‘An Entirely Masculine Activity’? Women and War in the High and Late Middle Ages Reconsidered
By James Michael Illston
MA Thesis, University of Canterbury, 2009
Abstract: The field of medieval gender studies is a growing one, and nowhere is this expansion more evident than the recent increase in studies which address the roles of medieval women in times of war. While this change in research has been invaluable in helping to reveal the many important wartime roles performed by medieval women, previous studies have been too narrowly focused. Scholars have examined particular aspects of women’s military activities without analysing the full extent and significance of their involvement, and their studies have focused geographically either on women in Western Europe or on women in the crusade movement without considering the relationship between these two areas.
This thesis bridges the geographic and analytical gap by looking longitudinally at the female military experience from the late-eleventh to the early-fifteenth century in Western European society (predominantly France and England), on crusade, and in the Holy Land. An examination of medieval legal, philosophical, and political debates and discussions provides theoretical understanding of contemporary attitudes toward women and their perceived roles in war. Subsequent chapters focus on how women functioned as military leaders, supporters of military activity, and victims of wartime violence. Perceptions of these women in the writings of contemporary chroniclers are also evaluated.
The disparity between theoretical attitudes toward women in war and the realities of medieval women’s military experiences is revealed through discussion of their extensive, though largely unstudied, participation in wars of the period. It is argued that historians must adopt a broader understanding and awareness of not only women’s ‘involvement’ in war, but also the importance of their contributions to medieval military history.
Introduction: Throughout history war has commonly been associated with the actions of men. From Ancient Rome to the Middle Ages and on into the modern world, in societies great and small, men were the ones who strategised and fought, who savoured victory and suffered defeat, who made tactical decisions and drove the whole process of war. Women, by contrast, were never so active. They were the ones who remained at home, tending to domestic concerns while awaiting the return of their loved ones and as such, were far removed from any significant military roles or responsibilities. Or were they? What if women did play a more significant part in military history than traditionally has been assumed? If so, why have they been ignored or overlooked? These questions must be asked of the historical evidence, irrespective of common assumptions, since they can help us ascertain the true nature of women’s place in military history. This thesis focuses on the High and Late Middle Ages and aims to show that in fact medieval women from Western Europe (predominantly the kingdoms of England and France), as well as women on crusade, and in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, did fulfil a variety of military roles and were an important part of medieval military history. It argues for a greater understanding of what constituted women’s ‘involvement’ in war and contends that the narrow conception of female militancy adopted by some historians has obscured the full significance of medieval women’s military contribution within Western European society and while on crusade.
The need for this study in the context of modern historical scholarship and the methodological outline of this thesis is detailed below. It is first necessary, however, to identify the study’s temporal limits and define the term ‘High and Late Middle Ages’. As with any broad label applied to historical periods, there is no clear consensus over when the so-called ‘High’ (sometimes called the ‘Central’) Middle Ages began and the ‘Late’ ended, nor indeed does there seem to be much agreement as to the duration of the ‘Middle Ages’ more generally. Historians might broadly consider the ‘High and Late Middle Ages’ to cover the years 1000 to 1500 A.D., but there will always be some degree of subjectivity in any decision over specific termini for when one period ended and another began. How are we then to define these terms for the purposes of the present work? Since the focus here is on women in war, it is logical to approach this question in terms of some significant event relating to female military history.
Accordingly, this thesis takes as a starting point the debate engendered by the career of Countess Matilda of Tuscany (1046-1115), one of the major militant female figures in the High Middle Ages. It is within the context of this debate about her career that we find the earliest theoretical arguments articulated in support of a woman’s military activity – specifically that of Matilda – in the High Middle Ages. Although the military career of Joan of Arc (c.1412-1431) may seem at first to be a logical terminus for this study, a more appropriate end point is the dual publication in 1405 of Christine de Pisan’s Book of the City of Ladies and of her Treasure of the City of Ladies. Not only did these works contain the first scholarly acknowledgement and defence of noblewomen’s military involvement in the Middle Ages, but also her arguments were applied to noblewomen in general, as opposed to the specific assertions made in support of Matilda’s military career. Here the term ‘noblewomen’ refers to women who belonged to the landowning class of society which was, broadly speaking, united by the profession of warfare. This progression from specific to general support of female military involvement provides an interesting theoretical framework in which to examine both medieval approaches to the question of women in war, as well as the actual roles they performed.
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