In search of Lagertha, the Warrior Queen
As one of the most aspiring female characters on the show, Lagertha in the TV series Vikings is introduced as the wife of Ragnarr Loðbrók and a renowned shieldmaiden – women who fight fearlessly in the battlefront. But where does Lagertha’s story originate?
Gendered viewing, childbirth and female authority in the residence of Alice Chaucer, duchess of Suffolk, at Ewelme, Oxfordshire
This article examines the visual culture of the late medieval great residence from the perspective of the female gaze.
Mothers Who Weren’t: Wet Nurses in the Medieval Mediterranean
By Cait Stevenson The mother’s traditional role as first teacher of virtue and religion began with suckling. It’s no wonder, then, that later…
Laundry Ladies in Medieval Poland
Usually considered to be “women’s work”, this paper takes a close look at how laundry was done in medieval Poland, calling into question common historical stereotypes.
I Love You, Please Put Away the Bear: Valkyrjur-turned-Wife
Though they may marry and even support their husbands in the short term, they generally bring ruin upon their partners.
Lucrezia Borgia and her marriage to Alfonso d’Este
After two failed marriages, one of which had ended in the murder of Alfonso Duke of Bisceglie, Lucrezia Borgia was once more on the marriage market in the year 1500. She was a pawn, a chess piece for her father and brother’s political plans. This time, the Borgia family were looking to tie their family to the Estes of Ferrara – a proud and ancient House.
She-Wolves: Medieval Queens with Helen Castor
From the submissive to the scandalous, medieval queens held a huge amount of influence over the politics of the day. In this episode, Danièle speaks with Dr. Helen Castor about queenship, the challenges of studying even the most prominent medieval women, and how their stories still resonate today.
Liturgy Matters: Benedictine Women’s Communities in Medieval England
Katie Bugyis is pursuing her current book project, “Liturgy Matters: Benedictine Women’s Communities in Medieval England,” which reclaims the materiality of Benedictine nuns’ liturgical practices by viewing these women as “technologists” who transformed—and were transformed by—their sensual engagement with the objects they created, acquired, handled, and treasured.
Slave, Queen, and Mother of Caliphs: The Story of Khayzuran
During her life and career Khayzuran rose from the status of slave to becoming the caliph, al-Mahdi’s (r. 775-785), favorite concubine, and then his legal wife and a queen in her own right who wielded an immense amount of political power and whose wealth was second only to that of her husband’s in the entire caliphate.
Melusine, Mary, and Making it as a Historian with Christine Morgan
These days, there are many different ways to be a historian outside of academia. In this episode, Danièle speaks with Christine Morgan, creator of Untitled History Project, about her latest work on the famous fairy Mélusine, Mary Boleyn, and making it as a historian off the tenure track.
Viking warrior women with Leszek Gardeła
This week on The Medieval Podcast, Danièle interviews archaeologist Leszek Gardeła to learn more about women, warriors, and when a weapon is more than just a weapon.
Intercession and Motherhood: The Queenships of Philippa of Hainault and Anne of Bohemia
How successful were the queenships of the fourteenth-century consorts Philippa of Hainault and Anne of Bohemia?
‘I wanted to make them a little book’: The knight and the book for his daughters
I wanted to make them a little book to read so they might learn and study and understand the good and evil that has already happened, in order to keep them from that which is yet to come.
Etheldreda: Queen, Abbess, Saint
Saint Etheldreda / Ӕthelthryth / Audrey (636 -679 AD) was an East-Anglian princess who became the Queen of Northumbria and later the founder and abbess of a monastery at Ely in Cambridgeshire.
Gwerful Mechain and the Joy of (Medieval) Sex
For medieval Europeans, talking openly about sex in what we might think of now as explicit detail was a very normal part of life.
Women and the Crusades
Did women support crusades? Did women go on crusades? If they did, did they fight?
Debating Agency: Women and Conversion in the Multi-Religious Society of Late Medieval Spain
The presentation examines the question of agency and gender in the social and spiritual experience of conversion to Christianity in 14th and 15th century Iberia.
900 years ago she was artist – we know this because she has bits of blue stone in her teeth
A team of researchers examining the remains of a woman buried around the year 1100 AD have – to their surprise – discovered dozens of tiny bits of blue stone in her teeth. They soon realized that she was likely a painter of illuminated medieval manuscripts.
“La Damoisele del chastel”: women’s role in the defence and functioning of castles in medieval writing from the twelfth to the fourteenth centuries
In this paper I will argue that medieval sources that refer to women’s involvement in the defence of castles and the role of castles in society was based on a combination of gender stereotypes, social realities and military pragmatism that should not be take at face value.
“From what is earthly to what is divine”: The Story of Caritas Pirckheimer, Renaissance Woman
An abbess fighting for her nuns, a scholar of humanism, and a historian of the Franciscans.
Celebrating Hanukkah in the Middle Ages
While Purim and Hanukkah in the Middle Ages already focused attention on two stellar women of Jewish history, Esther and Judith, the mode of celebration centered on the efforts of contemporary Jewish women as well!
Sultana Raziya of Delhi: Pillar of Women and Queen of the Eras
In the medieval world it was rare for a woman to hold power. It seems incredible to read the story of Raziya of Delhi, not only because she was chosen to lead a realm, but the way she fought to keep it.
Endowed with Manly Courage: Medieval Perceptions of Women in Combat
This study argues, first, that women did have the capacity in the Middle Ages to engage in combat and, second, that the men who wrote about female warriors, both in historical chronicles and in romance, viewed the women with nuance and complexity that often manifested as open admiration
Pola of Rome: The Story of a Woman Jewish Scribe
Pola, who flourished in Rome at the turn of the fourteenth century, tells us three times, in three separate manuscripts, that she is the “daughter of R. Abraham the scribe.”
