Twenty-Five Women Who Shaped the Early Modern Holy Roman Empire

Challenging the conception that only men shaped the Holy Roman Empire, this book provides students and general readers with biographies of preachers, nuns, princesses, businesswomen, artists, scientists, writers, and social movers who exercised agency in the Holy Roman Empire.

Who was Maria Theresia Paradis, and have you ever heard of Empress Eleonora Magdalena? Numerous women achieved prominence or made important contributions to the life of the early modern Holy Roman Empire, but they are only gradually being rediscovered. Generations of historians had assumed that princely women were essentially limited to childbearing, or townswomen to running the household. And although it took a long time for higher education to become attainable to women, they also made their voices heard in the sciences, arts, and religion. Indeed, a closer look reveals that the history of the empire was also a history of the interaction of men and women and a history of women's self-empowerment. This book offers a biographical perspective on that past, as well as a fascinating panorama of women who left their mark on the Holy Roman Empire.

This book is the perfect introduction to anyone wishing to broaden their knowledge of women's history, the Holy Roman Empire, and early modern Europe.

Katrin Keller is Director of the Institute for Habsburg and Balkan Studies of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Austria.

"Through her well-chosen examples, Katrin Keller unlocks a multitude of previously hidden or partially obscured connections across the last three centuries of the vast Holy Roman Empire's existence, revealing not only how this complex entity functioned, but the important contributions made by women to its artistic, cultural, dynastic, economic, medical, political, religious, and scientific history. Fascinating and absorbing."

Peter H. Wilson, University of Oxford, UK

"Twenty-Five Women Who Shaped the Early Modern Holy Roman Empire goes beyond women's history. It provides a rethinking of European history as a whole by arguing that the past takes on a different form when viewed in its entirety, through the lives of women rather than through the sole actions of kings and generals. Keller's book is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the early modern world, as it was recorded, but also as it was truly experienced."

Edina Paleviq, GlobalEurope, ISSUE 1 | October 2025