Re: Women Knights in the Middle Ages

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: : Women Knights in the Middle Ages : : : : Submitted by: Sir Randal MacNiall Bundy, (Chevelier d'Elstow) : : For the Knights of Ladonia and the Citizens of Ladonia : : Were there women knights in the Middle Ages? Initially I thought not, but further : : research yielded surprising answers. There were two ways anyone could be a : : knight: by holding land under a knight's fee, or by being made a knight or inducted : : into an order of knighthood. There are examples of both cases for women. : : Female Orders of Knighthood : : There is a case of a clearly military order of knighthood for women. It is the order : : of the Hatchet (orden de la Hacha) in Catalonia. It was founded in 1149 by Raymond : : Berenger, count of Barcelona, to honor the women who fought for the defense of the : : town of Tortosa against a Moor attack. The dames admitted to the order received many : : privileges, including exemption from all taxes, and took precedence over men in public : : assemblies. I presume the order died out with the original members. : : There is a famous figure in French history, nicknamed Jeanne Hachette, who fought to : : repel a Burgundian assault on the town of Beauvais in 1472. The King exempted her : : from taxes, and ordered that, in an annual procession to commemorate the event, women : : would have precedence over men. This story seems to be a carbon copy of the Order of : : the Hatchet story... : : In Italy, the Order of the glorious Saint Mary, founded by Loderigo d'Andalo, a : : nobleman of Bologna in 1233, and approved by pope Alexander IV in 1261, was the first : : religious order of knighthood to grant the rank of militissa to women. This order was : : suppressed by Sixtus V in 1558. : : In the Low Countries, at the initiative of Catherine Baw in 1441, and 10 years later : : of Elizabeth, Mary and Isabella of the house of Hornes, orders were founded which were : : open exclusively to women of noble birth, who received the French title of chevaliËre : : or the Latin title of equitissa. In his Glossarium (s.v. militissa), Du Cange notes : : that still in his day (17th c.), the female canons of the canonical monastery of : : St. Gertrude in Nivelles (Brabant), after a probation of 3 years, are made knights : : (militissae) at the altar, by a (male) knight called in for that purpose, who gives : : them the accolade with a sowrd and pronounces the usual words. : : In England, ladies were appointed to the Garter almost from the start. In all, : : 68 ladies were appointed between 1358 and 1488, including all consorts. Though many : : were women of royal blood, or wives of knights of the Garter, some women were neither. : : They wore the garter on the left arm, and some are shown on their tombstones with this : : arrangement. After 1488, no other appointments are known, although it is said that the : : Garter was granted to a Neapolitan poetess, Laura Bacio Terricina, by Edward VI. In : : 1638, a proposal was made to revive the use of robes for the wives of knights in : : ceremonies, but it came to nought. (See Edmund Fellowes, Knights of the Garter, 1939; : : and Beltz: Memorials of the Order of the Garter). : : Unless otherwise noted, all the above is from the book by H. E. Cardinale, Orders of : : Knighthood, Awards and the Holy See, 1983. The info on the order of the Hatchet is : : reproduced elsewhere as well, e.g., a Spanish encyclopedia. I have seen the order of : : glorious Saint Mary discussed elsewhere, but without mention of women. I have yet to : : identify the orders of the Hornes family. : : Women in the Military Orders : : Several established military orders had women who were associated with them, beyond the : : simple provision of aid. The Teutonic order accepted consorores who assumed the habit : : of the order and lived under its rule; they undertook menialand hospitaller functions. : : Later, in the late 12th century, one sees convents dependent on military orders are : : formed. In the case of the Order of Saint-John (later Malta), they were soeurs : : hospitaliËres, and they were the counterparts of the frËres prÍtres or priest brothers, : : a quite distinct class from the knights. In England, Buckland was the site of a house : : of Hospitaller sisters from Henry II's reign to 1540. In Aragon, there were Hospitaller : : convents in Sigena, San Salvador de Isot, GrisÈn, Alguaire, headed each by a : : commendatrix. In France they are found in Beaulieu (near Cahors), Martel and Fieux. : : The only other military order to have convents by 1300 was the order of Santiago, which : : had admitted married members since its foundation in 1175. and soon women were admitted : : and organized into convents of the order (late 12th, early 13th c.). The convents were : : headed by a commendatrix (in Spanish: commendadora) or prioress. There were a total of : : six in the late 13th century: Santa Eufenia de Cozuelos in northern Castile, San : : Spiritu de Salamanca, Santos-o-Vello in Portugal, Destriana near Astorga, San Pedro : : de la Piedra near LÈrida, San Vincente de Junqueres. The order of Calatrava also had : : a convent in San Felices de los Barrios. : : Source: Alain Forey, Women and the Military Orders in the twelvth and thirteenth : : centuries, Studia Monastica XXIX, Montserrat, Barcelona 1987. : : Women Knights : : Medieval French had two words, chevaleresse and chevaliËre, which were used in two : : ways: one was for the wife of a knight, and this usage goes back to the 14th c. The : : other was as female knight, or so it seems. Here is a quote from Menestrier, a 17th : : c. writer on chivalry: "It was not always necessary to be the wife of a knight in : : order to take this title. Sometimes, when some male fiefs were conceded by special : : privilege to women, they took the rank of chevaleresse, as one sees plainly in : : Hemricourt where women who were not wives of knights are called chevaleresses." : : I could find no trace of any title bestowed on Jeanne d'Arc. Her family was made noble, : : with nobility transmissible through women, which was quite unusual. She did ride a : : horse and dress up in armor, but she did not wield a sword and never killed anyone, : : but rather grasped her banner pretty tightly. : : See also the Nine Worthy Women (les neuf preuses). : : Modern Women Knights : : Modern French orders include women, of course, in particular the LÈgion d'Honneur : : (Legion of Honor) since the mid-19th c., but they are always called chevaliers. The : : first documented case is that of Marie-AngÈlique Duchemin (1772-1859), who fought in : : the Revolutionary Wars, received a military disability pension in 1798, the rank of : : 2nd lieutenant in 1822, and the Legion of Honor in 1852. : : The first woman to be granted a knighthood in modern Britain seems to have been Queen : : Mary in 1917, when the Order of the British Empire was created (the first order open : : to women). The Royal Victorian Order was opened to women in 1936, the Order of Bath : : and Saint Michael and Saint George in 1965 and 1971 respectively. Queen consorts have : : been made Ladies of the Garter since 1901 (Queens Alexandra in 1901, Mary in 1910, : : Elizabeth in 1937). The first non-Royal woman to be made Lady Companion of the Garter : : was Lavinia, duchess of Norfolk in 1990 (Ü1995), the second was Baroness Thatcher in : : 1995 (post-nominal: LG). On Nov. 30, 1996, Marion Ann Forbes, Lady Fraser was made Lady : : of the Thistle, the first non-Royal woman (post-nominal: LT).

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