Women in Power
Isabela I of Castile
In the fifteenth century, Castile was the largest kingdom in the Iberian Peninsula. And the marriage of Queen Isabella I of Castille and King Ferdinand II of Aragon signified the union of two crowns as well as the power expansion of Castille. Isabella, as a woman in power, was significantly respected and critical to the Spanish Conquest later. In King Ferdinand’s Marriage Concessions in the 1469, for example, he consistently emphasized his recognition of Isabella’s power and his willingness to follow and respect her decisions. In one concession, he wrote that “I will not relinquish or give away any city, town, or fortress of these kingdoms … or anything else belonging to the royal Crown without the consent and will of Her Highness the princes” (Cowans, 8). Another concession like “All the privileges, letters, and other documents that shall be written, drawn up, or sent, by her or by me, must be signed jointly by both of us” also points out the importance of mutual agreement. Even though such marriage of state may seem to undermine women’s rights to marry freely, at the same time, it also brought Isabella to tremendous political benefit and power. The union of Isabella and Ferdinand created a mighty power in the Iberian Peninsula. By implementing the Inquisition, they reestablished the uniformity in Catholic faith in their reign. They were also able to establish colonialization in America and built up their global power by sponsoring Christopher Columbus’s voyage to the New World in 1492 which brought immense influence in Europe.
Queen Elizabeth I
This picture depicts Queen Elizabeth I sitting in the middle, Willim Cecil and Sir Francis Walsingham, two major secretaries of Elizabeth, sitting on her side. William Cecil, who is sitting on her left, is a major figure to help her carry out the Elizabethan Big Science projects and review the petitions.
During Queen Elizabeth I’s reign, England experienced great transformation “financially, militarily and geopolitically by investing in science and technology” (Harkness, 143). One significant systematic change was the “governmental and industrial patronage of science and technology that led to big budgets, big staffs, big machines, and big laboratories,” which is now described as Elizabethan “Big Science” (Harkness, 143). The motivation of such huge amount of investment includes the development of highly utilitarian technologies, for example, mining and alchemy techniques, glass making and salt manufacturing industries and maritime technologies, so that England would be able to equip itself with more secured trade routes and armed forces and increased the economic profit that came alongside with prosperous industries. Another reason for such investment was largely to promote understanding and exploration, which might be accompanied by exploitation, of the New World. This move was largely influenced by the European colonization after the Spanish Conquest of the New World.
Elizabeth, as the second women monarch in England history, through the promotion of Big Science, planted the seed of the larger Scientific Revolution and encouraged new inventions to improve technological advancement and productivity. Though the system eventually collapsed because of defects of the patent system and financial crisis, and London technicians and investors were mainly committed to private profits instead of public profits, the urban sensitivity (Harkness, 180).
Empress Maria Theresia of Austria
During the era of constantly changing political power and international affair, the Austrian Habsburg faced a succession problem after the death of Charles VI who had no sons. The succession of a women emperor in Europe was generally rare during the early modern period. Although the imperial law, which was based on the Salic Law, officially prohibited the emperorship passing to a woman, Charles managed to issue a Pragmatic Sanction, allowing his eldest daughter, Maria Theresa, to inherit (Weisner-hanks, 351). However, despite the fact that a number of states within the Empire and most other European countries agreed on the imperial decree, several breached their promises, attacked Austria and tried to claim parts of the territory of Maria Theresa (Weisner-hanks, 351). The social norm of having a male emperor and the conception that woman is weak or incapable of bearing the responsibility of ruling a country put Maria into a vulnerable and dangerous situation. The view of women in the political world is indispensable from the social hierarchical order that women was positioned into. For example, French lawyer sought to exclude both women and heirs who had inherited through the female line during a succession controversy (Weisner-hanks, 351). Moreover, the concept of women being foundationally different and weaker than men is also correlated with humoralism, which considered feminine complexion as fundamentally weaker (Earle, 41). Thus, women should be treated differently, particularly when they were in power, because of the inherent weakness they had. The contrasting reaction of the initial agreement and later breaking their promises of the European countries once Charles VI died make it even more obvious that the power of women was considered less authoritative compared to men’s.