W

hen you picture a knight in shining armor, you naturally assume that once the visor is lifted, you will see a man. During the Middle Ages, there were women knights. Some fought with whatever weapon was closest. Others wore armor. Still others commanded troops. Each of these brave women served a purpose that changed the tide of many battles.

The year is 1149, the city Catalonia. Women were the first and only line of resistance when the Moors attacked. These brave women defended the town and drove their assailants away. To honor the woman for protecting the town of Tortosa, Raymond Berenger established the Order of the Hatchet. Although not referred to as knights but dames, these women enjoyed many rights and privileges that were not given to women back in that time period including exemption from taxes and priority over men in public assemblies. Most likely, the women never saw combat again, and the order died out with its original members. But if the women had never grabbed weapons and stood up for themselves, the town would have been captured, and the women and children captured, perhaps sold into slavery, or even killed. These dames were knights.

The first religious order of knighthood to grant female members the rank of militissa was the Order of the Glorious Saint Mary whose members were allowed to bear arms to defend the Catholic faith. This order had been founded in Italy in 1233 and was eventually suppressed by Sixtus V in 1558.

One female knight, the Duchess Gaita of Lombardy, rode into battle beside her Norman mercenary husband while wearing full armor in 1080. Princess Anna Comnena of Constantinople called her a “formidable sight”. To defend her lands from Henry II of England, Petronilla, Countess of Leicester, wore a mail hauberk and carried a sword and shield. Along with her husband, Earl Robert, they participated in the rebellion in 1173 of young Henry against his father, the king. Another woman that wore armor to protect her lands was Maria of Pozzuoli, who was known for her skill and strength. Maria was born in Italy in the early 1300’s.

All women throughout time are willing to fight for their children. One woman took her husband to battle over motherly love and duty. Urraca was the Queen of Aragon, and after her first husband died in 1109 she became the queen of the Kingdom of Leon-Castilla. Forced to remarry a horrible man shortly thereafter, Urraca spent thirteen years at war with him, Alfonso the Battler, to protect her son’s (from her first marriage) inheritance rights. There must have been something fierce within her bloodline because she and her half-sister, Teresa of Portugal, both led their own armies into battle.

An example of a more traditional-style knight is Countess Matilda of Tuscany. Another Italian female warrior, she was born in 1046. Like the male counterpart, Matilda learned weaponry as a child. She was very well educated and loved books. A huge part of her life was devoted to religion, which was no surprise, most of the people in the Middle Ages were very religious (and also superstitious). She fought along her mother’s side to defend Pope Alexander II’s interests. As she grew older, she led her troops into battle and wielded her father’s sword and severed thirty years at war for Pope Gregory VIII and Pope Urban against the German Emperor Henry IV. She died in 1115.

Jeanne de Danpierre, the Countess de Montfort, (1300-1374) donned armor twice. First to defend Hennebont from the French and then during an attack at sea near Guernsey. At Hennebont, she was besieged by her (and her husband’s) enemies. She rode a warhorse and spied on the enemy from the walls. She assembled the townswomen to defend the ramparts with makeshift missiles. Along with three hundred horsemen, she broke free of Hennebont to return with six hundred more men to strengthen the town’s defense.

One house’s coat of arms (the House of Dudley) portrays a woman wearing a war helmet with her long hair flowing, a true female champion. That woman was based on Agnes Hotot, born approximately 1387. Her father fought with another man and to settle it, they agreed upon a lance fight. But Agnes’ father fell ill before the duel, so she donned the helmet, disguised her sex, and rode to the tourney where she dismounted her father’s opponent. As he sat in the dirt, Agnes dismounted, let down her hair and exposed her chest so that he knew he had been bested by a woman. Agnes is not the only woman to have participated in tourneys. Many aristocratic ladies in the Middle Ages were encouraged to hunt with hounds or hawks and to pursue equestrian expertise, all skills mastered by knights. As such, it is not hard to believe that women pretended to be men in order to compete in tourneys, as Agnes had. It is believed that such experience may have helped some women as they fought in the crusades.

 

Perhaps the most well-known female knight was Joan of Arc. She was the youngest person in history, at seventeen, to command the armies of a nation. She fought for her country of France and led an army to lift the English siege. On June 18, 1429, Patay was the scene of her greatest military victory: the English suffered losses of greater than two thousand, while the French had little. Twice, Joan was wounded during the course of her duties, first by an arrow, the second by a crossbow in the thigh. With the latter injury, Joan refused to leave the battlefield and had to be carried off it.

You may have noticed that most of the individual women knights mentioned were also members of nobility. This was almost always the case as well for their male counterparts. Being a knight required a lot of money and training, something that only the nobles were able to give. There have been instances of peasant knights but those cases are as rare as female knights.

Battles are not the only mark of a knight. There is more to a shield than the number of dents in it. There is a code that exists with knights, known as chivalry. These women knights all fought for what they believed in, whether it was freedom or their children’s inheritance or for the good of an entire nation. Regardless of the number of battles or whether or not they wore armor, there were many female knights in the Middle Ages, brave women that altered the course of history and helped to make their world a safer place for their loved ones. Let us all, today, men and women, be knights, serve to help those who cannot help themselves, and honor the memory of both male and female knights.

 

 

Urraca

Queen of the Kingdom of Leon-Castilla

 

 

 

 

Bibliography (email TMC's Scribe for more)

 

1. Women Knights, Francois Veldle, Last modified: October 21, 2005, www.heraldica.org/topics/orders/wom-kn.htm
2. The Kingdom of Leon-Castilla under Queen Urraca, Bernard F. Reilly, © 1999, libro.uca.edu/urraca/urraca.htm
3. Women and Armor: A Timeline, Higgins Armory Museum Department of Education and Public Program,monsalvat.globalfolio.net/WomenAndArmor

 

 

Nicole Zoltack is currently working on a paranormal with romantic elements concerning a female assassin trying to find her father’s killer. She is the author of a medieval fantasy romance series The Kingdom of Arnhem: Woman of Honor and Knight of Glory. She has published several short stories in anthologies. To learn more about her and her works, visit her website at www.nicolezoltack.com.

 

 

With the September/October 2010 issue TMC begins its second year on the internet. YEA! There are some wonderful additions being added to the format and one is a recurring column by Nicole entitled To Reap the Harvest in Due Season. You are invited to join Nicole as she gives us a snapshot into the daily lives of medieval women. Nicole's first column will be in the July/August 2010 issue. Don't miss it!

 

 

 

Any underlined word or phrase

takes you to a link. Enjoy!

 

Click here to return to Village News >>