A Family Affair: War, Agency and Female Epistolary Networks in Renaissance Italy

ABSTRACT This article draws on the largely unexplored epistolary archive of dozens of women who were born or married into military families in northern Italy around the time of the first phase of the Italian Wars (1494–1530). Building on recent work on early modern agency, patriarchy, networks and emotional communities, the article reconstructs and analyses the way in which these women wrote to each other about war, traces their involvement in making war and shows how military activity, female agency and dynastic identity were closely allied in their letters. The article demonstrates that while this female agency within military families challenged some patriarchal or gendered ideas about war, it did not fundamentally undermine military masculinity during the period under consideration. Finally, the article suggests how the history of the Italian Wars might be reviewed using a more gendered approach.