Holding the Reins: Female Horse Riding and Aristocratic Authority in Seventeenth-Century France
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This article investigates the significance of female equestrianism within seventeenth-century French aristocratic culture, highlighting its role both as leisure practice and as a key tool for elite women to exercise their authority in the political and military arena. The study of contemporary riding manuals, examined in dialogue with paintings and engravings, as well as extant objects, sheds new light on equestrian techniques and technologies available for women at the time. Research into general practices and prescriptions is complemented by a close analysis of the experiences of three French noblewomen, whose equestrian feats were celebrated during their lifetime. The biographical accounts of Anne-Marie-Louise d’Orléans Duchess of Montpensier (1627-1693), Catherine Meurdrac de La Guette (1613-1676) and Alberte-Barbe d’Ernécourt, dame de Neuville et de Saint-Baslemont (1607-1660) offer precious insights that complicate current understandings of the physical education and corporeal life of elite women from the period.