María de Molina, Queen and Regent. Life and Rule in Castile-León, 1259–1321 by Paulette Lynn Pepin (review)

It is increasingly recognized how women played a key role in medieval societies. María de Molina is certainly one of the most remarkable queens from the Castilian medieval period, and a great example to get into medieval queenship. That is what Professor Paulette L. Pepin seeks to offer, as she finds that the importance of Queen María has not entailed an appropiate echo in contemporary scholarship, and she had lacked an English biography so far.

The author organizes the book not just following a chronological order, but observing the different roles Queen María played during the consecutive rules of her husband, her son, and her grandson, firstly as queen-consort, and secondly as dowager queen and regent. Chapter 1 explores her marriage with Sancho IV, focusing on their unsuccessful attemps to legitimize their union. The author gathers good information about this matter, and tries to explain the motivations for both of them to get married even in the most difficult circumstances. I would highlight as really positive Pepin's attempt to look for causes which would correspond to a medieval mentality and context, while she seeks to avoid romantic assumptions, sometimes found even in contemporary scholarship. The author also bears constantly in mind the wider European context in order to understand fully Castilian problems.

Chapter 2 focuses on María as queen-consort, co-ruling together with her husband. Here, Pepin mostly explores the Queen's intermediary tasks as well as her role as counselor, and proposes interesting comparison with other figures, such as biblical Esther or Vierge María. It would have been interesting to find some insight about these qualities in the context of the general stereotype of woman in medieval imagery, as they usually appear as intermediaries and counselors in the literature and historiography of the period.

Following mostly the Chronicle of Ferdinand IV, chapter 3 explores the difficulties the Queen faced to keep her son's power as king, with an interesting comparison between María and previous women who lived similar political circumstances (viz., Blanca of Castile and Berenguela). Nonetheless, the author focuses for a great part of this chapter on the 1295 cortes, which allows her to highlight the Queen's tenacious quest for support from the townsmen (her major allies), the clergy, and the unreliable nobility, a tenacity that her son was unable to maintain when he reached his age of majority.

Although chapter 4 is meant to focus on the reign of Alfonso XI, its first part enlightens us on the precedent conflict between Fernando IV and the Aragonese king. With respect to María's nine-year regency during the reign of her grandson Alfonso, Pepin compares the situation with her regency in the previous reign, and emphasises the significant part townsmen had gained in Castilian society.

As we observe, albeit the author endeavors to highlight María's role as queen, the book mostly explores Castilian political and social history. Therefore, we miss some more insight into the life of the queen apart from the major political facts of Castilian history. Besides, Professor Pepin does warn about the need of a critical evaluation of the historical reliability of medieval chronicles, but many of her assertions are based on these very sources, and, at the end, her book transmits much of their idealistic construction of the queen's image. We also miss some relevant Spanish bibliography, particularly the most recent editions of some of the main sources used in the book (Crónica de Alfonso X, edited by Manuel González Jiménez in 1999, and Crónica de Sancho IV, edited by Pablo Saracino in 2014). A more accurate editing of the Spanish citations found in the footnotes would also have been appreciated.

That having been said, Professor Pepin's book is an...