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.”
The career of the Empress Judith, 819-843
This thesis examines the career of Judith (819-843), the second wife of the Carolingian emperor Louis the Pious (814-840).
Viking Warrior Women?
Medieval texts tell of Viking warrior women taking part in battles, but are these stories describing reality or pure fiction? What can archaeology tell us about women in the Viking Age?
Royal Daughters in Anglo-Saxon England
The daughters of Anglo-Saxon kings included among their number faithful wives, devout saints, land magnates, military leaders, and even murderers.
Shieldmaidens in the Gesta Danorum (I-IX): The collective literary imaginary and history
In this thesis, I will investigate whether shieldmaidens’ symbolic meaning in the collective imaginary had originates in a timeless heritage or whether they are the re-elaboration of specific figures.
Labour Pains: Scenes of Birth and Becoming in Old Norse Legendary Literature
In its ability to produce sons, the maternal body offered one of the few means for women to attain power and influence in the medieval world. However, it is constantly depicted as being broken down in Old Norse legendary literature, a loose generic distinction taken here to encompass principally the poems of the Poetic Edda and the prosimetric narratives of the fornaldarsögur.
The Female Audience of the Manuscripts of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales
This thesis finds evidence that women used the manuscripts of the Canterbury Tales in an informal way, and the books were potentially kept in close proximity at home.
Renaissance Woman: The Life of Vittoria Colonna
Ramie Targoff’s Renaissance Woman tells of the most remarkable woman of the Italian Renaissance: Vittoria Colonna, Marchesa of Pescara.
Fighting in women’s clothes: The pictorial evidence of Walpurgis in Ms. I.33
Ms. I.33 is not only the oldest of the known fencing treatises in European context, it is also the only one showing a woman fighting equally with contemporary men.
Maiden warriors in Old Norse Literature
In the Old Norse literature, the term ‘shieldmaiden’ (Skjaldmær in Icelandic) tends to be used with reference to a Viking woman warrior
The Women around an Emperor: Anne of Brittany
In the fifth in a series of features exploring the early modern women whose lives intersected in some way with that of Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I, Natalie Anderson examines the life of Anne of Brittany.
The Spiritual Athlete: Elizabeth of Spaalbeek
Elizabeth stands out, though, in the sheer physical strength and flexibility shown by her ability to hold postures such as lying down with her head and shoulders elevated for an extended time – an incredible feat of core strength!
The Women around an Emperor: Eleanor of Portugal
In the fourth in a series of features exploring the early modern women whose lives intersected in some way with that of Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I, Natalie Anderson examines the life of Eleanor of Portugal.
The Evangelical Pearl: The Last Masterpiece of Medieval Female Mysticism
This paper explores the writings of the anonymous, 16th-century female author of The Evangelical Pearl. Written in the Dutch vernacular and first published in 1537, the work proved to be a popular and influential one.
The Women around an Emperor: Margaret of Austria
In the third in a series of features exploring the early modern women whose lives intersected in some way with that of Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I, Natalie Anderson examines the life of Margaret of Austria.
The Medieval Magazine: (Volume 4: No. 2): Issue 104: Winter 2018
Banish the January doldrums with our latest issue featuring Sirens, the Bayeux Tapestry, Joan of Arc, and a trip to Ireland.
