Medieval Women

Michelle Rosenberg

• Publisher: Pen and Sword History
• Year: 2024
• eBook ISBN: 9781526731494
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Social Science Biographies
• Index: Social Sciences

A jewel of a book, this latest release from one of Pen & Sword’s women historians, contains a treasure trove of medieval dramatis personae, from the more mainstream figures such as Lady Godiva and Joan of Arc to the lesser known Crusader Queens and mystics. For the first time together, we meet two elusive Jewish medieval business women, one of whom was imprisoned in the Tower of London and the other who was likely one of the richest women in the world. Meticulously researched and clearly showing the author’s keen eye for detail, this latest offering from Michelle Rosenberg builds on her reputation for bringing back to life women often forgotten from mainstream history. Relatively new figures include the elusive Virdimura of Sicily, and Julian of Norwich. The medieval period saw life expectancy at around 33 years old, with the vast majority of women unable to read or write. This text weaves together a rich and broad historic tapestry of women’s stories from the fall of the Roman Empire, the invasion of the Vikings, the First Crusade, Hundred Years War and Black Death. It offers an intriguing insight into medieval women whose lives were deemed outstanding enough, (whether through exemplary religious conduct, queenly, consort or intellectual accomplishment or scandal), by their contemporaries, to record. Their ability to endure, thrive and survive during a time when most women were subordinate to the men in their lives, makes them extraordinary; it also makes the loss of so many other missing stories so acute and tantalising for what our collective history has been deprived of. Only imagine what richness of tales we might have had, should more women’s lives have been better recorded for posterity.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Introduction
• Chapter 1 Theodora (c.497–548)
• Chapter 2 Æthelflæd (c.870 – 12 June 918) Lady of the Mercians
• Chapter 3 Lady Godiva c.990 – 10 September 1067 (Old English: Godgifu)
• Chapter 4 Matilda of Flanders (1051 – 1083) Queen of England and Duchess of Normandy
• Chapter 5 Anna Comnena/Komnene (1/2 December 1083 – c.1153)
• Chapter 6 Morphia/Morfia of Melitene/Melitine (c. 1075 – October 1126)
• Chapter 7 Heloise d’Argenteuil (c. 1098 – 19 May 1163)
• Chapter 8 Melisende, Queen of Jerusalem (1105–1161)
• Chapter 9 Melisende’s Sisters: Alice of Antioch (c.1110 – after 1136)
• Chapter 10 Hodierna of Jerusalem (c.1110 – 1164)
• Chapter 11 Joveta/Ioveta of Bethany (c.1120 – between 1161 and 1178)
• Chapter 12 Eleanor of Aquitaine (1122–1204)
• Chapter 13 Rosamund de Clifford (c.1140 – c.1176) aka ‘Fair Rosamund’
• Chapter 14 Margaret of Beverley (Margaret of Jerusalem)
• Chapter 15 Sibylla of Jerusalem (1160 – 1190)
• Chapter 16 Berengaria of Navarre (1165 – 1230)
• Chapter 17 Licoricia of Winchester (early thirteenth century – 1277)
• Chapter 18 Philippa of Hainault (1314 – 15 August 1369)
• Chapter 19 Julian of Norwich (1342 – c.1416)
• Chapter 20 Alice Perrers, aka Alice de Windsor (1348 – 1400)
• Chapter 21 Katherine Swynford, Duchess of Lancaster (c.1350 – 10 May 1403)
• Chapter 22 Christine de Pizan (1364– c. 1430)
• Chapter 23 Margery Kempe (c.1373 – after 1438)
• Chapter 24 Joan of Arc (1412–1431)
• Chapter 25 Isabella of Castile (22 April 1451 –26 November 1504)
• Chapter 26 Anne Neville (11 June 1456 – 16 March 1485)
• Chapter 27 Lucrezia Borgia (18 April 1480 – 24 June 1519)
• Chapter 28 Dona Gracia Mendes (1510 – 1569)
• Notes
• Plates