is the lead curator for Crown to Couture. Prior to this she was assistant curator for Leeds Museums and Galleries where she led on numerous restoration projects, displays and exhibitions.
Holly Marsden is currently completing her PhD through the AHRC’s Collaborative Doctoral Partnership scheme at the University of Winchester and Historic Royal Palaces, having previously studied Queer History for her MA and History of Art for her undergraduate degree. Her thesis examines the multiple identities of Queen Mary II in the context of queenship, culture and politics in the seventeenth century. As part of her PhD, Holly completed a curatorial student placement with Polly Putnam on 'Crown to Couture.' Previous placements also include working in the curatorial team of the Tudor to Regency galleries for the National Portrait Gallery’s ‘Inspiring People’ re-opening project and on Historic Royal Palace's ‘Queer Lives’ immersive theatre tours.