The Effect of The Crusades on Women

When kings went away on crusade they had to appoint a regent and in many cases these were women. Blanche of Castile (1187-1251) queen of Louis VIII of France was her son King Louis IX’s regent. When he left in 1247, Louis IX told his mother: “I leave my three children for your wards. I leave this realm of France to you to govern it. Truly I know that they well guarded and it well governed be.” She governed France so well that its boundaries expanded and it became the country we know today.

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Crusader Queen

Eleanor of Aquitaine was one of the most powerful people in medieval Europe. She was 15 when she married Louis VII of France and brought with her to the marriage her vast possessions from the River Loire in France to the Pyrenees.

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When she was 19, Eleanor went to see the celebrated Abbé Bernard of Clairvaux at the cathedral of Vézelay. She offered him thousands of her vassals to take on the Second Crusade. As the story goes, Eleanor arrived at the cathedral dressed as an amazon and galloped through the crowds on a white horse whilst urging them to join the crusades.

Queen Eleanor and three hundred of her ladies, her “Amazons” went on the Second Crusade. She planned to help ‘tend the wounded’ and, although they went through and regular course of training as light cavalry and gained some proficiency in the use of arms, dressed in armour and carried lances, they never actually fought.

In 1147AD, Eleanor and her ladies ignored the advice of the seasoned warriors accompanying them (and the strict orders of King Louis) one night as they prepared to make camp near Laodicea. Eleanor insisted that they camp in a different place and the party was attacked by Saracens. King Louis barely arrived in time to save them and suffered heavy losses. Eleanor and her ladies were retired to the castle of her cousin, Raymond, Prince of Antioch.

Raymond was only a few years older than Eleanor and much more interesting and handsome than her husband, Louis. When Raymond decided that the best strategic objective for the Crusade would be to recapture Edessa, which would protect the Western Presence in the Holy Land, Eleanor agreed with him but Louis wanted to reach Jerusalem and insisted that Eleanor follow him there. A furious Eleanor announced that as they were related in some way through family connections to an extent forbidden by the church their marriage was not valid in the eyes of God. Louis was hurt and offended by this but still forced Eleanor to march with him. The expedition failed and Eleanor and Louis returned to France in separate ships.

Despite the stereotype of medieval women which persists to modern times, not all of them were docile, subservient, and brainless. The last place most people would expect to find a medieval woman making a living is in the armed forces of her country. It is true that the majority of soldiers were men. However, it is also true that women fighters were included in the ranks of many mercenary and national armies.