History Women Medieval

Virginal, chaste, humble, patiently waiting for rescue by brave knights and handsome princes: this idealized—and largely mythical—notion of the medieval noblewoman still lingers. Yet the reality was very different, as Kelcey Wilson-Lee shows in this vibrant account of the five daughters of Edward I, often known as Longshanks. The lives of these sisters—Eleanora, Joanna, Margaret, Mary, and Elizabeth—ran the gamut of experiences open to royal women in the Middle Ages.

Between the 12th and 15th centuries in Europe, not all women fit the stereotype of passive housewife and mother. Many led bold and dynamic lives. In this collection of historical portraits, Maria Teresa Brolis tells the fascinating tales of fashion icons, art clients, businesswomen, saints, healers, lovers, and pilgrims - both famous and little known - who challenge conventional understandings of the medieval female experience. Drawing on evidence from literary works and archival documents, Brolis pieces together an intricate overview of 16 women's lives.

Idit, a polyglot and literary translator, falls in love with Halimi, a magnetic and philandering magazine editor. Idit, who cannot handle his indiscretions, proposes an open marriage to try and save what they've built. In the midst of a full-blown marital crisis, they take their daughter Lily...

In 2017, DNA tests revealed to the collective shock of many scholars that a Viking warrior in a high-status grave in Birka, Sweden was actually a woman. The Real Valkyrie weaves together archaeology, history, and literature to imagine her life and times, showing that Viking women had more power and agency than historians have imagined.

In 1384, a poor and illiterate peasant woman named Ermine moved to the city of Reims with her elderly husband. Her era was troubled by war, plague, and schism within the Catholic Church, and Ermine could easily have slipped unobserved through the cracks of history. After the loss of her husband, however, things took a remarkable but frightening turn. For the last 10 months of her life, Ermine was tormented by nightly visions of angels and demons.

Anche nel Medioevo troviamo donne disposte a vendere il proprio corpo "pro pretio, lucro et questu": condannata e ritenuta una vergogna, la prostituzione era però considerata ineliminabile e persino necessaria. Giustificabile, perché salvava da mali peggiori come la corruzione delle vergini e delle spose e "l'abominevole vizio della sodomia". Ma qual era la posizione della Chiesa e dei pubblici poteri nel regolare questo fenomeno divenuto assai rilevante? Nel Trecento, infatti, si assiste ovunque in Europa al proliferare dei postriboli, a volte quasi piccole fortezze del piacere.

Medieval history is often written as a series of battles and territorial shifts. But the essential contributions of women during this period have been too often relegated to the dustbin of history. In Women in the Middle Ages, Frances and Joseph Gies reclaim this lost history, in a lively historical survey that charts the evolution of women’s roles throughout the period and profiles eight individual women in depth.

Sei storie esemplari di donne del Medioevo e del loro rapporto con la maternità. C’è l’esperienza di Dhuoda (vissuta nel IX secolo), il cui figlio Guglielmo fu consegnato come ostaggio a Carlo il Calvo; c’è – due secoli dopo – la vicenda di Matilde di Canossa, donna potentissima ma delusa nelle sue aspettative di maternità. C’è l’esempio di Caterina da Siena, che pur non avendo figli agisce e scrive da "grande madre" italiana. C’è Christine de Pizan, impegnata nell’ultimo scorcio di Medioevo a destreggiarsi tra i figli e la carriera.

Catherine de Valois, am besten bekannt, als die Braut Henry des V. aus Shakespeares "Henry V.", war eine außergewöhnliche Frau, voller Glauben, Mut und Überzeugung, in einem Zeitalter politisch mächtiger Frauen.

Mieux connue comme la fiancée d'Azincourt d'Henri V, de la pièce Henri V de Shakespeare, Catherine de Valois était une femme de foi, courage et conviction extraordinaire dans un âge de femmes puissantes politiquement. La plus jeune fille du roi Charles VI de France terrorisé par sa maladie mentale, Catherine de Valois survécut les ravages de sa schizophrénie, une guerre civile dans son pays, et la guerre d'Henri V contre la France pour devenir une des reines les plus courageuses et fascinantes de la Renaissance.

Hildegard von Bingen was never meant to be remembered by history. The 10th child of one of the Graf von Sponheim’s knights, she was given to Disibodenberg monastery partly out of gratitude to God, but also partly because her visions made her too odd to make a suitable wife. When she succeeded Jutta von Sponheim as magistra and prioress of Disibodenberg monastery, she found herself unable to keep her visions secret any longer. What happened next led her to revolutionize not only monastic life for women, but the whole world too.

L'audio libro "Voci dal Medioevo" è tratto dal libro di Paola Amadesi "Dieci donne e quattro uomini" (disponibile su Amazon). Figure come Eleonora d'Aquitania, madre di Riccardo I re d'Inghilterra, Eloisa, Egeria la pellegrina, Ildegarda di Bingen e Matilde di Canossa danno grande forza e voce a donne che hanno sofferto, amato, studiato, lottato contro la società del loro tempo. Sono voci che vengono da lontano ma che ci sono vicine, simili a quelle che si sentono gridare nelle strade oggigiorno.

The idea of a powerful woman in the Middle Ages seems like an oxymoron. Females in this time are imagined to be damsels in distress, trapped in a high tower, and waiting for knights to rescue them, all while wearing traffic-cones for a hat. After rescue, their lives improved little. Their career choices were to be either docile queens, housewives, or be burned at the stake for witchcraft. But what if this image of medieval women is a complete fiction? It turns out that it is. Powerful female rulers fill the Middle Ages.