Sanchez, Magdalena S.

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Sanchez, Magdalena S.

PERSONAL:

Female.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Department of History, Gettysburg College, 300 N. Washington St., Gettysburg, PA 17325. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Gettysburg College, Gettysburg, PA, assistant professor of history.

WRITINGS:

(Editor, with Alain Saint-Saens) Spanish Women in the Golden Age: Images and Realities, Greenwood Press (Westport, CT), 1996.

The Empress, the Queen, and the Nun: Women and Power at the Court of Philip III of Spain, Johns Hopkins University Press (Baltimore, MD), 1998.

Contributor of articles to periodicals.

SIDELIGHTS:

Magdalena S. Sanchez focuses on women's place in Spanish society in her books Spanish Women in the Golden Age: Images and Realities and The Empress, the Queen, and the Nun: Women and Power at the Court of Philip III of Spain. In the first book, published in 1998, Sanchez and her coeditor, Alain Saint-Saens, provide articles that give insight into the influence of women in politics, religion, and society during Spain's Golden Age. Although women were not officially allowed to participate directly in military matters, their influence through male associates could be considerable. Another section gives details on the nature of women's work during the Golden Age. "The articles in this collection enrich our understanding of women's history in Golden Age Spain," commented Margaret R. Greer in the Renaissance Quarterly.

Sanchez took a narrower focus in her next book, The Empress, the Queen, and the Nun: Women and Power at the Court of Philip III of Spain. Philip III reigned from 1598 to 1621, and that period saw many significant developments in domestic and foreign policy. In The Empress, the Queen, and the Nun, Sanchez focuses on three women of that time and how they affected their world. The Empress Maria was the daughter of Charles V and the widow of Emperor Maximilian II; in 1581, she returned to Madrid from Austria and took up residence in a convent, along with her youngest daughter, who eventually took the vows of the Franciscan order there. Along with these two, Sanchez includes Margaret of Austria, who became Philip III's wife in 1599. Through their stories, Sanchez shows how women managed to influence events even though their world was strongly male-dominated. She suggests that their influence was quite significant, and according to James S. Amelang, a reviewer for the Journal of Modern History, "few would doubt this assertion in the wake of Magdalena Sanchez's impressive marshaling of evidence for the constant intervention in policy making by Philip III's most influential female relatives." Allyson M. Poska in the Renaissance Quarterly called The Empress, the Queen, and the Nun an "impressive work" that featured "clear prose and innovative thinking."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

English Historical Review, February, 2000, J.H. Elliott, review of The Empress, the Queen, and the Nun: Women and Power at the Court of Philip III of Spain, p. 200.

Journal of Modern History, September, 2000, James S. Amelang, review of The Empress, the Queen, and the Nun, p. 822.

Renaissance Quarterly, summer, 1998, Margaret R. Greer, review of Spanish Women in the Golden Age: Images and Realities, p. 636; spring, 2000, Allyson M. Poska, review of The Empress, the Queen, and the Nun, p. 259.