The image, status and function of queens and empresses, regnant and consort, in kingdoms stretching from England to Jerusalem in the European middle ages, are the focus of these studies. They confront many of the central issues in the study of women's authority and power in medieval societies and raise questions about the perception of women rulers in contemporary records (and modern historical writing). Did queens exercise real or counterfeit power?

Did the promotion of the cult of the Virgin enhance or restrict their sphere of action? Is it time to revise the early feminist view of women as victims? Important papers on Emma of England, Margaret of Scotland, coronation and burial ritual, Byzantine empresses and Scandinavian queens, among others, clearly indicate that a reassessment of 'women's work' and of the role of women in the world of medieval dynastic politics is under way.