Historias femeninas de ejercicio del poder en la Baja Edad Media siciliana

Abstract

The study of various female figures who lived between the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries allows us to outline the decisive role played by women of the Iberian and Sicilian nobility in the family and political affairs of the island. Eleonora d'Aragona, Alvira Moncada, Margherita Peralta, Beatrice Rosso Spatafora are just some of the names of women who, with their action, have helped to change the course of events by making a change in the precarious balance between baronial families and in relations with the monarchy. Keystones of the family fortune and of the transmission of feudal goods, they make choices that determine the change of family destinies, the survival of the lineage, the safeguarding of goods and title, or that show the capacity for self-determination of one's own destiny. Stories of different women, united by the strength of character, decision-making and management skills that make them emerge from the shadow of a male Middle Ages.