Abstract
Queen Isabella, wife of Edward II of England, is an archetypal symbol of troubling female authority from the Middle Ages. The reputation of Isabella as the ‘She Wolf of France’ has been reproduced in modern times in television and film. Isabella’s image is considered through five films or TV series: televisual adaptations in 1972–1973 and 2005 of Maurice Druon’s series Les Rois maudits; Derek Jarman’s Edward II (1991, based on the play by Marlowe); Mel Gibson’s Braveheart (1995); and the 2012 television miniseries adaptation of Ken Follett’s novel World Without End.
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Filmography
Braveheart. Feature Film. Directed by Mel Gibson. Los Angeles: Icon Productions / The Ladd Company / Paramount, 1995.
Edward II. Feature Film. Directed by Derek Jarman. London: BBC Films / Working Title, 1992.
Les Rois maudits. Television Series. Directed by Claude Barma. Paris: ORTF, 1972–1973.
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World Without End. Television Miniseries. Directed by Michael Caton-Jones. Munich: Scott Free / Tandem Communications.
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Evans, M.R. (2018). Queering Isabella: The ‘She-Wolf of France’ in Film and Television. In: North, J., Alvestad, K., Woodacre, E. (eds) Premodern Rulers and Postmodern Viewers . Queenship and Power. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-68771-1_13
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