"Mater, Mater!": Maternal Influence in the Development of the First Crusade (original) (raw)
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Journal of Medieval History, 2004
This article gives a survey of the roles women played within the medieval crusade movement. Apart from considering the evidence for women joining crusade expeditions as pilgrims, fighters or camp followers, attention is given to the vast area of women’s contributions away from the battlefields and the impact women had on the propaganda, recruitment, financing and organising of crusades and their roles in looking after families and properties as well as providing liturgical support at home for crusaders on campaign. The aim is to map out the gender boundaries, their genesis and development, which defined women’s roles both within crusade armies and in the wider crusade movement in the 12th and 13th centuries and beyond. The article surveys available studies and also introduces, as particularly illustrative examples, the experiences of two prominent female exponents, Margaret of Beverley, who went on crusade in the 1180s, and Catherine of Siena, an ardent and outspoken promoter of the crusade in the 1370s.
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Historians remain undecided over whether or not women actually took up arms during crusading expeditions. Opinions vary widely, from denying that women could ever be true crucesignati to concluding that they took an active role in the fighting, This study focuses on the Third Crusade, for which the chronicle evidence is particularly full. Some of the narrative accounts of the crusade never mention women or even deny that they took part, while others describe their assisting crusaders in constructing siege works or performing menial tasks. The Muslim sources for the Third Crusade, however, depict Christian women taking part in the fighting, armed as knights. The study discusses the reasons behind these divergent depictions of women in the Third Crusade. It examines the evidence for women taking an active part in military activity in Europe, and concludes that women could certainly have taken an active military role in the Third Crusade. Yet, as the European sources are silent on the subject, it is unlikely that women did play a significant military role, although it is possible that some fought in particularly desperate battles.
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Journal of Medieval History, 2019
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Crusading is an elusive concept; the crusades are a term and a phenomenon di ficult to define. opes, ings, crusade ideologists, canonists, chroniclers, and historians, both medieval and modern, have puzzled over the issue. hat are the crusades o to define those ho participated to the crusading movement The crusades appear to have been Christian holy wars fought on behalf of God. These holy wars were waged against various enemies in diverse directions for centuries. The crusading movement was born out of the preaching of Pope Urban II in 1095. The movement was founded on Christian concepts of just and holy wars and traditions of pilgrimage and indulgence. The crusading movement had a great impact on medieval world shaping, re orming, and in uencing di erent areas o li e religion, societ , la , politics, econom , art, literature, et cetera. Still, a ter all the centuries, despite the significance o the movement, the most vi rant discussion in crusading studies is concerned ith the definition o the crusades. 1
WOMEN AND CRUSADES HELEN J. NICHOLSON ЖЕНИТЕ И КРЪСТОНОСНИТЕ ПОХОДИ ХЕЛЪН ДЖ. НИКЪЛСЪН, 2023
Движението на кръстоносните походи се нуждаеше от жени: техните пари, тяхната молитвена подкрепа, тяхното активно участие и тяхното вдъхновение… Тази книга разглежда участието на жените в средновековните кръстоносни походи между втората половина на единадесети век, когато папа Григорий VII за първи път предлага покаятелна военна експедиция в помощ на християните от Изтока и 1570 г., когато последната държава на кръстоносците, Кипър, е превзета от османските турци. Хелън Дж. Никълсън разглежда действията на жените не само на бойните полета на кръстоносните походи, но и при набирането на кръстоносци, подкрепяйки кръстоносните походи чрез патронаж, пропаганда и молитва, както и като защитници, така и като агресори. В книгата се твърди, че средновековните жени са били дълбоко въвлечени в кръстоносните походи, но ролите, които са можели да играят и как техните съвременници са записвали делата им, са били продиктувани от социалните конвенции и културните очаквания. Въпреки че основният му фокус са жените от латинския християнски свят, той също така разглежда въздействието на кръстоносните походи и кръстоносците върху евреите от Западна Европа и мюсюлманите от Близкия изток, като сравнява отношенията между латински християни и мюсюлмани с отношенията между мюсюлмани и други християнски групи. How could women play any role in crusading? If the crusades were a military undertaking and only men could fight, then obviously women could play no practical part in them. Furthermore, clergy and canon lawyers condemned their involvement and commentators blamed women for leading crusaders into sin and bringing God’s wrath down on them. Yet evidence from medieval Europe and the Middle East during the period of the crusades (broadly the second half of the eleventh century to 1570 when Cyprus, the last crusader state, was lost to the Ottoman Turks) reveals that women played a large part in these wars, from propaganda for crusades through supplying resources and personnel, taking on some combat roles (although their menfolk generally tried to keep them out of the front line), giving support on the battlefield, raising money, and commemorating crusaders. They suffered or enjoyed the results of crusading. It can be difficult to establish exactly what they did, however, because their contemporaries and writers since tend to fit them into certain categories: women could be perfect wives, pious martyrs, and evil jezebels, but it was difficult for them to be simply people. In the period of the crusades, as now, those writing about the crusades always wanted to make a good story from events, with an appropriate happy or moral ending. Women’s involvement was usually depicted as exceptional rather than routine, romantic rather than mundane.