ABSTRACT
This introduction provides the historical context for the book that follows, addressing its chronological parameters, the political environment of mid-ninth-century England, the increasing centralisation and expanding hegemony of the Wessex monarchy through the tenth century, and the tenth-century monastic reforms. Importantly, it also approaches the fundamental question of how queenship should be defined in an era before most consorts were anointed as such. Rather than royal anointing, it was a woman’s connections to the king and actions in office that defined her as a queen; her potential to exercise royal potestas was delimited by her political milieu. Thus, this introduction surveys the shifting fortunes of English royal women between 850 and 1000 through a narrative chronology of all known royal consorts. This contextual overview serves to introduce the volume’s key themes and, further, to provide critical social and political background for the biographies of the period’s most prominent royal women.
