Knight to queen: Defense of gynocracy in the prose of Garci Rodriguez de Montalvo (Isabel of Castile, Spain)

The subject of this study is the prose of Garcí Rodríguez de Montalvo, refundidor of the first three books and sole author of the fourth book of Amadís de Gaula (1508) and author of its continuation, Las Sergas de Esplandián (1510). This study links Montalvo's fiction to the reign of the Catholic Kings (1474–1504) and the role played by Isabel of Castile as inspiration for Montalvo's libros de caballería.; Courtly love was defined by the love service of the knight to his beloved—a woman of greater social status whose commands were to be obeyed unquestioningly. This depiction of the love relationship was easily adapted to that of female sovereign and knight. In Montalvo's prose, the function of the knight is to preserve the princess' right to inherit and rule. This corresponds to the anxiety felt in Castile over the accession of a woman to the throne, an anxiety sharpened by the possibility of an usurpation of Castilian sovereignty by the Aragonese under her husband, Fernando. It was therefore paramount to defend the legitimacy of gynocracy in order to defend local sovereignty. The importance of this defense of gynocracy can be found in Martín de Córdoba's Jardín de nobles doncellas (c. 1468) in Juan de Flores' Crónica incompleta, (c. 1477), in the treatises of Diego Rodríguez de Almela (1484) and in the Corónica de Aragón of Guaberte Fabricio de Vagad (1499). This defense of female sovereignty also comprises the culmination of the Amadís story in Books III and IV, in which Oriana is rescued from forced marriage by Amadís and an assemblage of knights dedicated to courtly love. The description of Isabel's accession to the throne in the Crónica incompleta corresponds to the rescue of Oriana by Amadís. The uniting of the knights of the Insole Firme—a paradise inhabited solely by the flower of chivalry—in the war for Oriana is echoed by Flores' creation of an “imagined community” of Spaniards of all classes fighting against Alfonso V of Portugal on behalf of Isabel.