"Which powerful woman from continental Europe deserves to be better known in the English speaking countries, and why?"
Then put your answer in an email and send it to maryoffman@maryhoffman.co.uk, so that you can be contacted if you win.
Closing date: 7th November
We are afraid our competitions are open to UK Followers only
Isabella of Castile seems to me to be a most interesting woman because of the way she used her power. She started the unification of Spain but her influence went much further particularly with her role in financing Columbus's voyage to the New World.
ReplyDeleteEmilia Plater is interesting - she is known in Poland as their Joan of Arc. She was an heiress who raised her own army to fight the Russians in 1830, fought in battle and was made a captain and died at 25 after catching fever on the battlefield. I've seen pictures of her in Europe (very romantic ones) but never here.
ReplyDeleteI was always interested in Lucrezia Borgia, born out of wedlock, married off and brought back a few times, known as a poisoner but what other tools would she have had in her time and place, she lived to 39, and had a very rough life. I would love to have more of her life looked at in the more current views, rather than the one of her time when she was a tool and a murderess.
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