ABSTRACT
This chapter situates the monograph historiographically within queenship studies, gender history, and monastic studies; it engages with notions of feudalism and power/authority and presents the main argument of this book. By shedding light on the economic and political practices of four representative convents, this monograph reveals female monastics as typical feudal agents of the period. This observation contributes to reconsidering later medieval feudal society and feudal power, both of which continue to be perceived as predominantly male.
