The role of women in the Crusades is frequently viewed as being limited to domestic or illicit activities during the Crusades. While to some extent this is true, some women also took part in other activities, including armed combat in the battles of the Holy Land. This article focuses on the first Crusades (those from 1096 to 1131)[1] and identifies known participants. It also highlights some of the more famous women of the later crusades.[2] For a discussion of the sociological and religious aspects of the mixing of women with the predominantly male crusaders, the reader is referred to the referenced documents.[3]
While some women remained at home to act as regents for their estates during the crusades, many other women went on quests and fought in battle.[4] Noblewomen fought in combat, their upbringing likely preparing them for this possibility, going so far as to include lessons on riding into battle.[5]
However, it was not only noblewomen who participated in the crusades. Women who were of the common people were also present throughout the venture, performing tasks such as removing lice from soldiers' heads and/or washing clothes. In fact, the washerwoman was the only role for a woman approved by the Catholic Church and permitted during the First Crusade, as long as they were unattractive, for fear that the troops would engage with them in sexual relations. However, this stipulation was typically not obeyed and all types and classes of women took part in the crusades.[4] Every time an army marched, several women would join them as sutlers or servants, as well as prostitutes. Unmentioned in victory, they took the blame for defeat and were purged from the campaign several times throughout the crusades, for relations with them were considered sinful among soldiers who had left their homelands to fight a holy cause and were supposed to be pure in thought and deed.[4] In addition, numerous nuns also accompanied the religious men, namely priests and bishops, that traveled as part of the quests, while other women took up arms, an anathema to their Muslim foes.
The appearance of women was less common among western chroniclers whose focus was more male-dominated. However, mentions of female crusaders are more commonly found in Muslim accounts of the Crusades, as the aggressiveness of Christian women was often seen as a way for Muslims to demonstrate how ruthless and depraved their foes could be.[6] During the later crusades, many women whose stories remain were from the Middle East region, including one of a Muslim woman who fought the crusaders.[7]
^Riley-Smith, Jonathan (1997). The First Crusaders, 1095-1131. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
^Kivisto, Lili; et al. (1997). "The Great Crusades: A Woman's Role". University of Michigan.
^Edgington, S., & Lambert, S. (2002). Gendering the crusades. Columbia University Press.
^ abcSantosuosso, Antonio (2004). Barbarians, Marauders, and Infidels. Oxford, UK: Westview Press. p. 268. ISBN 0813391539.
^Santosuosso, Antonio (2004). Barbarians, Marauders, and Infidels: The Ways of the Medieval Warfare. Oxford, UK: Westview Press. p. 268. ISBN 0813391539.
^Santosuosso, Antonio (2004). Barbarbarians, Marauders, and Infidels. Oxford, UK: Westview Press. pp. 267–268. ISBN 0813391539.
^Hodgson, Natasha (2007). Women, Crusading and the Holy Land in Historical Narrative. Boydell.
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