Bear with me a moment: I can’t remember when I first heard the term widow’s succession, but I remember as a little girl in the 60’s at Linden Avenue School in Glen Ridge, New Jersey, we heard about the rare woman who held elected office – well, more like she saved the seat until the next election, never expecting any sort of political clout to come as a result.
In my adulthood, I remember when Sonny Bono (perhaps you only know of hearing about the long ago ‘Sonny and Cher’ died suddenly while a Senator and his wife took over his office when he died. She managed to build quite a career which ended only in the last election. Her “Widow’s Succession” became more than a body to keep the seat warm on behalf of a political party. She leveraged herself into a career from 1998 to 2013.
Christine de Pizan, (born around 1364- died around 1431) our Literary Granny of the Day, had a unique life from her early childhood. Her father, an Italian astrologer who was called to France to serve in the court of Charles V, raised his daughter not as a subservient girl, but as an intellectual as well. He insisted on the stretching of her intellect as well as the cultural norm of womanly arts.
I wonder if her father saw in the stars how the world was going to change for women – but not for centuries?.
I must remind you, this is not in our world today, this was Europe – Italy and France – of the late 14th and early 15th century – before “Columbus sailed the ocean blue.” started out as a poet who wrote poetry on demand for the wealthy patrons within the court. Her husband died leaving her responsible financially not only for her children, but also for her mother and her home because she was also a widow. She more than likely took over his position as court secretary. She had experience as a court copyist seems a natural to take over as secretary, thus doing the “widow’s succession” like Mary Bono Mack did in our lifetime.
It is hazy what exactly happened, but we do know she wrote poetry and then prose for patrons until she amassed enough money to write what she wanted to write: words critical of the court and championing some rather radical ideas of the day such as the education of women, as well as criticism.
She actually had the poise and gumption to debate the great intellectuals of the day. They were all men, naturally, who thought Christine couldn’t possibly think critically or write as she did simply because she was a woman. Nonetheless, she did think and she could write and she had gained financial success so… she did exactly that: she debated and critiqued and supported herself, her mother and her children as well as had a very fulfilling career. Her work, The City of Ladies, is still published in several versions today.
I am also sad that I didn’t even know the name Christine de Pizan until I started choosing names for the 2013 A-to-Z Literary Grannies project. That is why it is so important you are reading here today, discovering this granny and realizing there are more women writers out there like her. As writers, we can look back into our lineage as writers in the days when some of our ancestors believed the world was flat and the other ancestors had no concept of life beyond their villages and family homes.
Somewhere in us the spark from Christine de Pizan continues.
This Literary Granny is one I claim with my heart, my pencils, my pens and all my notebooks.
Thank you so much for reading here today. Happy April and A-t0-Zing!
- Read more here, from Elizabeth Mitchell -
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