Between the beginning of the Italian Wars in 1494 and her death in 1503, Clara Gonzaga, the countess of Montpensier-Bourbon, was a significant intermediary in diplomatic relations between the French crown and her brother Francesco, the marquis of Mantua. Correspondence between the siblings and other letters from the Gonzaga archive offer us a rare glimpse of diplomacy from a woman’s perspective and in circumstances where it was necessary to navigate the diverging political perspectives and cultures of honour of natal and spousal kin. This essay explores the difficulties that Clara faced in attempting to influence her brother’s diplomacy and the angst she suffered as a result of his failure to concede that her honour might be distinct from his. I argue that despite these significant constraints, knowledge of a foreign language, closeness to royal power and a deep familiarity with the contrasting political traditions of her Italian and French relatives equipped Clara with skills that equalled, or perhaps sometimes rivalled, those of male diplomatic actors. Yet gendered orthodoxies inhibited acknowledgment by her brother of how central she was to the survival of the Gonzaga regime during Louis XII’s early reign.

中文翻译：

---

蒙彭西耶-波旁伯爵夫人克拉拉·冈萨加的外交：家庭责任、荣誉和女性代理的性别视角

从 1494 年意大利战争开始到 1503 年去世，蒙彭西耶-波旁伯爵夫人克拉拉·冈萨加 (Clara Gonzaga) 是法国王室与其兄弟曼图亚侯爵弗朗切斯科 (Francesco) 之间外交关系的重要中间人。兄弟姐妹之间的通信以及来自冈萨加档案馆的其他信件让我们从女性的角度以及在有必要驾驭不同的政治观点和对原生亲属和配偶亲属的荣誉文化的情况下，对外交进行了罕见的一瞥。这篇文章探讨了克拉拉在试图影响她哥哥的外交方面所面临的困难，以及由于他未能承认她的荣誉可能与他的不同而她所遭受的焦虑。我认为，尽管有这些重大限制，外语知识，与王室权力的亲密关系以及对她的意大利和法国亲戚截然不同的政治传统的深刻了解使克拉拉拥有与男性外交演员不相上下的技能，有时甚至可以与男性外交演员相媲美。然而，性别正统观念阻碍了她的兄弟承认她在路易十二早期统治期间对冈萨加政权的生存至关重要。