L’IMPÉRATRICE BYZANTINE ET LA COUR (XIIIe–XVe SIÈCLE)
The Byzantine Empresses And The Court (XIII-XV Centuries)

Summary/Abstract: The article focuses on the Byzantine empress and the court in the empire of the Lascarides and under the Palaiologoi. It studies the arrival of the Byzantine imperial princess, the ceremonial of her marriage and her coronation. All sources emphasize the prokypsis of the newly crowned bride and the role of the mother-in-law. Orthodox ceremony remains in force and the latitude granted to the early fi fteenth century Latin princesses to dispense appears not to be respected. Then the author examines clothing and insignia of the Empress of the time of the Palaiologoi, then questions the role of the Empress in the march of the empire: receiving the women at the court, assis tance at the counseling, at last in her presence in urban life. Finally it seems that the empresses from the West kept with them the retinue that had accompanied them from their country of origin and practiced a way of life freer than the princesses that came from the Orthodox world. The author concludes with the «noise of the Gynekeion».

• Details
• Contents