Defending the castle like a man.' On belligerent medieval ladies (original) (raw)
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A Historiographical Analysis of the Roles of Women in Medieval Military Culture
The historiography behind the roles that women played in medieval warfare is still in its relative infancy. Though the idea of both women's history and gender history as academic fields of study have been on the rise since the 1970's, the question of women's roles in relation to the military remained relatively unexplored. Studies of medieval women's lives were fundamentally drawn along a masculine/feminine dichotomy, with men forming a societal "norm" against which the lives of women could be compared. With war being a "masculine" activity, it was not considered a central field of study as a window into the lives of medieval women. This dichotomist view of medieval society began to change in the late 1980's, with scholars such as Caroline Walker Bynum, who explored notions of femininity independent of a male-female societal divide. As Margaret Shaus wrote, "Gender was a lens that could be turned on both the perceptions and self-perceptions of the feminine, or turned back onto masculinity, treating perceptions of men as gendered notions rather than as generic norms for the human condition." 1 In the 1990's there came a call for diversity in studying the complexities of medieval women's lives, as feminist scholars began to re-evaluate the roles of women in many facets of medieval society. 2 In regards to exploring women and medieval warfare, modern academic scholarship can be traced to groundbreaking work done by Megan McLaughlin in "The Woman Warrior: Gender, Warfare and Society in Medieval Europe." In this article, McLaughlin asserts that exploring the interaction between assigned myths of gender and actual human behavior is necessary to properly understand how notions of gender roles can affect experience and vice versa. 3 Over the course of the next twenty years, scholars such as Judith Jesch, Helen Nicholson, and Linda Grant De Pauw have expanded on McLaughlin's ideas, and have brought the study of medieval warfare and gender from a fringe interest into a more centralized area of 1 Margaret Shaus, ed.
A number of French-speaking noble women of the 12th century had positions of power and influence inside their families and on the local political and military scene. These women acted with the agency of lords, and were active participants in military activities. Their activities were recorded by chroniclers whose depictions of them depended on their intended readership. By interrogating the relationship between chroniclers and their patrons, and comparing it to non-chronicle sources, a more nuanced reading of militant women in chronicles begins to appear. By focusing on the military behavior of female lords, particularly in the case of sieges, the role of lordly women in conducting military activity and controlling military authority leads to a reanalysis of previous interpretations of medieval gender and the role of class and family in the status of twelfth-century women. A case study features the military leadership of Matilda of Boulogne during the Anarchy (1135-1154).
There has been some research into women and castles – for instance, castles as widows’ dowries and women’s rooms within castles – but much evidence remains unexplored. We are all familiar with the concept of the castle as a masculine domain, a place of power and authority, a military base. However, women also had a role in the defence and functioning of castles. So far as I can judge, medieval sources which refer to women’s involvement in the defence of castles and the role of castles in society are based on a combination of gender stereotype, social realities and military pragmatism which should not be taken at face value by modern historians and would benefit from more in-depth exploration. We can approach this subject from different angles: how the fictional sources depict it; how contemporary commentators depict it; and studies based on archaeology and the built environment. This conference paper explores women's role in the defence and functioning of castles in medieval writing from the twelfth to the fourteenth centuries.
Women and siege: the construction and utilization of a legend (1589-1910)
In this work we study the implications of the Corunna siege. This fact was subjected in May 1589 by a fleet of 120 vessels commanded by Francis Drake. Although the invading force was repelled, the considerable cost in lives and goods made this incident one of the most memorable in the history of the locality, giving rise to official rhetoric and popular accounts, the mythical characteristics of which have hitherto received hardly any analysis. A striking leitmotiv of all versions of the siege is the prominent part played in the defence of the city, in roles usually reserved for men, by its womenfolk in general and by one woman in particular. The theme of the female warrior is not new in mythology, but there is little reason to suppose that the contemporary chronicles of the siege of Corunna, with their emphasis on its female defenders, were the direct descendants of the classical myth. Firstly, 'it has long been clear that this part of Europe has no true tradition of the Amazon myth, in spite of its folklore and history including all kinds of queens and heroines. Secondly, it is well known that between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries many chroniclers were apt to use classical models in recording contemporary events. Rather than appeal mechanically.
Of Arms and the Woman in Medieval Europe: fact. fiction. fantasy
2013
The complex relationship between women and arms in Europe, from Roman times to about 1200, is reexamined in light of literary traditions, historical records, and the modern preoccupation with women warriors that inevitably inflects historical judgments. Overall, the issue has suffered from a scarcity of hard evidence and an abundant politics of interpretation. Some historical examples indicate an acceptance of female hereditary governance in Europe during the early middle ages, including the command of troops. Yet many historians have greeted the idea of a woman wielding a sword in battle with skepticism. Figures such as Boudicca who led a revolt against the Romans in Britain, the Anglo-Saxon queen Aethelflaed, and the later women who fought in the crusades, or defended their own property, have been politicized. Narratives like that of the Old Testament Judith and the Nibelungenlied became ideological tools to raise the alarm about phallic women. By the thirteenth century, Saxon law...
Medieval Women in Modern Perspective (American Historical Association pamphlet, 2000).
Medieval Europe often seems a childlike time. As publishers and toy manufac turers know well, modern children can pass, many happy hours imagining me dieval worlds of brave ladies, bold knights, saintly maids, and wily monks. As they grow up, some children simply clothe medievalism in the futuristic robes of science fiction (the most playful of adult literary genres), but most abandon the Middle Ages for more practical pursuits. Feudal kings, saintly nuns, and hardworking serfs are well and good, but they are not very modern, and their study can seem indulgent or even whimsical-antiquarianism rather than his tory. This might seem especially true in the case of medieval women. What possible relevance can the Middle Ages-often imagined (wrongly) as a time when one faith reigned supreme, all people knew their place, and nothing ever changed-offer to modern feminist scholars? Most modern people seem to waver between seeing medieval women as hopelessly oppressed or wonderful ly free. In either case they usually assume that the experiences of medieval women are distant, arcane, and irrelevant to the challenges of the present.
Medieval people considered "man" the human standard and "woman" peculiarly capable of both extraordinary good, as with the Virgin Mary, and evil, as exemplifi ed by Eve. For many centuries aft er the close of the Middle Ages, historians echoed these assumptions, treating medieval women as the marked gender-as opposed to men whose gender went unnoticed-and characterizing women as both revered (ladies on pedestals) and maligned (witches at the stake). But no longer. Since the 1970s, historians of medieval women have written more oft en about variety and opportunity than pedestals or stakes, and since the 1990s, gender historians have unpacked the many genders and gendered languages of medieval Europe.
After a long period, the first significant information about the women participation in crusade appeared in the medieval histories only in the second part of XIX century. The lack of women participation in crusade is still the subject of today critical analyses. This article is trying to provide the women profile who participated at the military actions of the first crusade. Most times the medieval histories are inviting us to valorize and to appreciate only men historical acts. Often, women were described in relation to men as wives, daughters, mothers, widows or mentioned relating to certain natural disasters, military successes or failures. However, some women interventions in the crusade military actions, which are described by contemporary witnesses, confirm their important contribution. Whether talking about the direct or indirect participation, the women contributions and support to the military campaigns in Levant are a living proof that they were not only victims or observers, but an active part in these conflicts. The attitude of some women like countess Adela of Blois (1137), Hildegund of Schönau (1170), Godehilde of Tosny (d.1097) or countess Florina of Burgundia (d.1097) best describe the women profile during the crusade.