Abstract
Since Régine Pernoud and Georges Duby, a tradition, whose influence extends beyond the historiographical framework, locates in the second half of the 12th century, at the time of Hildegarde de Bingen and Eleanor of Aquitaine, a lost paradise of the feminine condition. This article looks at the current revival of research into the exemplary destinies of exceptional women in the medieval past. Beyond the question of the symbolic domination of rank and the honor of queenship, how can we assess the effectiveness of the exercise of power, and thus move from the archaeology of charisma to the genealogy of governmentality ? This question leads to an analysis of political traditions which, especially in France, assign a gender to systems of power : unlike perhaps the empire, the monarchical framework, and the constraints it places on blood, alliance and gender definitions, imposes the idea of a male kingdom.