Medieval Women

Edyth, wife of King Harold of England, disappeared forever on the day of the great Battle of Hastings in 1066, taking with her the legitimate heirs to the thrones of England and Wales. This is the story of that amazing woman, who loved and married the King of Wales and then the man who would be King of England, only to witness his historic defeat by the light of Halley's Comet.

As the autumn storms of 1271 ravage the East Anglian coast, Crowner Ralf finds the corpse of a brutally murdered soldier in the woods near Tyndal Priory. The dagger in the man’s chest is engraved with a strange cursive design, and the body is wrapped in a crusader’s cloak. Was this the act of a member of the Assassin sect, or was the weapon meant to mislead? Ralf’s decision to take the corpse to the priory for advice may be reasonable, but he is soon caught up in a maelstrom of conflict, both personal and political.

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.

A thousand years ago in an ancient Scottish landscape, a woman is on the run with her three companions—a healer, a weaver, and a seer. The men hunting her will kill her—because she is the only one who stands between them and their violent ambition. She is no lady: she is the first queen of Scotland, married to a king called Macbeth. As the net closes in, what unfurls is a tale of passion, forced marriage, bloody massacre, and the harsh realities of medieval Scotland.

Valkyries: the female supernatural beings that choose who dies and who lives on the battlefield. They protect some, but guide spears, arrows, and sword blades into the bodies of others. Viking myths about valkyries attempt to elevate the banality of war - to make the pain and suffering, the lost limbs and deformities, the piles of lifeless bodies of young men, glorious and worthwhile. Rather than their death being futile, it is their destiny and good fortune, determined by divine beings.

Ireland AD 672. The abbey of Muman at Imleach Iubhair is being renovated when its guests' hostel burns to the ground. There is one fatality: Bishop Brodulf of Luxovium, a distinguished visitor and cousin to the king of Franks. Sister Fidelma is asked by Abbot Cuán to investigate the unfortunate incident and soon finds that the bishop had been stabbed to death before the fire had even started. Thrown into a world of treachery and jealousy, where religious beliefs are vehemently disputed, Fidelma and her companions, Eadulf and Enda, face a barrier of deceit.

In 1187 Saladin's armies besieged the holy city of Jerusalem. He had previously annihilated Jerusalem's army at the battle of Hattin, and behind the city's high walls a last-ditch defence was being led by an unlikely trio - including Sibylla, Queen of Jerusalem. They could not resist Saladin, but, if they were lucky, they could negotiate terms that would save the lives of the city's inhabitants.

In 1351, many in England begin thinking that their mighty overlords - Church and Crown - have no control over their fates and a new horizon beckons. It’s a time when labor is in high demand, and nature offers immense bounty to those who have survived death and disease.

An elderly nun is accused of witchcraft after a priest dies under mysterious circumstances. When the nun tells Ela something that could turn the king against her nemesis, justiciar Hubert de Burgh, she knows she must whisper it in the king’s ear. Ela finds herself in a race to save the nun’s life as de Burgh tumbles from his lofty pedestal and chaos rattles the halls of power.

Köln 1351: Elisabeth und Stephen Hardenstein sind Zwillinge, könnten jedoch unterschiedlicher nicht sein. Während Elisabeth mit Begeisterung schon als Kind alles aufsaugt, was den Tuchhandel ihres Vaters betrifft, liegt es Stephen mehr, ein leichtes Leben zu führen. Die Händlerstochter geht ihrem Vater bei der Prüfung der Waren und bei der Buchhaltung zur Hand. Sie fühlt ihre Berufung zur Händlerin. Als der Vater einen Schlaganfall erleidet, ändert sich die Situation dramatisch. Stephen übernimmt das Ruder im elterlichen Betrieb.

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.

To get a fresh start away from a bad relationship, Kylie Strange moves across the country to open a shop in a seemingly quiet town in rural Maine. During renovations on Strange Herbs & Teas, she discovers a peculiar and ancient codex, The Booke of the Hidden, bricked into the wall. Every small town has its legends and unusual histories, and this artifact sends Kylie right into the center of Moody Bog's biggest secret.

It is 1665 and the women of Eyam village keep many secrets. Especially Isabel and Mae. Isabel Frith, the village midwife, walks a dangerous line with her herbs and remedies. There are men in the village who speak of witchcraft, and Isabel has a past to hide. So she tells nobody her fears about the pious, reclusive apothecary, on whom she is keeping a watchful eye. Mae, the apothecary’s youngest daughter, dreads her father’s rage if he discovers what she keeps from him: her feelings for Rafe, Isabel’s ward, or the fact that she studies from her father’s books at night.

The names of few medieval monarchs and their queens are better known than Eleanor of Aquitaine, uniquely queen of France and queen of England, and her second husband Henry II. Although academically labeled "medieval," their era was the violent transition from the Dark Ages, when countries' borders were defined with fire and sword. If princes fought for their succession to crowns, the princesses were traded—usually by their mothers—to strangers for political power without the bloodshed.

"It was in the first week of October in the year 1391 that I first came face to face with the man who owned me… the man whose lightest word was to us, his villeins, weightier than the King’s law or the edicts of our Holy Father…” So began the story of Martin Reed - a serf whose resentment of the automatic rule of his feudal lord finally flared into open defiance.

Medeltidens historia har ofta blivit männens historia. Hur såg livet ut för Jeanne d’Arc, för »merciernas härskarinna« Ethelfled eller läkaren Trota av Salerno? Hur betraktades de av sina samtida? De senaste decennierna har forskningen gjort många upptäckter kring medeltidens gränsöverskridande kvinnor. I den här boken möter vi dels vanliga bondhustrur, dels ledare och konstnärer, läkare och predikanter, härförare, fotsoldater och andra kvinnor som valde en annorlunda väg.

"Sa robe caresse le sol. À cet instant, nous sommes comme les pierres des voûtes, immobiles et sans souffle. Mais ce qui raidit mes frères, ce n'est pas l'indifférence, car ils sont habitués à ne pas être regardés ; ni non plus la solennité de l'entretien - tout ce qui touche à Aliénor est solennel. Non, ce qui nous fige, à cet instant-là, c'est sa voix. Car c'est d'une voix douce, pleine de menaces, que ma mère ordonne d'aller renverser notre père." Aliénor d'Aquitaine racontée par son fils Richard Cœur de Lion.

Joan of Arc was born in a small French village during the worst period of the Hundred Years' War. For generations, France had been besieged by the British. At age 11, Joan began to see religious visions telling her to join forces with the King of France. By the time she was a teenager, she was leading troops into battle in the name of her country. Though she was captured and executed for her beliefs, Joan of Arc became a Catholic saint and has since captured the world's imagination.

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.

The Renaissance is dawning over Europe. Ideas of freedom and science shake the foundations of medieval society. Demuth, the successful but eccentric apothecary of a small village in the German mountains, knows little about these developments...until she is forced to flee from a witch hunt and must leave her protected life for good.