Nineteenth-century Historians Interpreting Agnes Sorel: Reflections on Gender Biases

Even recent scholars focusing on medieval or early modern French women remain indebted to the 19th century historians who sifted through old documents to piece together their stories. But scholars also know how difficult it is to identify the assumptions about women that earlier historians brought to their analyses and how tricky it is to discard or revise these assumptions. I plan to examine how 19th century historians debated the role of Agnes Sorel, first, to see how they imagined the work they were doing. I then suggest that even those historians most committed to careful readings of the sources import their gender biases into their narratives about her.  While some historians wove Sorel’s story into a narrative of French nationalism others, embarrassed by her existence, tried to diminish her significance. Only the most recent scholarship on this royal mistress examines critically how the divergent historiographical strands all embody 19th century assumptions about women.