Medieval Women and Their Importance

Lately, I’ve been lightly studying a variety of medieval historical events and people, and while thinking on some of the facts I have learned, it dawned on me that medieval women played a more important role than some people seem to think.

The average conception of a medieval woman seems to be a peasant housewife who stays at home to raise children, keep up the gardens and keep everyone fed and healthy, with no real rights or power of her own. And while this is true to an extent, women could and did wield some power and influence, granted they met certain criteria.

The Importance of Medieval Widows and Married Women

Being a widow could be one of the more powerful positions for women in medieval times to be in, because they could control and run their late husband’s house, business, and whatever else he left behind, either until her eldest son came of age (or if she had only daughters, her eldest daughter married and her husband took over the business), or, if she had no children, she remarried someone else and the property passed to her first late husband’s next of kin. 

But even a married woman had a lot of power and influence, especially among the higher ranking people. For example, noblewomen were expected to defend their husband’s lands should their husband be away at the time of a threat. To illustrate, Joanna Plantagenet laid siege to a castle of one of her second husband’s enemies (while heavily pregnant, one might add!)

And it’s not really recorded what went on behind the scenes between powerful medieval men and their wives, and how their wives may have influenced several decisions we contribute to the men alone. 

The Importance of Medieval Daughters

Probably the best position to find oneself in as a woman from the power/influential side of things, however, was being born, or being the only surviving child (or eldest surviving among only daughters) of one’s parents. Several powerful medieval women gained their power this way. This position was unique in that men could not truly control how many children they could have with their wives (should they or their wives struggle to conceive or just dislike each other), nor their genders, nor what children may or may not survive them. Only God could control these factors.

Empress Matilda, for example, the daughter of King Henry I of England, found herself his heir after her brother William Adelin died in a freak accident (known as The White Ship Disaster—very intriguing, sad event!) The barons even swore to Henry I that they’d make her Britain’s queen after his death. Didn’t keep their vow, of course (placing her cousin, Stephen of Blois on the throne instead) but Matilda was able to effectively raise an army and put so much pressure on Stephen that they came to the agreement that he would be king but her son, Henry II, would be his heir. 

Of course, we can’t talk about powerful medieval women without talking about the queen who became Matilda’s daughter-in-law and Joanna’s mother, Eleanor of Aquitaine. Arguably the most powerful woman in medieval history, this lady married two kings and gave birth to three (if we’re counting Henry the Young King). And she outlived all but one of them. Her power was only possible because of her huge inheritance from her father, the Duke of Aquitaine who had no sons, which made her an attractive marriage partner. However, she ruled the duchy in her own right, which meant when her marriage to her first husband was annulled, she kept her lands, not him. Upon her second husband’s death and her son Richard’s, the lands reverted to her, not to another son, for her to give to whomever she pleased (or rule herself). 

I think one reason we sometimes think medieval women had a total lack of power is because they are seen in comparison to their male counterparts—if they’re seen at all. For example here, many people have heard of “The Kingmaker”, who is often referred to as Warwick, the name of an earldom he ruled. But he gained this earldom through his marriage to Anne Beauchamp, daughter of the former Earl of Warwick. He ruled another earldom—Salisbury—which he inherited from his father, but was mostly known by the earldom he ruled because of his wife—an interesting fact I’m planning to explore to understand why. (Maybe the Earldom of Warwick was more powerful?) 

The Importance of Medieval Women in Family Lines

Not all the importance of medieval women lied in what power they did or did not possess, but also their family lines, which is the realization which brought these rambles on. In some of these ladies’s lifetimes, they may not have possessed as much power and agency as modern women would consider fair, but they were very important for their descendants. 

This is especially true during the War of the Roses—in which the Yorkist claim to the throne comes from the female line, rather than the male. (Though of course, it naturally goes back to the male line of Edward III).

The Lancastrian claim to the throne came through the pure male line—Edward III’s third son, John of Gaunt, had Henry IV, who had Henry V, who had Henry VI. 

The Yorkists claimed they had a better right to the throne than the Lancastrians because they descended through Edward III’s second son, Lionel (as well as through the male line of the fourth son; but since the fourth son was younger than John of Gaunt, that case couldn’t stand by itself). But Lionel only had a daughter, Philippa, who had a son, Roger Mortimer, who in turn, had a daughter, Anne, who’s son, Richard of York, was the first Yorkist claimant (and her grandson, Richard’s son, became Edward IV). So while these women, specifically Philippa and Anne in this example, may not have wielded much power in and of themselves, they were hugely influential and important to the Yorkist faction, as without them, their whole case would fall apart. 

Conclusion

We have the most records about noble medieval women’s lives due to the nature of their rank (even if what records we do have usually are mostly focused on their male counterparts)—but we can assume that what applied to noblewomen in several of these instances also would apply to those of lesser ranks. And while it’s true that medieval women did have less rights than today’s women, I think they possessed more power and importance than we sometimes give them credit for. 

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Thank you for reading! What is your take on the importance of and power that medieval women did or did not wield? What is your favorite historical time period to learn about? Do you know of any fascinating tales surrounding historical women? Let me know in the comments below!

Also, if you’re interested in researching even more important medieval women besides the three listed in this post, I neglected to mention Isabella of France (who overthrew her husband, Edward II of England) and Margaret of Anjou, the power behind the Lancastrian cause during the War of the Roses. Definitely worth taking a look at–and perhaps I’ll even do a post on one of them, at some point! Let me know if this is something you all would be interested in!

God bless! ~ Kay Adelin