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What are some roles of women that took place in French Renaissance?
I'm making a costume for French (bonus points) and I need to know some roles played by women in the history of France. I prefer Renaissance though. And I need to know about the costume and details that would explain why they wore it, what it meant, how they were portrayed by everyone when they were seen, and a lot more. It's for a foreign language festival and I have to make the costume (everything handmade) and I have to wear it in front of the judges.
Thanks so much!!!
Well, there were many roles, from the poorest to the richest.
I wonder if you might like to consider Royal Mistresses? Starting right back in Medieval times, the King's mistress in France gained great power and fame hardly found elsewhere in Europe through the centuries. Obviously there were favoured ladies elsewhere, but in France she was the "'maitresse en titre".
The first officially recognized royal mistress was Agnes Sorel:
http://www.esrf.eu/news/pressreleases/sorel/index_html/
You might want to portray Diane de Poitiers, mistress to Henri II and twenty years older than him. (That was the height of the French Renaissance.) Born in 1499, she wore only black for the rest of her life after the death of her husband, adding white and grey later.
Mistresses of the King would obviously have had their choice of rich materials, and many flaunted their "borrowed" wealth. You can see pictures of how they were portrayed (dictated by the mores and conventions of their times) if you google them. (Yahoo won't let me add too many links.) The ladies would have worn rich materials to show that they were the favoured ones of the monarch; most of the time, Kings had to marry for political reasons and found their personal lives fulfilled not by their wives but by their mistresses.
List of French Royal Mistresses:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_French_royal_mistresses (google for more details)
You could also do Queens, but that might be a little difficult in terms of richness of materials, etc.
http://www.costumes.org/history/100pages/16thlinks.htm
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