Women and the Crusades PDF
Preview Women and the Crusades
WOMEN AND THE CRUSADES WOM E N A N D T H E C RUSA DE S HELEN J. NICHOLSON Great Clarendon Street, Oxford, ox2 6dp, United Kingdom Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide. Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries © Helen J. Nicholson 2023 The moral rights of the author have been asserted First Edition published in 2023 Impression: 1 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, by licence or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics rights organization. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above You must not circulate this work in any other form and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer Published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press 198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016, United States of America British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Data available Library of Congress Control Number: 2022942544 ISBN 978–0–19–880672–1 DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780198806721.001.0001 Printed and bound in the UK by Clays Ltd, Elcograf S.p.A. Links to third party websites are provided by Oxford in good faith and for information only. Oxford disclaims any responsibility for the materials contained in any third party website referenced in this work. Preface How could women play any role in crusading? If the crusades were a military undertaking and only men could fight, then obviously women could play no practical part in them. Furthermore, clergy and canon lawyers condemned their involvement and commentators blamed women for leading crusaders into sin and bringing God’s wrath down on them. Yet evidence from medieval Europe and the Middle East during the period of the crusades (broadly the second half of the eleventh century to 1570 when Cyprus, the last crusader state, was lost to the Ottoman Turks) reveals that women played a large part in these wars, from propaganda for crusades through supplying resources and personnel, taking on some combat roles (although their menfolk generally tried to keep them out of the front line), giving support on the battlefield, raising money, and commemorating crusaders. They suffered or enjoyed the results of crusading. It can be difficult to establish exactly what they did, however, because their contemporaries and writers since tend to fit them into certain categories: women could be perfect wives, pious martyrs, and evil jezebels, but it was difficult for them to be simply people. In the period of the crusades, as now, those writing about the crusades always wanted to make a good story from events, with an appropriate happy or moral ending. Women’s involve- ment was usually depicted as exceptional rather than routine, romantic rather than mundane.1 vi preface While it is true that women did have to face considerable barriers, not least from cultural expectation and misogyny, this book argues against the assumption that women’s participation was exceptional, seeking to show that women’s involvement in the crusades was wide-r eaching and normal.2 That said, like the contribution of most men, their contribution was often passive rather than active. The crusades were holy wars in which Latin Christians (those follow- ing the Roman tradition and acknowledging the pope as their spiritual leader) fought those of other faiths—h eretical and schismatic Christians, and Muslims, and pagans—i n defence of people and terri- tory, with spiritual rewards promised to participants. They began in the late eleventh century, as economic and commercial growth spread throughout Christian Europe. The rulers of what were later Spain and Portugal started to expand their territories south into Muslim al- Andalus while growing Italian mercantile cities such as Genoa and Pisa harassed the North African coastal cities. In the Middle East in 1098–1099 the crusaders took advantage of political divisions to capture the cities of Antioch—c onquered by the Seljuk Turks in 1084–85—and Jerusalem, which had been conquered by Caliph Umar in around 637. Less than a century later Jerusalem was lost to Saladin (d. 1193), but the concept of crusading continued into the sixteenth century and beyond as a structure for organizing and recruiting for wars with an underlying religious justification. This book does not set out to re- narrate the crusades. Its purpose is to examine the contribution that women made to the crusading movement from the eleventh century to the sixteenth, in all the theatres of war where the concept of crusading was applied. Many of the women considered in this book did not take the cross in the sense of taking a formal vow to go on crusade and sewing the symbol of the cross on to their clothing, but were involved in the crusade indirectly by urging family members to take part in a crusade, looking after the family estates during a crusader’s absence, purchasing a crusade indul- gence which would give them the spiritual benefits of crusading preface vii without taking part in person, or taking part in a religious ritual that supported crusading. As it was not necessary to have taken a formal crusade vow to play a significant role in crusading I have not set out to identify every female crusader or to produce a list of female cru saders, which would give too narrow an impression of women’s involvement.3 Considering the roles of women in crusading shows us that although the crusades were indeed a military undertaking involving fighting men, they were very much more than that: the whole of Latin Christian society throughout Europe was deeply involved in crusading in some way or another. By studying women in the crusades we gain a greater insight not only into the campaigns of the crusades but also into European society itself over half a millennium ago. Acknowledgements I am very grateful to my colleagues in the History Department at Cardiff University for granting me research leave in 2020–2021 so that I could complete this book, and to the School of History, Archaeology and Religion for confirming their decision. I am also extremely grateful for the help of staff in Cardiff University Arts and Social Studies Library, especially the staff in Scolar (Special Collections and Archives) and in Inter-l ibrary Loan for their as sist- ance in obtaining copies of research materials during the COVID- 19 restrictions. Regrettably these restrictions have meant that despite their efforts some items have not been accessible to me. I also thank Luciana O’Flaherty of Oxford University Press for commissioning this book and for her support throughout its production, and the publisher’s anonymous expert reviewer for their constructive com- ments. As I have been working on this research project for many years my debts to other researchers are too numerous to set out individually here, but I have referred to as many as possible in the notes. My husband Nigel Nicholson drew the maps and has patiently and generously provided assistance as required. I drew up the family trees and made all the translations which are not otherwise attrib- uted. All errors are, of course, my own. Contents A Note on Names xi Maps xiii 1. Locating Women in the Crusades: Definitions and Evidence 1 Women’s roles in crusading 2 Definitions of crusading 5 What was a crusade? 5 Crusade or pilgrimage? 7 Some problems with evidence 9 Motivation 19 2. Initializing Crusades 21 Beginnings 23 The Reconquest of the Iberian Peninsula and beyond 25 The Crusader States and the eastern Mediterranean 35 Family connections 37 Recruiting for crusades 42 3. Crusade Campaigns 53 Women’s roles in crusades: plans and practice 53 Accompanying husbands 56 Caring for the sick 63 Diplomacy and intelligence 65 Women acting alone 70 Making a living 77 Military action 79 Victims and prisoners of crusades 87
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