Do Well-Behaved Women Rarely Make History? Power in Medieval and Early Modern Europe

Estelle Paranque, Eleanor Janega and Zack White, in conversation with Matilda Greig, explore how women have wielded ‘soft power’ in the past, debating whether contemporary narratives underplay their achievements.

About the event

Join our panel of esteemed historians, as they explore the ‘soft power’ of women throughout the ages. Drawing on the lives of women from medieval times to the Napoleonic Wars – such as Eleanor of Aquitaine, Anne Boleyn and Empress Josephine – the panel will consider how women were represented in their own times, as well as how historians have interpreted their contributions.

Women in history are often portrayed in a one-dimensional way, particularly if they acted or looked a certain way, but the panel will explore how quiet but powerful acts of rebellion helped to shape both their worlds, and historical memory.

About the speakers

Estelle Paranque is an Associate Professor in History at Northeastern University London as well as an Honorary Research Fellow within the Centre for the Study of the Renaissance at the University of Warwick. She earned a PhD in Early Modern European History from University College London in 2016. She has participated in international historical TV documentaries including BBC Two’s ‘The Boleyns: A Scandalous Family’ (2021) and Channel 4’s ‘The Queens Who Changed the World’ (2023).

Dr Eleanor Janega is a medieval historian and is the author of ‘The Middle Ages: A Graphic History’ as well as the popular blog Going Medieval. Eleanor is also the co-host of the hit podcast Gone Medieval, which attracts close to one million downloads per month. She is the host and co-creator of several history series on HistoryHit TV and appears regularly on television and podcasts across the world.

Dr Zack White is a Napoleonic historian and Leverhulme Early Career Research Fellow at the University of Portsmouth. The host of The Napoleonic Wars Podcast and The Napoleonic Wars Channel on YouTube, he has appeared on TV and radio talking about his research into the period, and the experiences of the ordinary people whose lives were affected by the conflict. As founder and Chair of the Napoleonic & Revolutionary War Graves Charity, Zack campaigns and fundraises around the world to restore veterans’ graves and to see disinterred veterans given the dignity of a marked grave.

Dr Matilda Greig is a Historian at the National Army Museum, specialising in 19th-century cultural history. She is the author and editor of three books on the representation of warfare and the memory of the Napoleonic period. Her interests include art, literature, and material culture, as well as how we represent the past today and who gets to shape the story.