Building on the extensive research carried out over the last century on the exercise of power by women in the Middle Ages, this dossier aims to shed light on the role of the princesses (mothers, wives, daughters, sisters... of princes) of the two Anjou dynasties descended from the Capetian branch in the process of developing a lineage consciousness and passing on a dynastic heritage - the term 'heritage' here including both tangible elements (palaces, books, objects and works of art) and intangible elements (legends, beliefs, representations).