University of Colorado-Boulder. Her
research focuses on cultural and intellectual history, gender, and literature in Medieval and Early
Modern Iberia and the Mediterranean. She is the author of Power, Piety, and Patronage in Late
Medieval Queenship. Maria de Luna (2008) and Chariots of Ladies: Francesc Eiximenis and the
Court Culture of Medieval and Early Modern Iberia (2015).
Silleras-Fernandez applied the "Page 99 Test" to her new book, The Politics of Emotion. Love,Grief, and Madness in Medieval and Early Modern Iberia (2024) and reported the following:
This excerpt refers to Isabel of Portugal (r. 1447–1454), one of the case studies I analyze in detail in The Politics of Emotion. It represents the book such that it explores how medieval society understood the dangers of love and desire, which, are explored in my book in conjunction with grief (which at times, turned to “madness”) and are intertwined with the public and the private: government and emotions. Excerpt from page 99:Learn more about The Politics of Emotion at the Cornell University Press website.In fact, we can see Isabel of Portugal and Álvaro de Luna as they are presented in the chronicles as two sides of the same coin. Accounts hostile to the queen accused her of being an object of excessive desire on the part of Juan and lamented her ability to “manipulate” her weak husband. For his part, Álvaro de Luna is presented in exactly the same terms, which were even more worrisome in his case because of the moral implications that same-sex love carried in that era. The accusation of sodomy became a powerful tool to discredit someone and could be deployed for political gain.Isabel was the queen-consort of Juan II of Castile, and both were the parents of one of the most famous queens of all times, Isabel I of Castile “The Catholic” (r. 1474–1504). The chronicles portrayed Juan II as a weak hedonist, easily manipulated, and always at the mercy of others: first, his royal favorite, friend (and lover?) Álvaro de Luna who was later displaced by the king’s young second wife, Isabel of Portugal. In the Middle Ages, whoever controlled the king (or queen) held great indirect power and thus awakened the envy and criticism of those who coveted this position of influence. Hence, mirrors of princes and princesses were consistent in admonishing the ruler against malicious counselors and conduct literature (which was often misogynistic) warned against the domination a wife could exercise over her husband – particularly a wife like Isabel who not only enjoyed the status of a queen but was the object of the king’s love and lust. Poetry, sentimental fiction, and medical and religious discourse all made the dangers of love clear.
In the end, politics and “social property” ruined this peculiar triangle. Juan II loved his crown more than Álvaro and, to avoid further turmoil, was obliged to condemn him to death in 1453, accused of treason. Within a year the monarch had also died, because as Gonzalo Chacón, a contemporary chronicler, put it, “the burrowing worm of his conscience was what killed him.” For her part, Isabel of Portugal is said to have been overwhelmed by grief after the death of her husband and lived in relative isolation for her remaining forty-two years. Thus, Isabel and Álvaro are two sides of the same coin and comprise an excellent example of the emotional dynamics examined in my study.
--Marshal Zeringue
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